Today is 4 July, and in Jefferson's sparkling prose, we are reminded that we are born with inalienable rights, and the most important are

'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'.

Now, 'the pursuit of happiness' we would define as some form of emotional well-being today, and there's absolutely no doubt that the denial of effective help and diagnosis of emotional and mental health conditions in childhood has a huge impact on the person and their development as adults, and the potential for their happiness and the pursuit of all sorts of goals in life.

I speak from my own experience. It was not something picked up. I have lived with periods of depression and, more particularly, anxiety, throughout my life. A lot of my coping mechanisms have been self-learnt and, more latterly, through effective health interventions. But, you know, it's an incredibly alienating experience, and I remember, even at university, being completely perplexed by some of my symptoms and not having a basic apprehension of what they were. That, I think, is a terrible situation to be in.

I commend this report. I think it is outstanding, as is Lynne Neagle, who has to be one of our greatest backbenchers, and the way you hold your side to account is a masterclass about how people should pursue the national good, and that takes you way beyond partisan politics. You're held in the highest esteem across the Chamber. 

Can I just say that I have the privilege of chairing the Government's ministerial advisory group on outcomes for children? We met on Friday, and this report, 'Mind over matter', was one of the agenda items, and it was received with great enthusiasm, particularly amongst the third sector representatives that are crucial to the working of that group. But there was some concern, in particular, about this practice of accepting in principle. Now, I explained, in a fairly neutral way, that this was something that had been the practice in Governments' responses to reports for many years, and that a committee would usually spend a lot of time returning to the items that had been accepted in principle, and examining how deep that was after six months, a year or whatever, whether something had practically been done, or whether it was a way of basically putting something on the shelf. So, I know you will return to this when you come to your in-depth scrutiny post report, and I know the Ministers will be aware of this as well, and they will know the concern and the frustration of some Members here. But I do remind the Cabinet Secretaries that the Permanent Secretary last year said that the Welsh Government would move away from the practice of accepting recommendations in principle and say frankly whether they accept the recommendation as it's framed or not, and then they can give their reasons for that. I do think that's at the heart of real accountability. It is somewhat frustrating to see what happens in this report.

Can I just turn to some of the detail? I think the need to focus now on the preventative end of the pathway is really, really important, otherwise we will see further difficulties with the acute end, and the referral via CAMHS in the inappropriate referrals out of not knowing where else to go, so you make a CAMHS referral. I think some of the practical suggestions—the national approach for schools, including the need for a guidance teacher model, so that lead members of staff have responsibility and enable other teachers to pick up the things—this is basic pedagogy. I find it astonishing that it is referred to as somehow being impractical that, amongst the most highly professional people we have in our country, the teaching staff are not capable of this. They should receive the training and the support to do it. The importance of therapeutic intervention has been very, very key in my own experience, and the active offer of advocacy for children accessing mental health services.

Can I commend, in particular, recommendation 22—the assessment of the emotional and mental health needs of children entering care? That's of particular concern to the ministerial advisory group. And recommendation 23—the Welsh Government to assess the provision of emotional mental health services for looked-after children, and this should be informed by the work of the ministerial advisory group—[Inaudible.]