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 4:30 pm on 4 July 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 4:30, 4 July 2018

Well, Lee, what I would say is that I would much rather, as a Cabinet Secretary, be in a position to be able to accept or reject, but sometimes—and I acknowledge the extra time that the committee has given my officials and myself to work on this—we need more time to truly understand what the implications of saying 'accept' are. Because if we say, 'accept', then we mean that that has to happen, and sometimes there are complex issues that need to be fully understood, and the unintended consequences understood and mitigated against. Therefore, I want to make progress on all of these recommendations where we say we've accepted in principle. And, as I said at the beginning of my speech, I give an absolute commitment that myself and the Cabinet Secretary for health will continue to work with the committee to be able to move those things forward. Indeed, since the time that the Government's report, recommendations and response has been published, ongoing work has happened, and already, as a Government, we've been able to be more positive about responding to this. If I could make some progress on my speech, Deputy Presiding Officer, I'd be able to give the Member a very real example of how, in the short space of time, we have been able to continue that work and been able to respond appropriately.

As I said, we need to take a whole-school approach, and have already recognised that our education institutions are key sites for both promoting positive mental health and well-being and providing evidence-based prevention and early intervention. In recent years, Welsh Government has invested significantly to improve CAMHS provision across primary and secondary care, with over £8 million of annual dedicated funding, which has enabled the recruitment of new staff, training of existing staff and the establishment of new services. However, the report rightly recognises that there are areas where we need to improve, particularly in the case of primary care. We have commissioned the NHS delivery unit to review activity and relationships with other CAMHS so that we can address provision challenges.

Since responding to the committee, the health Secretary and I have continued our discussions about how we can continue to move the agenda forward. We will, therefore, be accepting point 4 of the committee's key recommendation on reviewing the progress made in prioritising the emotional and mental health and well-being and resilience of our children. We will prioritise and strengthen arrangements to drive this agenda, working both strategically across the education and health departments to deliver sustainable approaches to mental well-being. With regards to evaluating our progress, we will work with the committee to ensure that we are setting the right parameters for that work. Although we have some concerns about what is the optimum time to continue to review, we will engage with the committee and report on progress at a time that we are able to agree with the committee Chair. I'm sure that other Assembly Members, as has been demonstrated across the Chamber this afternoon, will also be interested in this, despite not being members of that committee, and we will bring forward proposals as our thinking develops.

We have also had further discussions around recommendation 12—point 2—regarding distress. This has been mentioned several times this afternoon. Specialist CAMHS provide support for young people with more complex mental health issues and, as such, will always need to respond to the clinical needs of the individual. However, distress is considered as one of a number of factors to determine the most appropriate services to meet a person's needs, both for those who are referred to CAMHS and for those who do not meet the referral threshold. Therefore, we will be engaging with the Aneurin Bevan university health board to monitor the delivery of their services in Gwent, which are exceptional and doing very well, to see how we can learn from their experiences on the Gwent project to improve services across the length and breadth of our nation.