I'd like to echo the Minister's statements about his predecessor, about Carl Sargeant. One of the lessons I've learnt from Carl Sargeant about how to deal with Ministers was during the election campaign, when I had a difference of opinion with the Government and I came here, on the invitation of Jeff Cuthbert, to meet with Carl Sargeant, and I said, expecting a big row, 'I have a difference of opinion with you, Minister', and he said, 'Work it out yourself in your constituency and we'll settle the difference when you get back at the ranch', which I very much appreciated. I did manage to set out my opinion, which I was then able to have dialogue on with the Minister subsequently. And I hope that, in his post, the new Minister will also follow that excellent pattern of behaviour.

With regard to the children's commissioner's report, I wanted to raise two issues. One is on page 25 of the children's commissioner's report. She references the Welsh Government's childcare offer and says in the second paragraph that:

'Universal childcare should be at the heart of our ambitions for public services in Wales and whilst I am, in principle, pleased with its developments to date, we must recognise the growing evidence base supporting the development of a universal system, which promotes social mobility as well as economic prosperity, by extending entitlement to affordable, high quality childcare and early education.'

And that being to children of non-working parents. The only way I can understand that is where it's put into the context of Flying Start areas, and an ideal way of doing that would of course be universal provision of Flying Start. But, given the UK Government's position on austerity, it makes it incredibly difficult to achieve that. But I would like to just notify the Minister of what the children's commissioner said in evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee. She said, and I quote:

'I think the programme could be flexed in some way, and could be adapted in some way, to make it a broader offer to more children, because, for me, it’s about the impact on children, rather than it just being a service for parents.'

I'd like to know what dialogue the Minister plans to have with the children's commissioner to resolve that issue, because one of the things she said she would do is return to committee and give us more specific policy ideas about how she'd proceed. And therefore I think it's really important that the Minister speaks to the children's commissioner about that.

The second issue is one that was very close to Carl Sargeant's heart, and that's the issue of adverse childhood experiences and resolving those. Again, the children's commissioner said the concept of ACEs was irrefutable but that she had

'concerns about any discourse that puts most of our response to child poverty...just in this context.' 

And I'm very encouraged by what the Minister has said in his statement that recognises that. I think my concern would be if we start talking about three or more ACEs that then become a trigger for social services action. I would be concerned that ACEs become less a concept and more a threshold that children must meet in order to trigger action, and I don't think that would be a helpful use of ACEs, because I think it's far more qualitative than that, and one ACE could have a devastating impact on families, and we need to recognise that and see it as a useful concept for understanding childhood experiences but not one for triggering interventions by that criterion.

So, all I'd really want the Minister to be able to tell me is: first of all, with regard to that issue of Flying Start, will he open that dialogue with the children's commissioner, and also, with regard to ACEs, will he recognise it as a concept but not as a trigger for action?