The next item is a statement by the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care: 'Improving Outcomes for Children: Reducing the Need for Children to Enter Care', and the Work of the Ministerial Advisory Group. I call on the Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm grateful for this opportunity to update Members on the collaborative approach we are taking to improve outcomes for looked-after children in Wales.

'Taking Wales Forward', Deputy Presiding Officer, sets out this Government’s commitment to

‘examine ways of ensuring looked after children enjoy the same life chances as other children and if necessary reform the way they are looked after’.

Our national strategy, 'Prosperity for All', also describes our priorities around supporting children and families at the edge of care and young people in care, particularly as they transition towards adulthood. Through my Improving Outcomes for Children programme, we are taking an ambitious cross-Government and cross-sector approach to help us achieve our priorities and fulfil our commitment. This programme, supported by my ministerial advisory group, chaired by our colleague David Melding Assembly Member, is covering a broad range of work, looking across the spectrum of care and support, but with a real focus on addressing the factors that can lead to children requiring local authority care.

The ministerial advisory group has representation from all senior leaders and organisations with an involvement in children’s services. The group has been instrumental in advising me on, and co-producing, the improving outcomes for children work programme, and I'm pleased our partners are actively involved in this work. In fact, I attended the last ministerial advisory group meeting, and I could see again that this collaborative way of working continues to be a real strength of the group.

So, what have we achieved? Well, you will remember last year we invested £9 million to support care-experienced children. I'd like to tell you some of the headline outcomes on how that money was used by local authorities. Over 1,900 care-experienced children across Wales have received funds via our £1 million St David's Day fund, to support their transition to adulthood and to independence. Our £5 million investment in local authority edge-of-care services meant that local authorities helped over 3,600 children to remain within the family unit, by working with more than 2,000 families. We now have edge-of-care services in all local authorities in Wales. Welsh Government funding has led to the establishment of regional Reflect services. During the past year, these services have supported 150 young parents whose children have been placed in the care system with a wide range of emotional and practical issues. This is a popular service, and we expect to see the number of referrals rise significantly in the coming years. We also provided £1 million to extend the provision of personal advisers, so that all care leavers up to the age of 25 are offered a personal adviser, regardless of circumstances. As a result, an additional 20 personal advisers have been recruited, and the extended offer has been taken up by more than 500 care leavers. And finally, care leavers have been helped to access opportunities in education, employment and training, with 70 young people now participating in a local authority work placement or a traineeship scheme. These are real, tangible outcomes that are having a direct and positive impact on the lives of children and young people.

We have progressed other areas of work. For example, in May this year, we published research on placement outcomes for children after a final care order. This important research showed that over three quarters of the children in the study experienced a high level of placement stability as well as identifying other positive experiences of care. We have also developed national standards for independent reviewing officers and for independent visitors to ensure there is quality and consistency of service. And we funded the first year of the implementation of the national fostering framework. I am very pleased that my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Finance last week published a consultation on exempting all care leavers from paying council tax so that we have a consistent approach right across Wales.

This is all good progress, but there is still more to do. Before the summer, I asked for the work programme to be accelerated and intensified, to expedite delivery against the key challenges, including those that were identified in 'Care Crisis Review'. As a result, the improving outcomes for children work programme has been refreshed. This third phase of the programme continues much of the important work that's already in train, but it places more emphasis on reducing the need for care by providing effective, preventative, early support to families, as well as ensuring therapeutic support to children and families is intrinsic throughout the programme. To inform this phase, my officials have carried out an appreciative inquiry across six local authorities. The inquiry highlighted good preventative social work and family support being delivered by local authorities. All of the local authorities demonstrated integrated care systems where multi-agency teams provided timely support to families so crises could be de-escalated or avoided, thereby helping families to stay safely together. To illustrate this, one example has been the use of family group meetings. This is a family-centered approach that enables children, young people, as well as wider family members, to participate and own solutions that will improve their circumstances. This is very much in keeping with our co-production approach, which is central to our Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. Investment in such preventative and early intervention approaches really does realise savings in the long term.

