7. Debate: The Children's Commissioner for Wales's Annual Report 2016-17 — Postponed from 7 November

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 14 November 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 3:19, 14 November 2017

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I welcome the new Minister to his post? I look forward to engaging with him on children's matters and to working collaboratively with him where we can find some common ground. Also, I'd like to put on record my tribute to his predecessor, Carl Sargeant, in undertaking a role on behalf of children here in Wales. He was always very sincere with that role, and I know he cared passionately about driving the Government's agenda forward.

I also want to pay tribute to the commissioner and her staff. I've had some excellent contact with the commissioner since taking on this portfolio responsibility myself, and I really do appreciate the work that she puts into engaging with all Assembly Members in this Chamber of all political parties, and, indeed, the support that she gives from time to time with individual pieces of casework in my constituency where there are issues that I believe are of national significance. She's always extremely helpful and her staff are always very quick to report back and to respond to individual concerns. 

The report is a very wide-ranging report. It talks about all sorts of different issues, but i just want to focus on a few, if I may. One of the things that the children's commissioner and, indeed, her predecessor commissioners have been very interested in seeing established in Wales is a national advocacy service for children and young people. The Welsh Government has been slow to get local authority partners, I think, on board to be able to roll that national advocacy service out and to make sure that there's consistent access to high-quality advocacy here in Wales for the children who need it. And I wonder, Minister, whether you'll be able to provide us with an update today on just where that roll-out actually is, and what the current state of affairs is, because I know that this is a concern certainly to people in my own constituency, and when you look at the number of young people who are picking up the phone increasingly to the commissioner and her team, it is appropriate, I think, that we need to make sure that we nail this issue once and for all so that it's not going to be a repeated feature and we're not going to have this sense of déjà vu in future years when these reports are brought forward. 

The commissioner also, of course, refers to public transport costs in her annual report. She talks particularly about post-16 transport and the burden that that can put on children and young people. The Minister will be aware that my party has tried to offer a solution to that, which we genuinely extend to the Government and hope that you will explore and hopefully take forward, because we do believe that our green card proposal has the opportunity to make a real difference to young people across Wales and would help to solve the very issue that the children's commissioner has identified in her report about the cost, particularly of bus travel, to children and young people. Now, I know, Minister, that the Welsh Government has under review the home-to-school transport guidance that is issued to local authorities, and, again, I wonder whether you can give us an update on that, particularly in terms of post-16 provision, and perhaps you'll be able to tell us also whether you are going to now seriously consider, given the recommendation in the commissioner's report, our green card proposals.   

I wonder also whether you might be prepared to consider reviewing the powers of the commissioner and her office. The Public Accounts Committee produced a report a number of years back that compared the different approaches in terms of commissioners that we have in Wales and the lack of consistency that we've got with them in terms of their appointment processes and, indeed, in terms of the ranges of their powers. And I just wonder whether, working with your colleagues in Government, that is something that you might be prepared to take forward. It's not mentioned specifically in the commissioner's report, but I do know that it's really important that we have commissioners who have teeth so that when they bare those teeth or bite people from time to time that there's actually an appropriate response from the different public agencies and parts of the public sector that we need that response from. 

And just finally, I record also my hopes that the additional learning needs Bill will progress through this Assembly very soon. Obviously, we've got Stage 3 coming up next week of that Bill. One of the most important amendments that still needs to be made to that Bill is in respect of putting on the face of the Bill reference to the United Nations principles on children's rights. And I think it's really important that we've got reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the face of that Bill, and I wonder whether you can tell us what the Welsh Government is minded to do in response to some of the amendments that have been tabled that seek to get a reference to those on the face of that legislation. Thank you.