Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this important debate today. It's a very important report and I'd like to commend the Children, Young People and Education Committee for conducting their thorough and timely inquiry and my friend and colleague Lynne Neagle for her leadership in that and for the way she's spoken today.

Research by the Office for National Statistics earlier this year found that 10 per cent of young people aged 16 to 24 describe themselves as always or often alone. This is the highest in any age group. These figures are reflected in the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's announcement that they have seen a significant increase in children and young people contacting ChildLine about their emotional and mental health. It's now the most common reason for ChildLine counselling in Wales.

The excellent 'Mind over matter' report has been welcomed by clinical and health professionals and third sector organisations. They support the report's identification of the urgent challenges faced at the beginning of the care pathway and its key recommendation that emotional well-being, resilience and early intervention should be a national priority. The situation is urgent. Research has shown that around half of all mental health problems begin at the age of 14. Failure to intervene can lead to demand outstripping supply of specialist services and, like other Members here, I deal with many of these issues on a daily and weekly basis.

The report highlights the importance of measures that can be taken to prevent children and young people reaching crisis point and building resilience. Across Wales, there are some fantastic examples of projects working to support the emotional and mental health of children and young people, and I'd like to highlight a few that I know well. Earlier this year, I visited the nurture group in Pillgwenlly Primary School in my constituency with the Cabinet Secretary for Education. The group provides assistance to children who need extra support with emotional and behavioural needs by building relationships between pupils, teachers and parents. The group helps equip children with the skills and resilience they need to get the most out of every aspect of school. The children themselves are very open about how being part of the nurture group has changed how they feel, and this group makes tangible differences to those children's lives.

I'm very glad that the committee visited the Changing Minds project in Newport as part of their inquiry. I've seen for myself how the project at Newport Mind provides peer support for young people. Its preventative nature has had a marked impact on reducing the use of local primary mental health support services, and I'd like to thank the Chair today here for including their voices again this afternoon. Among those who gave evidence to the inquiry about the importance of preventative measures was Carol Fradd, director of Newport Samaritans. I met Carol not long afterwards, and she explained about the DEAL, the developing emotional awareness and listening tool, a teacher resource developed by the Samaritans. Following the success of DEAL, the Samaritans have called for emotional and mental health awareness to be included in initial teacher training qualifications, and work conducted by the Children's Society has shown that the school environment can have a big impact on children's well-being, yet the responsibility cannot fall on teachers alone, and, as others have said, it's the responsibility of all of us.

Establishing working partnerships with children's clinicians and professionals who have the skills to transform children's mental health care—Welsh Government must continue to enable them to share their experience and expertise. Barnardo's are among those who have highlighted the benefit of developing partnership working with local communities such as Millbrook primary in Bettws, which I visited with the Minister for children earlier this week.

A key contributing factor to the increasing prevalence of emotional and mental health issues is undoubtedly the influence and pressure of social media, and it's really difficult for all of us here today to imagine how social media affects young people's self esteem. Young people are increasingly experiencing a significant portion of their social interaction online, but this cannot replace human-to-human contact and the valuable skills gained from it. Scrolling through social media can magnify the mixture of emotions we all experience, unfortunately often reinforcing and prolonging negative thoughts and feelings. Today, we've really heard the strength of feeling, cross-party, about this. From a young age, we instil in children that they do not need to tolerate physical pain. The committee's report is an excellent and crucial reminder that we all have a responsibility to ensure young people grow up knowing that their minds matter as well.