As part of the draft budget proposals announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance for 2019-20, an additional £30 million has been allocated to regional partnership boards to help strengthen these integration arrangements. Today, I'm pleased to announce that £15 million of this funding will be allocated to progress our shared ambition of reducing the need for children to be in care. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to a whole-system change. 

I would like local authorities, third sector organisations and health boards to work together to use this fund flexibly and creatively across their regions. My expectation is that this money focuses on early intervention and preventative services for families in need of help and assistance, building on the approaches we already know help families avoid crisis situations. For those children and young people in care, I want to ensure we have in place the therapeutic services needed to help them successfully reunite with their families, where appropriate. 

Before I finish, I want to remind everyone that it is National Safeguarding Week. I'm really pleased that the Welsh Government is working with Stop It Now! Wales to launch a new campaign, which will help encourage the people of Wales to play their part in stopping child sexual abuse.  

I hope, therefore, that you will agree that we have made significant progress in terms of improving outcomes for children in Wales. I am looking forward to attending the improving outcomes for children national event on Thursday, where there will be an opportunity to share learning, to share innovative approaches and to recognise successes. But, most importantly, it'll be an opportunity to listen and learn from individuals who have first-hand experience of being in care. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

I speak as chair of the ministerial advisory group, which makes my response from the Conservative benches slightly irregular. So, I'll have a judicious mix of both roles, I think. But it is a serious point here that I think work in this area, which is very challenging, but there's a lot of good practice and good outcomes out there as well, requires to the maximum extent a non-partisan approach, and I think this work throughout the life of the Assembly has achieved that level of consensus, and the need to ensure better outcomes for those children and young people that we look after.

I think, Minister, that you're right to emphasise that the ministerial advisory group is now entering a key period, and this has required the work programme to be updated. I just want to say a little bit about that in a moment. It reflects, really, I think, the five-year term of the work. The initial phase was very much filling in the data gaps, commissioning some really important studies—you've referred to one that demonstrated the good outcomes that were measured after a final care order, and something like 75 per cent of children felt that they'd benefitted. So it is a sector, often, that is portrayed by its problems, because sometimes events occur that are really devastating, and obviously quite properly very newsworthy, but there's an awful lot of good practice out there, and it is very much building on that.

As far as the new work programme and its additions and development go, can I think Phil Evans, the co-chair of the MAG group and the former director of social services in the Vale of Glamorgan, and also the officials in your department that have produced the work plan? It has required a huge amount of work. It's been shaped by MAG, but we still needed the engine room of the operation group, led by Phil Evans, to draw it all together. It's largely analysis of the existing work and what's been achieved, a reflection on the data and reports that I just mentioned, and extensive consultation. I must say the consultation efforts are greatly aided by the other co-chair, Dan Pitt, from Voices from Care, and indeed the whole collaborative working of the ministerial advisory group has really been possible because of the extensive involvement in the group of various Welsh Government departments that have a key role—housing and public health, for instance—local authorities' children's services, and also the cabinet leads and the non-governmental organisations—the third sector. I think it has really given the group a dynamism and an ability to speak to you with authority and really provide that high-level advice that you need.

The programme now reflects the importance of prevention and early support, and, in addition, things that it has decided to emphasise that were either in the work plan but not prominent enough, or have now been absorbed into the work plan, and I'm just mentioning the changes here. But the emphasis on therapeutic services, I think, in large part, was driven by Lynne Neagle's or the committee that Lynne chairs' 'Mind over matter' report, which had a big impact in the discussion that the MAG was having, and the importance of therapeutic services linked into emotional well-being, which is constantly referred to by looked-after children as something that they really, really need, and that's a level of support.

Another area that was fairly new to me, I have to say, but has perhaps been overlooked, and that's the level of kinship caring that goes on. And that's a resource—many countries absolutely have a policy to make that more of a resource. But, certainly, it is used, it is very appropriate in certain cases, and perhaps we've not been as advanced in our thinking in this area in how we can support kinship carers.

