Indeed, I'll turn to that. He's foreshadowed some of the remarks I was going to come to, so bear with me and I'll come to that issue of what it looks like.

The strategy, which encompasses the age-friendly communities, must promote the important role that older people play in society, including, as has rightly been remarked, those people who in older years want to continue working, and will continue working in the voluntary sector, will continue playing active roles and lives as parents and grandparents, as carers and so on and so forth, and through their engagement in paid or unpaid work, sharing their knowledge, their experience and acknowledging their valuable contribution. So, the ministerial advisory forum for ageing is advising the Government on the development of the strategy to ensure that any future policy reflects what really matters to older people in Wales.

The public services boards and the regional partnership boards must take into account what matters to older people, and the challenges faced by older people when determining the level and the range of local and regional services. This is, as has been remarked, more important than ever before, as it is expected that Wales will have the most dramatic increase of the nations in people aged 85 and over, with a predicted nearly 120 per cent increase by 2035. And that will be you—looking across the Chamber—and  me.

Loneliness and isolation have been remarked upon, and their particular importance for people aged 80 and over, although they could affect anybody at any age. Over half of older people over the age of 75 live alone, and they are at particular risk of loneliness and isolation with greater and more specific needs linked to both physical and mental health and well-being. I commend in these remarks some of the initiatives that I've seen when I've travelled about. Suzy Davies will know the OlympAge event that's been held I think two years running now, where young people who are being trained in social work and care work have taken part along with older people, mainly from residential homes, but also people living alone, and lonely, being brought into taking part in fun activities on the day, supported by local authorities but also the third sector as well. Things like that, plus the men's shed movement—this has to be a properly joined-up approach to tackling isolation.

Our programme for government, 'Taking Wales Forward', provides a clear commitment to develop a nationwide and a cross-Government strategy to address loneliness, and some of the specifics, because it is sometimes helpful to look at the specifics when we talk about what this looks like in a community, as Andrew said. So, for example, we've already funded through the Welsh Government a three-year phased approach to establishing volunteer-led community networks that support lonely and isolated individuals within communities, through this social prescribing model that we've talked about here before: the idea that we work within communities rather than simply relying on, if you like, the traditional idea of 'I'm feeling unwell, I'm feeling lonely'—well, medication is the immediate answer. Sometimes it is, but actually social prescribing and getting people involved in these local community networks—these aren't simply words. We're funding initiatives to develop those networks across Wales.

We've funded research into volunteer-led approaches to tackle loneliness and isolation, and these recommend the promotion of volunteer-led approaches to tackling loneliness. We've provided three-year funding to the British Red Cross and the Royal Voluntary Service of just short of £890,000 under the sustainable social services third sector grant, which enables the provision of a seamless support service to older people in Wales who experience acute loneliness and isolation, ill health, and the affordability of a good-quality life in retirement, because we know that very often the issue of loneliness is tied to the inability to actually get out and about in one's community as well, and to visit friends, and to keep in contact with friends, neighbours and family.

So, we recognise the contribution that access to public transport has on tackling loneliness and isolation. Currently, as you know, the Welsh Government is consulting on the future of the hugely popular free concessionary bus scheme for older or disabled persons to make sure that people have access to that. There are approximately, at the moment, just short of 750,000 existing pass holders who are able to travel for free on local bus services. You and I will know—we meet them, they say how much they use them and how much they value this. It's so popular at the moment, in fact, the current scheme, that almost half of journeys on local bus services are undertaken by pass holders. I haven't got one yet, but I am looking forward to it in future.

There are also things such as access to public toilets, which has been much debated here recently in the passage of a recent Bill, to support older people to be active members of their communities and reducing isolation. These are practical things. Access to toilets for public use is an issue that affects the health, the dignity and the quality of people's lives. So, we will open a consultation imminently on guidance for local authorities on how they should prepare and publish local toilet strategies for their areas. That will be in January, so it'll be in front of us very, very soon.

I want to turn in the time remaining here to some of the points that were made, not least on dementia. Dementia is now one of the most significant health and social care challenges that we face. It's estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people in Wales are living with dementia. Within 'Taking Wales Forward' the Welsh Government committed to take further action to make Wales a dementia-friendly country, through developing and implementing a new national dementia plan. I would say as well we all have a role to play in this. My own staff are just going through retraining as a dementia-friendly office. Maesteg, the town I live in and work in, is proud of its credentials as being a dementia-friendly town as well. So, we've all got a role to play. Stakeholders have helped shape the dementia plan, which sets out the actions and outcomes required along each stage of the care pathway, and it'll include raising awareness and understanding, assessment and diagnosis, and ensuring that care and support is able to flex with individual needs, because this is a journey.

I'm conscious of the time, madam deputy speaker, but I wanted to turn, if I can find it, very briefly to address the issue of rights. The older people's commissioner has made clear in a statement, even within the last day, that she sees legislation underpinning rights still being a primary way forward, but she's also made clear within that statement that she wants to work with Welsh Government. In fact, I met with her very recently and she's working with my team as well to make sure that we take immediate and tangible steps to actually deliver practical progress that will deliver the outcomes that we've talked about within this debate for older people, regardless of the issue of delivering a piece of legislation that delivers rights. She is still fixed on that and she will press Government, as she has pressed Government before, and as the Member opposite says she will as well, and I'm sure her colleagues will.

But I would simply say that in pressing for that we also need to get on with delivering, and I've touched on some of the ways we're doing it already. I think collectively we need to make clear, as has been said, as Angela said in her contribution, that actually ageing and ageing well is a thing of celebration. It really is. And in that case, we do need to actually show in our contributions and in the way that we debate this and we take it forward that we're proud, as a nation, to do everything we can to make lives well lived, long lives well lived—do everything we can. This debate is part of it, but we also have to do that with tangible measures, and my commitment, in closing the debate here today, and to the children's commissioner, is to continue the work with all people to make sure that we do that, because it's in all our interest as we live longer.