Thank you, and I’m really glad to have this opportunity today to reaffirm the Welsh Government’s commitment to improving life for our young carers. We’ve long sought to improve the lives of carers in Wales, using the policy, legislative and funding levers at our disposal. Back in 2000, we published our first national carers strategy, and the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure followed in 2010, further improving support for carers locally. Fifteen months ago, we commenced the implementation of our groundbreaking Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, bringing with it new and enhanced rights for all carers. So, for the first time, carers have an equal right to assessment and support as those they care for have. They no longer need to demonstrate that they provide significant care in order to have their needs assessed and receive the support available to them. And the Act places a statutory duty on local authorities to proactively inform carers of their right to be assessed, and importantly, on completion of that assessment, the local authority must then put in place arrangements to meet the needs identified and to put a statutory care plan in place. So, legislation working for carers in a way it never has before.

To support the delivery of the enhanced carers’ rights under the Act, the Welsh Government has allocated £1 million of funding this year to health, local authorities and the third sector to work in partnership, and a targeted portion of this funding is ring-fenced specifically to support young carers. And this year I’ve brought carers into the remit of our £60 million integrated care fund, further prioritising this group of exceptional people.

I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Education, like all members of this Government, is committed to supporting all children and young people, including young carers, to achieve their potential, regardless of their background or their personal circumstances. But there is no doubt that young carers face practical difficulties in their education, and, because of their personal circumstances, can experience well-being issues that do need to be identified and addressed, both within and outside the school environment.

Schools are best placed to understand the needs of their learners and to support those needs, and that’s why I’m really pleased to inform Members that the Welsh Government’s been working with the Carers Trust Wales on the development of a step-by-step guide for schools on young carers. This new guidance, published just a few weeks ago, helps to identify and support carers in educational settings as early as possible. I know that education colleagues have promoted this excellent guidance to every school in Wales, and I’d be happy to share it with colleagues.

And, additionally, I’ve approved further funding this year to the Carers Trust Wales to support research into the level of support available to enhance young carers’ well-being in the community. Carers Trust Wales will provide me with recommendations as to how to further support the well-being of young carers, and I look forward to receiving them and considering how best to respond.

I plan to drive further support for young carers through our new carers strategic action plan. My approach to develop the plan is in partnership, listening to what carers, including young carers, tell me that they need. Many excellent organisations have been mentioned during the debate today, and I want to hear from them and from the young carers who have joined us at the debate today. I’ve already met with an inspirational group of young carers to hear about their lives, their problems and their aspirations, and a number of them did feel that young carers ID cards would help. I’ve publicly committed to exploring the provision of ID cards for young carers and have funded Carers Trust Wales to develop a national framework to support the implementation of young carer ID cards. This framework will provide the basis for the expansion of young carers ID cards across Wales. And just to be clear, in answer to David Melding’s question, I’m looking at it at a national level, as opposed to leaving it to local authorities, because having done that up to this point—it hasn’t given the kind of results that we’d have liked to have seen.

The Carers Trust, working with Community Pharmacy Wales, has produced ‘A Carers Guide to Managing Medicines’ for adults and young carers. The Carers Trust is also working with the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University to help facilitate pharmacy student placements in order to raise their awareness of carers. To be clear, young carers can already pick up prescriptions for the people they care for, but I do agree that we must raise awareness of this both amongst carers themselves and amongst the pharmaceutical professionals, which is why our new guide is so important.

Our carers provide selfless care for their family and loved ones, day in, day out, and I do recognise the stress that this can cause. Respite provision is important for all carers, but young carers must also be able to access these services. Carers Trust Wales is due to provide me with recommendations with regard to expanding our short break and replacement care provision in Wales. This will include the development of a national approach to respite care, delivering on an important manifesto commitment, and this doesn’t come without financial support.

In May, I announced an additional £3 million of recurrent funding to ensure that local authorities are better able to provide respite for carers in Wales, and this will include and benefit young carers. I’d like to take this opportunity to share with Members that I’ve also committed to the establishment of a ministerial advisory group for carers, and this will ensure equal recognition of carers in line with that of older people and people with learning disabilities. I expect that group to play a key role in monitoring the progress on our delivery for carers. In recognition of the particular challenges facing young carers, and because of the unique perspective that they will bring, I will also be inviting young carers to be represented as members on this group.

So, I hope this reassures Members about the priority that the Welsh Government puts on understanding and meeting the needs of young carers in Wales. I hope it demonstrates that there is exciting work going on, on multiple fronts, through legislation, policy and funding decisions, addressing, but not limited to, issues including education, identification and respite.

I’ll finish by saying that I would be very keen to meet with Bethan Jenkins or any Assembly Member who’d like to help shape the next steps for young carers, particularly at this moment through the new and important work on our carers strategy for Wales. Please be assured that I’ll be considering all of the important points raised during this debate as we move forward. Thank you very much.