The well-being of future generations Act has also shaped the MAG's work very considerably, and I know that's an important feature for you as well.

The problem of homelessness for care leavers is a very great one, and how we support care leavers in their tenancies is clearly a crucial element of our role as corporate parents, one can say. And I'm glad that a piece of work has been commissioned from the Wales Public Policy Institute, and I think that will help very much. I think, for care leavers, the housing situation is as crucial as the education situation and educational attainment is for those in care when they're going through formal education.

And then adverse childhood experience frameworks have come to play a big part in tying together a lot of the various threads of the ministerial advisory group's work.

Can I also welcome the funding? The £9 million that launched the programme a couple of years ago has a huge, I think, impact on local authorities developing best practice, and I think it sends a very positive signal that there is another funding stream.

And can I just say, do you agree with me that what we are seeing emerge is a fuller concept of the corporate parenting role? Which means every public agency, but also in the political field—obviously, you have a leadership role there, but it's also your colleagues, it's also us as Members that scrutinise the Government, and it's key partners, politicians in the council—the cabinet leads and the committee chairs that are doing the scrutiny. And all councillors ought to, surely, or all councils ought to follow the decision that Cardiff council made to train all their councillors in looked-after children's issues. And they're making progress on that. Perhaps not as quickly as they would like, but that's the sort of leadership that we do need to see really emerge to give us a full corporate parenting picture. Thank you.

I did allow the Member there some licence, given that he chairs the ministerial working group—task group, but that same licence doesn't apply to the rest of the speakers, I'm afraid. Neither does it to the Minister for winding up as well.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'll keep my response very, very brief. It is, undoubtedly, a big strength of our approach that this is cross-Government, cross-sector, but also, it is non-partisan. This is an agenda that we all have a role to play in, and we all need to bring our experience and knowledge and understanding, including, by the way—and I welcome your words of tribute to both your co-chairs—the co-chair who himself is care experienced. I think that's vital within this. This is genuine co-production in line with the legal framework that we've set up. This is not Government doing to people, it's Government working with people to come up with the right solutions. I absolutely applaud the work that's been done already by the MAG and it is having an effect already. We are seeing that in the evidence that is coming forward, without a doubt. But the prominence now and the priority given to certain work streams, in addition to those around therapeutic services—we've got much more to do on that. I think there is exciting work that the MAG will do and that Government needs to bring forward on that as well, both therapeutic services generally but also therapeutic services as might apply to residential care particularly, kinship care and transition to independent living and the corollary of that, which is homelessness, if we do not get it right.

The funding will help, undoubtedly, but just to reply to the point made on corporate parenting and to pay tribute to David in particular, who's very much led the agenda around corporate parenting, we all have a role—every individual, every scrutineer, every local government official, senior leader, head of directorate. All of us have a role in stepping up to the mark now in order to improve the outcomes for care-experienced children and young people. And that is starting to happen and we're doing it because there is a shared agenda now and we need to keep this momentum going. It's not the funding per se that will transform this, it'll be the fact we focus on the important priority areas that are brought forward by the MAG and by others that say, 'This is what will make the difference.' The funding will help.

Can I begin by saying how much I welcome the statement? I'm really pleased to see how much progress is being made in this very important area of work. Of course, we would expect no less, particularly with my friend David Melding chairing the ministerial advisory group. I think we all know that his commitment to the well-being of children, particularly very vulnerable children and children in care, is absolutely second to none. I'd echo what David has said and what the Minister has said about the importance of a non-partisan approach on these issues. 

I'm also very pleased, Minister, to see that there's no complacency here, that you're recognising very clearly that there is more work to do. I'll actually raise a couple of questions in that context. I won't ask you to comment on a particular case, but we are aware that there are some local authorities that are doing better in this field than others. In my own region, I continue to have some concerns about Powys, and I hope that the Minister can reassure us today that, while working very strongly on this collaborative approach, there will be no prisoners taken if there are partners who are failing these most vulnerable children and young people. 

