5. Debate on the Children, Young People and Education Committee report on its inquiry into the Emotional and Mental Health of Children and Young People

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 4 July 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 4:23, 4 July 2018

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Firstly, can I thank the committee for their comprehensive report detailing the step change that they feel is needed in this area? I will join with David Melding in paying tribute to the committee's Chair, Lynne Neagle, for her dedication to these issues, not just in this report, but over her time here as an Assembly Member. Could I also join her in thanking those who gave personal testimony to the committee—that's never an easy thing to do—and also thank David and Lee who, today, have spoken of their own personal experiences in this regard? It reminds us that nobody is immune from issues of mental ill health.

Emotional and mental health support for young people is a matter that cuts across portfolios and an area where only effective cross-government and multi-agency working will effect the preventative and interventionist action that we need to take to make a change, and it's critical that we get this right. And I say that, Deputy Presiding Officer, not just as a Cabinet Secretary, but a mother of teenage girls. Improving mental health and well-being is a Welsh Government priority, and although the report acknowledges that there have been improvements in services, particularly at the specialist end of provision with mental health, it highlights the area where we can and we must do better for our young people. Overall, I believe the committee and the Welsh Government share the same ambitions, although we may disagree in some areas about how that is best achieved. But I can promise you this—that both I, myself, and the Cabinet Secretary for health are committed to working with the committee and its members to make progress on this agenda. We have come a long way, Deputy Presiding Officer, but I would be the first to acknowledge that there is still a very long way to go. And the speech by Leanne Wood, and the evidence that she's presented from her own constituency, backs that up. 

Our aim is to effect a cultural shift in Wales to direct focus on the well-being of young people. One of the outcomes of this new focus on well-being should be prevention, so that we move our emphasis from crisis management to the prevention of mental health problems from developing or escalating in the first place. As acknowledged by the Chair, this is the best thing for the individual, so we can limit their pain and distress. But it will also create the space within specialist mental health services to concentrate on those children and young people who, despite help and support, need those services the most.

We expect different areas to be able to work together so that we have a whole-system approach that truly puts the child or the young person at its heart, and, to this end, we need to continue to build and improve those relationships between different services.

If I may turn directly to some issues facing education, there is already a lot of work under way in our schools to support this renewed focus on well-being, such as the development of the new curriculum and the health and well-being area of learning and experience, changes to professional learning, and the schools' health research network, with the new data that they have collected on well-being.

Also, before the end of this term, I hope to publish the online safety tool for children to address some of the very relevant points that Jayne Bryant referred to in her speech and the effect of social media on the mental health of young people. With regard to the training of staff, which was mentioned by Julie Morgan, we are currently reforming the way in which our initial teacher education is delivered in Wales. The reforms require the newly accredited ITE providers—and they were announced on Friday of last week—to design and deliver courses that address the health and well-being area of learning and experience. If they don't do that, they won't be accredited.

Now, with regard to that recommendation that there has been a lot of focus on today, it is, of course, absolutely, Julie, right to expect that people working in our education profession and in our youth service have been trained in this regard. But the recommendation says that every volunteer working with a child also should be trained, and we need extra time to consider how, practically, that could be achieved, and how we can do it without any unintended consequences of maybe putting people off from volunteering with children. And we will need to consider more carefully how we can work with those who support children in their football club on a Saturday, or their Brownies or Guides or Scouts, or even people like me and my husband, who volunteer with our local young farmers' club—how we can make mandatory training work for all those people who give so much to their communities in their spare time and without any charge to the state. We don't want to have any unintended consequences.

There is a clear need for teachers to have help and support in responding to children experiencing difficulties such as anxiety, low mood or self-harm, and I'm very grateful that there's been recognition across the Chamber that this cannot just be the job of teachers alone. We're already asking an awful lot of our education system and our professionals, and I'm very grateful that Members have recognised this.

So, the NHS does have a role in training and consultation across sectors, providing early help in schools by suitably trained staff. That's why, in September of last year, the Cabinet Secretary for health and I jointly launched the CAMHS school in-reach programme, backed with £1.4 million of investment to provide dedicated professional support to schools. Such school-based services have benefits for the schools' staff and their learners, but also bring benefit to the NHS service by easing pressure on specialist CAMHS, by reducing inappropriate referrals, and, crucially, building those relationships that we need in between different sectors of the public service. [Interruption.] We need—. Yes, of course.