I'm a member of the committee, and I think this is one of the most important inquiries that we have actually undertaken. I know the Government does acknowledge that children's emotional and mental health is an issue that crosses so many boundaries between so many different people and so many different organisations—health, schools, youth support organisations, youth clubs, CAMHS—so I welcome the committee's recommendation and the Government's acceptance that it should be a national priority, but I think if you have something as a national priority, you have to go all out to achieve it, and it's in the more detailed recommendations that we don't really have the response that we were hoping for.

I agree very strongly with the committee's view that it should be the business of everyone who comes into contact with children to have their well-being and mental health at the forefront of their minds, because what could be more precious than a child's state of mind? We must aim for a generation of emotionally secure, happy children with a positive mindset, but to do that the Welsh Government does have to take action.

The report recommends that everyone who cares, volunteers or works with children and young people be trained in emotional and mental health awareness so that they can tackle issues of stigma and promote good mental health. Now, the Government accepts this, but only accepts it in principle. It is disappointing to see this described as 'unrealistic'. Surely, most people who work with children receive, as a minimum, some initial training, so why could not this include an element to at least raise awareness of the importance of looking out for children's emotional and mental well-being? I can't see that there's any problem at all in that, and I don't see that that's unrealistic at all. I think it's essential that initial teacher training has this built in, and the training that youth workers have, the training that health staff have, and I really think that that is something that could be incorporated into the training that already takes place with no problem. So, I do not accept that it is unrealistic that that recommendation should be taken forward.

Now, I think when a child's mental health suffers, it does cause a huge amount of stress and upset for their family, their friends, for the school, for everybody who works with them. The ripples from a child's mental health, I think, go so far, and many of us have experienced that issue. Families can do their best to provide for their children emotionally and materially, but problems with your emotional and mental health can happen to every family. So, children's mental health is a great leveller. But I think we do know that there are particularly vulnerable groups, and two of those are looked-after children and adopted children, and I think it's important to signal that out. 

Last week, I sponsored an event in which Adoption UK launched its report, called 'Bridging the Gap', about giving adopted children an equal chance in school. Adopted children do need extra support in school, and schools are maybe not sometimes as aware of this as they should be—there is an understanding gap. And it shows that 65 per cent of adopted children did not feel that their teachers fully understood how to support them, and this rose to 74 per cent at secondary school age. So, I think this is very concerning that the feedback from adopted children—who, we know, because of attachment issues they may have had early in life, are more vulnerable to have mental health problems—didn't feel that they could turn to their teachers. I do think that our report has reflected that, really, in most of the aspects that we've dealt with—that children have to seek support and wait for support in a way that the Chair has described that is not acceptable.

I feel it should be the burning mission of this Assembly to ensure that our children do grow up with sound, healthy bodies and minds, and that it should be our burning mission to make this happen. So, I feel that this report does lay it out, but I do think it is up to the Government to ensure that this is their burning mission as well, and that together we can all work together to make our children happy and fulfilled.