The statement itself makes no specific reference to taking a rights-based approach to developing policy in this field. It may very well be, Minister, that this is because you're taking this as read, but given how difficult we know it can be to mainstream a rights-based approach into work with children across the public sector, I would like to give you the opportunity to confirm that the rights-based approach is at the heart of your policy development and your expectations of others and of the work of the ministerial advisory group, and to commit perhaps to making this more explicit in future. Because whereas that may come naturally perhaps to some of us in this Chamber, there are many others providing services to children and young people who unfortunately remain to be convinced.

I welcome very much the work being done to enable children at risk of being taken into care to stay with their families where that's possible and where that's safe. However, I had some constituency casework brought to me and I'm concerned that there are times still when legal proceedings lead to a child bouncing between birth parents who can't, sadly, cope and foster parents, delaying adoption outcomes where this is best for the child. Can you tell us what discussions you've been having with the family court services with a view to minimising the number of occasions when this happens, given how very damaging that is for very vulnerable children, and very young children, very often?

I very much welcome the investment—the £15 million is very much to be welcomed, and I very much welcome the fact that we're looking at reducing the need for children to be taken into care. We'd all welcome that, but can you confirm, Minister, that your expectation is that this new funding will create sustainable services? Given the pressure that there is on local government funding, it is too often the case that good investment is put in to kick-start positive work but there then isn't the resources to carry on innovative programmes, for example, even when they're proved to work. So, can you reassure us today that this £15 million will not be a one-off and that those new services will be able to be sustained?

Minister, you'll be aware of the large number of private children's homes, particularly in rural Wales, accommodating very vulnerable young people out of county, very often from large cities in England. I've had constituents raise concerns with me about some of these, particularly when they're in very isolated rural locations. Can you confirm to us today that you are satisfied that the current inspection and regulation regime sufficiently protects the best interests of these looked-after children? They are maybe not always our looked-after children, but my view, and I'm sure your view, would be that, while they're in Wales, we have the same duty of care to them as we do for Welsh-domiciled children. And would you consider writing to Members to update us on arrangements for those inspections, so that I can reassure the constituents who've raised concerns with me?

And finally, you refer in the statement to listening and learning from those who've had first-hand experiences of being in care. I'm very glad to see that the ministerial group is jointly chaired by a person with care experience, but could you take this opportunity to tell the Assembly a little more about how care-experienced individuals, and particularly children and young people currently in care or at risk of care, have been involved in developing this policy and how that will continue to be central to the work?

Helen, thank you very much for those detailed comments. Let me begin where you began: our expectation is that all local authorities and those who provide support should rise to the level of the best. We know, as was remarked by the chair of the MAG earlier on, there is some really good practice out there; we've unearthed that ourselves. We expect that to be standard. 

In terms of the rights-based approach—in some ways, this may be a trailer for a later debate this afternoon as well, where I'll be going large on the rights-based approached, but a rights-based approach is at the heart of this programme as well. The children's commissioner, who is a member of the group, has made sure that it is so, and we would want it to be so. So, even though it wasn't mentioned explicitly in the statement, it's right at the core of the work that we're doing in Government and in the group itself. You can have that assurance. 

We have regular discussions, both at an official level but also with those directly involved in the family court service, and the family court service itself has, partly in response to the work of the ministerial advisory group, refreshed its approach to children experiencing care over recent years, and we expect it to keep on learning, not least, I have to say, from the 'Care Crisis Review' as well. The 'Care Crisis Review' was very helpful in that it said there is no one magic bullet—there are a range of things that you need to bring it up to the very best standard, not only in terms of support and provision at local authority level, but the way in which family courts also respond to cases appearing and not to have great regional disparity in the way that family courts respond to it. 

