Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm grateful for the opportunity to discuss today an issue that needs to be addressed urgently, in my view, that being the safeguarding response to children who go missing or who are at risk of going missing. I look forward, also, to hearing contributions from Dawn Bowden and David Melding in this debate this afternoon.

Now, it's a timely issue to discuss, because the current all-Wales protocol for missing children is being revised as part of updating the all-Wales child protection procedures. This revision, clearly, is welcome, but it is important that, in revising the protocol, expertise is drawn from a range of voices to inform how we can better safeguard children who go missing from home or from care.

Two voices I would like to commend to the Minister are the Children's Society and the Church in Wales, who, earlier this year, wrote a report called 'The Knowledge Gap', examining the safeguarding response to missing children in Wales. Now, the report includes some tangible and achievable recommendations that, if implemented, would help improve our safeguarding response to these children.

Many people may be surprised at the scale of missing children in Wales, which, last year, saw around 4,500 children and young people going missing from home or care. And these children went missing more than 11,000 times collectively. In the police force area that covers my own region in north Wales, over 700 children went missing almost 1,500 times during 2015-16.

Now, there are many reasons why children are, or feel forced to go, missing. A child may face a range of hardships at home, such as neglect, abuse or domestic violence. A child in care may be unhappy with his or her placement or may be placed into care outside of his or her local area, removing access to support networks and often causing them to go missing to the place they know as home. Children from home or care could also be groomed and exploited by people who they thought were friends, boyfriends or girlfriends. These are just some of the push-and-pull factors that many children and young people face that drive them into a missing episode.