Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, in particular, for your consideration. Can I also congratulate the Minister on his appointment? He knows he has big shoes to fill. From my own part, I have to say I have great confidence in his serving the Government in Wales as ably as he did the UK Government previously.

I welcome the report from Sally Holland, the children's commissioner, and thank her for the evidence she gave to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on 18 October. I think one area she deserves particular congratulation on is the lead she has taken in galvanising local authorities around the care leavers agenda. In particular, the £1 million bursary scheme, I think, is an excellent initiative. I think, relative to so many of the top-tier local authorities in England, the average Welsh local authority is relatively small for the social services workload that they will face, and I think having the children's commissioner there is an additional area to support those local authorities. To encourage them and to advise on the work they're doing with young people, I think, is valuable. I think one example we've seen, in Torfaen—the council tax and not having to pay that if you've recently left care—I think that's a very valuable thing, and I hope other local authorities will follow that lead.

One area I just want to flag when we're talking about looked-after children is when looked-after children are adopted. We have, in the school admissions code, that

'all admission authorities must give highest priority in their oversubscription criteria to looked after children as required by the Education (Admission of Looked After Children) (Wales) Regulations 2009 and previously looked after children as required by this Code.'

Now, in my own experience—and this is with a four-year-old and a five-year-old child currently—I've looked at quite a number of school admissions policies, and certainly my impression is that right at the top there is that category referring to looked-after children. I haven't, as yet, seen or understood that also to apply to previously looked-after children, including those who have been adopted, and I don't see the reference in the regulations. So, I just wonder whether the children's commissioner or the Welsh Government—. If we do want to have this guidance and we do want to see previously looked-after children, including those who are adopted, given this preference as well, could something more be done to ensure that actually happens? For instance, we might put out guidance that says, for the purposes of the admissions code, previously looked-after children should be considered to meet the definition of looked-after children. Because, otherwise, I fear this guidance is there, but I'm not, myself, as yet, convinced that school admissions policies in the main are changing to reflect it.

I think one other area where perhaps the children's commissioner in particular could assist is saying to schools, 'What are the particular needs of adopted children?' I do think there is potential value in highlighting to a school when a child has been adopted so that they are aware of that and there's appropriate guidance in place to help them support those children who, I think at least in some circumstances, do have very particular needs that need recognition.

Moving on to the National Deaf Children's Society issue, again, I think one thing in particular I'd like to see is accessible and affordable support, and in particular having British Sign Language support at all different types of level. I think that's very important within a home context.

Lastly, if I can just touch on two areas where the children's commissioner is perhaps somewhat more generous to Welsh Government than we on these benches might necessarily be. One of those is transport to school, and local authorities, and whether there's confusion and whether they're sufficiently clear about their legal responsibilities. I think more does need to be done on that. I also think, with the link to the twenty-first century schools programme, and where we are—. On integrating sixth-form colleges, for instance—again, to give a Torfaen example—we're going from three sixth forms down to one; what are the implications of that for school travel, and are local authorities doing enough, and getting enough support from national Welsh Government to do what needs to be done in this area?

Finally, in terms of the national advocacy service, Darren, I think, has much more experience of seeing the Welsh Government make announcements but not necessarily follow through as much or as quickly as we would like in this area. But it seems to me that, if we have a national advocacy service, or if that is the ambition, yes, there are some examples of local authorities who have good practice in this area, and that is to be welcomed, but if Welsh Government does believe that it should be a national advocacy service, we should surely move beyond that. If the Government can't afford that, or doesn't believe it can work at a national level, or they want to leave local authorities to do as they think best, they should say so, rather than continue to say there'll be a national advocacy service while not necessarily following through on the implementation. Thank you.