You mentioned the assurance of sustainable solutions and funding—absolutely. Now, this is partly to do with making sure that the money is going into the right place. And the reason why we have the announcement today on the £15 million into regional partnership boards is because they are set up directly to do that basis of saying, 'What are the needs in our region? How do we make this apply in the very best way?', jointly working together, so it's not any more to do with pots of money, it's to do with a focus on the outcomes of those care-experienced children. But there also need to be sustainable solutions as well as sustainable funding, and that requires some creative and innovative approaches to working jointly. And one of the things we're very keen to do is to embed those ways of working across different agencies—local authorities, health and others—to make sure that they bring forward solutions that are long-lasting because they are more preventative, more early in the way that they intervene and in a more timely way. That is part of the sustainability as well.

I'm very happy to write in response to your request to Members to update them on the way we are approaching the inspection and regulation regime, but you also raised the issue of children's residential care, and this frequently appears, and I know that it's one of the things that the ministerial advisory group is looking at: do we have the right not simply secure accommodation but actually, beyond that, therapeutic care accommodation settings in the right place in all different parts of Wales? We think there is a job of work to be done on that, so we are now currently working with stakeholders to develop new approaches to therapy and care for children with particularly complex needs and challenging behaviours that might not necessitate secure accommodation but actually need a different, bespoke model for them. So, we are exploring the scope for regional approaches to this type of provision so we avoid the impact that one child in one authority then has a massive impact, and they look around in desperation to say, 'Well, where can we place this child?', and often that means out of county or sometimes out of country. So, the work is being taken forward by a task and finish group on children's residential care, and we hope that will not only improve our understanding of the profile of residential care for children, but also bring forward ideas on improving the range of therapeutic models available to residential care providers. But I think regionality on this is going to be key. 

I think I might have dealt with all of the matters. 

It should be fine, thank you. Jenny Rathbone. 

Thank you. Corporate parenting is all our responsibility, so I completely share David Melding and Helen Mary's comments on this matter.

Last night, I attended a dinner organised by the faculty of sexual and reproductive healthcare, along with my colleagues Julie Morgan and Angela Burns. It was done on the Chatham House rule where everything remained in the room, but I was really shocked to hear that in one local authority in Wales nearly all of the care-experienced children come from 10 families, and that's because we've failed to provide the service that we need to to ensure that people don't go on simply having more children. So, I was very pleased to see that you're now going to have regional Reflect services, because that's what these services are about; it's not supporting families to get their child that's been removed back, but enabling them to reflect on the reasons why that child was taken into care in the first place.

I'm less impressed by your description of it as a 'popular' service. I want to know whether it's an effective service. I think that it very much depends on the quality of the outreach to ensure that those who most need such a service are actually getting it, rather than abandoning them to just going on having more and more children, with a vicious cycle.

I was interested to see the research that's been done on placements and the positive outcomes, but of 42 pupils in the school where I'm a governor, which I'm afraid is the highest in Wales, already three have had a change of placement, but, I'm glad to say, not a change of school. So, at least there is some continuity and stability in their lives that can be provided at the school.

I think that another thing that's been very important in terms of preventative and joined-up social work is that having a social worker located at the school has enabled them to access important information about the background of the young person in a timely fashion, without in any way breaching data protection rules. So, I think that we need to do a lot more of that sort of thing. I appreciate that you're going to allocate £15 million more to reduce the need for children to be in care, but we have to recognise that we are an outlier at the moment—95 per 10,000 pupils/children versus 62 to 10,000 in England—so, there's no room for complacency in this.    

I think that we simply have to—. The importance of the school, it seems to me, was reflected in Kirsty Williams's statement about the importance of well-being, just as much as academic achievement, and celebrating the work that's done by schools. So, I think that the national outcomes framework, as part of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, has only got one indicator in relation to care-experienced children, relating to the external qualifications they get when they're 16. I think there needs to be further indicators of the type of really specialist work that schools can do to really contribute to that.

