But Bridgend, of course, isn't an outlier. In Torfaen, over half of the children at 18 months of age were assessed as having significant language delay, but following the intervention, the children were screened again at three years old, 85 per cent of children screened were assessed as having age-appropriate language skills, with only 8 per cent recorded as having significant language delay. 

These are genuine success stories and we'll reap the rewards of these interventions in years to come. Sadly, however, the Flying Start speech and language therapist services are facing cuts, and therapists are increasingly worried about the future of such important support services for childcare practitioners and for parents. It's essential that such services are retained. In fact, given the limited geographical focus of Flying Start, and given that the majority of children living in poverty in Wales actually live outside of these defined areas, surely the aim must be for the Welsh Government to roll this service out to every part of Wales.

So, I'd like to ask the Cabinet Secretary, when she responds to this debate, to at least commit to continuing to ensure funding for these existing valuable services, and, given the importance of early language skills, maybe also to comment on her plans for how other young children living in poverty in Wales may be able to access the quality support that they need for good speech and early language development.

As well as ensuring the continued prioritisation of speech, language and communication within Flying Start and areas of social disadvantage, there's a need to ensure that all opportunities are exploited to make sure that parents, carers and the wider workforce understand the importance of speech, language and communication, and that key public health messages around this area are shared effectively as well.

The strongest influence on the early language skills of young children are their parents and their carers. Poverty can strongly reduce parents' ability to respond to their child's early language needs and offer a home learning environment that enhances language skills in the early years. So, supporting parents to foster a communication and language-rich home environment is fundamental to improving children's early speech, language and communication development.

Positive steps have already been taken in Wales, as I mentioned, for example, as well, the recently launched Healthy Child Wales programme has a specific focus on speech and language development at the 15-month health visitor family health review. The recent Take Time to Talk, Play and Listen campaign, which promotes oracy, is to be welcomed as well, as is the extra funding and support for schools in the next financial year through regional consortia to help improve the language skills of learners. However, the Take Time campaign has a primary focus on older children, and the evidence suggests that we must ensure a relentless focus on promoting these key messages across portfolios at the earliest stage possible to make the most impact.

Beyond the home environment, there's strong evidence of the benefits of high-quality early education and childcare from the perspective of vocabulary and literacy development. Early years practitioners have a crucial role in supporting children's development; they share the early learning and skills that provide the foundation for school readiness, and support good future progress through education and later life. The early years workforce is also vital in closing the language gap between children from high and lower income families, which begins in infancy, promoting social mobility, of course, and offering children the best start in life.

It's welcome that the early years childcare and play workforce plan recognises the importance of early language development within the new childcare qualifications, and details opportunities for practitioners to specialise in this area. It's also positive that speech and language therapists, as the experts in this area, have been involved in these developments. However, given the importance of the issue of early language development, we need to ensure that training is accompanied by appropriate ongoing professional development and governance. The Flying Start approach, where nursery settings are able to access speech and language therapy support, is a very helpful model in this regard.

Looking beyond training, early language development needs to be mainstreamed, considered as part of inspection regimes, for example, and outcome frameworks need to be adapted to reflect progress in speech, language and communications. In Northern Ireland, a strategic post has been created to ensure a cross-cutting approach to early language development across portfolios. Maybe the Cabinet Secretary could comment on how early language development is being prioritised across Welsh Government portfolios in her response. What leadership is there in place to ensure the necessary focus and expertise on this key area here in Wales? Also, will the Cabinet Secretary commit to looking at learning from that strategic approach that we are seeing in Northern Ireland?

So, in summary, there have been many positive developments with regard to supporting early language development in Wales. However, as I've outlined, the profound consequences of not supporting children's early language skills and not identifying long-term or persistent speech, language and communication needs necessitate a broader cross-Government response and a greater strategic leadership across Wales. It's vital that, as a nation, we do more to ensure that children develop strong language skills by the time they start school and ensure this area has sufficient focus. Failure to do so will mean more of the same economic, health and social challenges in years to come. Success, though, would transform the prospects of tens of thousands of Welsh children and with them, of course, the prospects of our future generations and of our nation. Diolch.