6. What are the Welsh Government’s priorities for supporting members of the armed forces community and their families in Wales? OAQ51358

7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh Government support for the armed forces and veterans in Wales? OAQ51351

Presiding Officer, I understand that you have given permission for questions 6 and 7 to be grouped. Our priority is to ensure we provide effective services that meet the needs of service families in areas such as health, housing and employment. Examples of these are the housing pathway, Veterans' NHS Wales and the development of an employment pathway for service personnel leaving the forces, as well as veterans.

I'd like to thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your answer and join others in congratulating you on your new role. RCT council recently received a gold award from the Ministry of Defence for its commitment to its armed forces community. It's the first and, so far, the only council in Wales to do so. Will you offer your congratulations to RCT, and how will you promote this best practice across Wales?

I'm grateful to the Member for her kind remarks, and I'm sure that all of us will join you in congratulating RCT council in their award. I know it's a prestigious award, which recognises the outstanding support that the council has given to our armed forces community. I'm sure that everybody is very proud of the work that RCT does, and I'm sure that we would wish to extend our congratulations.

In terms of extending best practice, I hope that the conversation that we had during the debate on our armed forces last week would be a means of delivering that sort of best practice across the whole of Wales. We do have a strategy and a programme for doing this, and I will speak to my officials to ensure that the best practice we have observed in RCT is included in that, and that others across the country have an opportunity to share in that best practice.

Cabinet Secretary, one of the recommendations in the report that we discussed last week was the suggestion that Wales ought to have an armed forces commissioner in order to identify the sort of best practice that Vikki Howells just referred to, and to ensure that that was shared widely across the country, and that people were held to account for their delivery against the armed forces covenant. I would be grateful to know whether this is something that you, as the Minister responsible for the armed forces, will consider putting in place here in Wales. I think it would give the veteran community and our armed forces family here in Wales some confidence about the continued commitment of your Government to the armed forces.

Presiding Officer, in replying to the debate last week, I gave an undertaking that I would consider all of the recommendations of the cross-party group with an open mind. I reiterate that undertaking this afternoon. I have also agreed to attend a meeting of the all-party group on the armed forces, and I reiterate again my commitment to doing that, and to continuing the conversation that we started last week on how we continue to support the armed forces and veterans community in this country.

Cabinet Secretary, may I also welcome you to your role? We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our armed forces. The best way of repaying that debt is to ensure that we look after them and their families. Servicemen and women may need additional help with financial products due to multiple postings. The families of these personnel may require additional mental health care and support. The children of serving personnel may need additional support due to a lack of continuity as a result of moving schools. Therefore, Cabinet Secretary, how do you plan to strengthen the armed forces covenant in Wales, to ensure that we support our serving personnel in every possible way, and that they and their families have priority access to public services?

The delivery on the covenant was something that I debated last week, and I'm happy to reiterate the points that I made last week. The covenant isn't simply delivered by a speech or by a gesture or by a debate. It's delivered by public service workers and the whole community, day in, day out. We ensure that we monitor the delivery of all of our commitments—the commitments that we've made in this area—and we will continue to monitor that and ensure that people are able to access exactly the services that the Member has outlined, day in, day out.

I'm grateful to all Members who took part in the debate last week. I'm also grateful for the work of the all-party group, which scrutinises Government in an informal way on this matter but also seeks to identify all the areas where there is a belief or a view that the Government needs to improve its service delivery and has further work to do. Last week, I accepted that I would look at all of the recommendations of that all-party group report with an open mind. I've already reiterated that commitment this afternoon, and I will attend another meeting of that group in order to continue this conversation.

Cabinet Secretary, one of the areas of concern I have about the support that we give relates to that of residential care. I have an ex-serviceman in my constituency who's done numerous tours in Northern Ireland and various parts of the world and significantly suffers from post-traumatic stress, but he's had no success in finding the residential care place that he needs locally, only being offered places in Shropshire and Scotland, and, again, not that those are actually funded. So, I was wondering whether there is a possibility of reviewing the provision of services in order to ensure that every ex-serviceperson who needs residential support can actually have it and get it when they need it locally or, if it's not available locally, there would be some funding mechanism to support it elsewhere.

The Member makes a very good and important point. It's a point that's also been made by the Member for the Cynon Valley. I accept the point that he makes. Current research points to community-based treatment close to an individual's home and community as being the most effective method of treatment. The Member will be aware that, earlier this month, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services announced an additional £100,000 of recurrent funding on top of the nearly £600,000 that the Welsh Government provides annually to fund Veterans' NHS Wales. This provides additional support and care for veterans, with dedicated veteran therapists located in each health board area. They offer a range of evidence-based psychological therapies for a range of common mental health problems to improve the mental health and well-being of veterans in Wales. If the Member is concerned that that isn't currently delivering for the constituent that he is referring to, then I'd be grateful if he could write to me and I'd be happy to take that matter forward.

I also congratulate the Cabinet Secretary on his new post. The thing is, in last week's debate we talked about post-traumatic stress syndrome in veterans, and also you just mentioned that mental health issues for armed forces veterans are pretty common. We have to look after them. I know you have not closed the door on the idea of creating an armed forces commissioner in Wales to co-ordinate and provide the support they need from public sector organisations. So, could I ask you to commit to making a statement on this issue early in the new year, please?

Presiding Officer, I've given an undertaking that I'll discuss this matter with the all-party group, and I will certainly make a statement to the National Assembly after I've had an opportunity to have those discussions with the group.

Cabinet Secretary, will you agree with me that there was no greater champion from this Senedd for our armed forces than Carl Sargeant? As Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, Carl last year outlined in the Chamber Welsh Government action to support our armed forces and veterans, such as the innovative housing referral pathway to ensure that former members of the armed forces community are supported to find suitable accommodation and avoid homelessness—a devastating outcome of armed service. Keep Safe Cymru for veterans is a creative and highly valued initiative that allows veterans with specific health needs additional support from emergency services in times of crisis. Cabinet Secretary, what actions, therefore, will the Welsh Government take to build on Carl's passionate work and legacy in this area, to ensure that we continue to value our ongoing duty of care to those who have given their all—our veterans and their families—and continue to play our part in the repayment of a collective debt and duty to them?

Presiding Officer, I think Members across the whole Chamber paid tribute to the work of Carl Sergeant during our debate last week, and I was certainly very happy to add my voice to those tributes. Carl, in many ways, led the work of the whole Government on this area, and the fact that Wales is recognised as the leading country in the United Kingdom in terms of providing support to veterans and to service families and the service community is testament to the work that Carl led.

I will say to the Member that we will continue to work with the expert group that was established to ensure that we are able to respond to all the issues that are raised by the service community in this country, whether it's the health issues that have been raised this afternoon or housing issues or employment issues that have been raised on other occasions. We will work with our key partners across the community and throughout public services with newly appointed armed forces liaison officers. We will ensure that we deliver on the armed forces covenant consistently, across the whole country, throughout the whole year. 

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.