Being in care is an adverse childhood experience; it couldn't possibly be otherwise. So, the numerically small numbers we have surely means we should be ensuring that all those young people are getting proper access to mental health services and counselling services to enable them to process the trauma that they have suffered. I absolutely think that we need to be ensuring in all local authorities that all these young people are getting those services they need, or they are going to end up being parents of care-experienced children themselves, and that is the vicious circle we've got to breach. Otherwise, it's going to cost local authorities money we simply don't have, because the investigation that was done by a national newspaper about the level of cost for very specialist care—£7,000 a week—and the real concerns about auctioning of vulnerable children—. Obviously, we have to put a stop to that and we need to get to the bottom of ensuring that we are reducing the numbers and that those who are care experienced are not themselves going to lose their own children. 

Thank you, Jenny. You rightly remind us that we actually need to look at the whole care experience here. It's those people, the children and young people, who are in care—we absolutely need to put the right priorities for them to improve their outcomes—those who are leaving care, but also to focus on, as is the No. 1 work stream now, how we reduce the numbers of children and young people in care. Because we know that if we can make the right early interventions—and that includes with some of our wider support that can identify issues early and apply that multi-agency approach earlier—then we save those costs further down that can be released to put towards children who are in care, and so on. But I'm glad that you are welcoming what we've done with the regional Reflect services and the way we anticipate that there will indeed be a significant uptake on this, because we're starting to see already evidence that it is effective and we expect to see more. It's the right way, I think, again, to work with the people directly to try and help turn around positive outcomes. 

Placement stability—absolutely critical. We know that, for those children who are in care, if we get stable placement it leads to positive outcomes, whether that's educationally, on health, on transition to adulthood—the stability of the placement is absolutely key. Some of the recent research that we did—we published research that we brought forward in May this year—it looked at the placement outcomes of children four to five years after a final care order was made. What was heartening from that was that three quarters of that whole cohort of children experienced a high level of placement stability, with either no placement move or only one placement move over the four-year period. Now, that's significant and it shows we're starting to join the dots up a little bit to make sure that they have that stability that gives them the basis then for growing and having the right outcomes as a young individual.

Now, you rightly reflected on the wider aspect of wider mental health and well-being and, again, this goes into the preventative and early intervention agenda. If we can identify and save the costs earlier, it's better for the individual but also better in terms of avoiding the rescue costs further down the line. Of course, the 'Mind over matter' report by the Children, Young People and Education Committee I think was very helpful within this. In September, the Cabinet Secretaries for health and education announced that they would convene a joint ministerial task and finish group—I'm avoiding looking to my right here at the moment, my immediate right—to consider but also to accelerate work to achieve a whole-school approach as part of a whole-system approach to children's mental well-being. The first meeting was on 17 October. We've committed now to move this agenda forward at pace and we'll be providing the CYPE committee with an update on activity and progress against the 'Mind over matter' report in the spring of 2019. And this will, by the way, link, as David will know, with the Improving Outcomes for Children work programme and the ministerial advisory group to ensure that school-based services are able to meet the distinct mental health needs of care-experienced or looked-after children. I think—. I'm looking at Dirprwy—. Sorry, Dirprwy Lywydd, I'd better stop there. [Laughter.]  

It would be helpful, because we have—. And, finally, Michelle Brown. And we are out of time, but—. Michelle. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for your statement, Minister. I'd also like to thank the advisory group for their work so far. I'd also like to congratulate those involved in delivering the improvements in transition services and other positive steps that you've updated us on today, Minister.

In an ideal world, no child would have to go into the care system—I think that's a given, isn't it? But part of the reason we're justifiably keen to prevent children needing to go into care is because successive Governments have not got care provision right. Your statement relates to reducing the number of children going into care, suggesting that children and young people are being taken into care when alternatives may be available. You've given an example of how alternatives are being considered, but the prospect of children going into care when there's another choice is deeply concerning and I'd like you to clarify the extent of the problem and quantify it. How big a worry is this? How are you going to ensure that aiming to reduce the number of children in care doesn't have the consequence of down-prioritising improving the care system itself and discourage Government from making the care system better for those who really do need it and for whom there is no choice but to put them in care?

