8. What is the Welsh Government doing to tackle mental health problems in young people? OAQ52747

We're working with our partners to deliver a whole-system improvement to the mental health support provided to young people, building on our successful work and investment since 2015, and delivering, of course, on our 'Prosperity for All' commitments.

This is not the first time I've raised this subject with you, but after the recent Panaroma programme on mental health provision for young people, I was inundated with messages from parents in the Rhondda who feel that their children and teenagers have been let down by the system. The programme certainly touched a nerve, First Minister.

One thing that could help is for school counselling services to be improved. Now, it's a statutory requirement for secondary schools in Wales to have an in-house counsellor, but provision remains patchy, according to the Children's Society. They say that some schools provide an excellent service while some schools provide no counselling services at all. This is an area under your control, First Minister. Many children and teenagers are being failed by the health service primarily, but also they're being failed within the education system as well. So, will you commit to evaluating the service to make sure that there is a high-quality service and that it is good and consistently provided for all secondary school pupils right throughout the country? 

I'd be extremely disappointed if secondary schools weren't providing the service that they're meant to provide. I think the—. I've said in the Chamber before how much money we put into the child and adolescent mental health service, but I think where the emphasis has to go now, and what we're looking at, is what happens in that gap between the counselling services and CAMHS. Many young people won't go and see a counsellor in school because it's a little bit too close to home and people think that people will find out about it, and many young people don't actually need the kind of medical intervention that CAMHS provides. So, the emphasis now is going to be on: how do we provide a level of counselling services outside of school for those who would benefit from that service without having to go into CAMHS? So, as far as the 2019-20 draft budget proposals are concerned, they do refer to planned investment in CAMHS, but that will be targeted at meeting the needs of those who don't need the most specialist treatment and to meet the needs of that missing middle. I think that's where we have to ensure that no gap exists.

First Minister, 10 October is World Mental Health Day, and I'm sure that you would want to join me in offering our full support and gratitude to the many mental health service providers and charities who help our vulnerable people across Wales every day. However, suicide rates in Wales, and particularly amongst young people, are a very serious issue. Childline Cymru is reporting a 20 per cent increase in the number of calls it receives from children and young people suffering with suicidal thoughts and feelings. More worryingly, of late, children as young as 10 are now contacting these services. Will the First Minister make a statement on what action the Welsh Government is taking to reduce levels of suicide in children and young people and what services he's providing to charities such as Childline Cymru in dealing with the rise of the number of cases?

I remember some years ago there was a spate of suicides in Bridgend—I'm sure the Member will remember it—stoked, I have to say, by the media coverage of the time, which, there's no doubt in my mind, led to so some young people taking their own lives. That was a very difficult time for the people of Bridgend, and not just the town but the entire county. So, I've seen what can happen when there is a panic in terms of suicides. I had to deal with that myself in my own constituency.

In terms of Childline Cymru, what's not clear, and never can be clear with these things, is: does that mean that there are more young people who are feeling suicidal or does it mean there are more young people who are reporting the issue even though the numbers may well be steady? We can't know the answer to that question, but either answer is possible. She asked particularly what we're doing for young people. Well, again, we have school counselling, we have the money that we put into CAMHS, and it is right to say that the waiting list for CAMHS was unacceptably long at one point. It was 112 days at one point, now it's 28 days from referral. So, performance has improved significantly since 2017, but, of course, more work needs to be done now in, as I said earlier on, plugging the gap between the school counselling services and the specialist medical help, or psychiatric help, that CAMHS can provide. What, then, can we do for those who fall between the gap at the moment?

Thank you, First Minister.