9. What is the Welsh Government doing to promote emotional well-being in schools? OAQ52601

Thank you, Jayne. We are committed to a step change when it comes to mental and emotional well-being in schools, and to achieve this we are convening a ministerial task and finish group, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services and myself, to consider a whole-school approach.

Emotional well-being, resilience and early intervention must be a national priority and I welcome the recent announcement of a whole-school approach, the need for which was highlighted in the Children, Young People and Education Committee's excellent 'Mind over Matter' report. The committee received evidence from the Samaritans, who've created DEAL—a developing emotional awareness and listening tool for teachers. It will be essential that emotional and mental health awareness is included in initial teacher training qualifications. Can the Cabinet Secretary confirm that the new task and finish group will speak to teachers who use the DEAL tool to see what can be learnt from their experiences?

I thank Jayne for her welcome for the establishment of the task and finish group. Work has already begun. A multi-agency and multiprofession workshop took place on 7 September to explore what a whole-school approach could involve, and to highlight where in current support there are gaps at present. The findings from the workshop will further inform the work of the task and finish group, and I would expect the task and finish group to want to take advice and evidence from a wide range of stakeholders who will have something to say on this important agenda.

'Our national mission' places the well-being of the child at the heart of our education system, and central to this will be new and inclusive school accountability arrangements that are being put in place that acknowledge not only the academic achievements of the school, but also the importance of the learner's health and well-being.

May I ask the Cabinet Secretary about the work of the task and finish group? What progress is being made to ensure that when people in school, often counsellors, make referrals of particular children to child and adolescent mental health services that those referrals are properly taken back, and are not, as some of the evidence we found as the Children, Young People and Education Committee, being referred back as if the counsellor was not an appropriate person to make that referral?

Mark, the announcement of the group has only recently been made. As I said, the work of that group was kicked off by the multi-agency and multiprofession workshop, because before we can design a service that represents a whole-school approach we need to have an agreement on what the whole-school approach actually looks like, so that we're all working towards the same agenda. We work across portfolio, and officials that worked on the 'Together for Children and Young People' plan are constantly looking at barriers to accessing more intensive and higher level CAMHS services for children, because if a counsellor has seen that child, has a relationship with that child, and feels that more intensive therapy and support is available, then that's almost like a triage system that should ensure a swift referral and a response from CAMHS. We will continue to remove those barriers, if schools counsellors are facing them, so that process can be as quick as it needs to be for that individual child.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.