If fewer children and young people are in care, will that result in more funds being spent on each child still in care or will that result in a reduction in the amount of funding allocated to care provision? What conversations have you had with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance about directing the savings created by taking fewer children into care to those who have to be in care? Are you going to be looking at the threshold for placing children into care that's being used by the statutory agencies? If so, do you think that current threshold is too low, do you think it's about right—where do you think that threshold is right now? Is that the right threshold to have? I'd like to be reassured that, firstly, you won't be taking the money out of the care system in order to fund extra focus on preventing children needing the care system and, further, can you confirm that spending on the care system will increase in line with both need and inflation?

Not long ago, I also asked you a question about the adoption system. You didn't answer it. So, as part of the efforts to prevent children having to stay in the care system longer than is necessary, I'll ask it again: do you believe, as I do, that there's no reason why children shouldn't be adopted by parents of a different ethnicity from themselves? And what have you done to assess whether, and if so ensure that, adoption agencies and social workers are neither formally nor informally acting to discourage mixed-race adoptions? There are many ethnically mixed families in the UK, and that's to be celebrated as we enjoy a diverse society. We rightly also don't treat gay couples differently from other couples in the adoption process. So, do you agree with me that racial diversity in families is a good thing, as it is in our wider society, and that ethnic differences shouldn't be a factor in placing children for adoption? If you're serious about keeping as many children as possible out of the care system, or keeping their time in it to a minimum, I'm sure you'll agree, but I would like to hear you say it.

Finally, in this week of National Safeguarding Week, we've had many, many stories in the press and elsewhere over the last few years about grooming gangs and adults grooming children for sexual exploitation, so I would like the Minister to take this opportunity to actually give us an update on the measures that you're taking and the measures that social services are taking to safeguard children and to prevent groomers having—to prevent individual groomers and grooming gangs having—access to children in care, because one of the most vulnerable groups of children to these grooming gangs is obviously children in care. The state has a massive duty to make sure that those groomers don't have access to those children, so I would really, really like to know what you're actually doing to stop that. Thank you.

Minister, briefly. 

Yes. Thank you. I've mentioned already in my preceding answers a lot of the work that we're doing on increasing family support and therapeutic support in order, where we can, to safely and appropriately keep children within the family unit. I mentioned it in my opening remarks but also some of the work streams that the MAG is taking forward as well.

You majored in a couple of your points there on whether, if we make savings in one area, for example—and we haven't achieved this yet, I have to say—on reducing the numbers of children coming into care, would that be transferred across into another area. Look, we're not cutting and splicing this budget. We've just announced an additional £15 million today. Our intention is to sustain the funding that's going in there, and, as I said to Helen Mary's earlier point, also to find sustainable models in which we keep that going, and part of that is through regional partnership working but also local partnership working, I have to say as well. It's got to translate right down to the local level. But I think our commitment today and over the last few years has been clear that, whilst for some people this might be a slightly left field thing—it's not often a thing that attracts big media headlines—for us it's the most important thing if we genuinely believe that every single child has the right to have those outcomes regardless of the circumstances into which they are born or what life throws at them and their family situation.

On the safeguarding issue, I mentioned today that we are supporting—and encouraging others to support, I have to say—the Stop it Now! Wales campaign around sexual abuse of children, but, of course, in Wales, we are probably slightly more ahead of the game as well in terms of the work we are doing with our national safeguarding board, our regional safeguarding boards—. We are not complacent because I think the safeguarding boards themselves know that we've still got work to do. We see it when something hits the headlines. We look at what's happened, we look at what's gone wrong, we learn from it, and then we make sure those lessons are learned not just in the region but across Wales as well. So, I hope that gives you the reassurance.

And, finally—my apologies—the reason I didn't respond to you last time is that I couldn't—. It was my fault; I was slightly confused on what you're asking me, but I went back and had a look at the transcript. So, let me just make it clear here: on the day that we made the last statement, I went to actually visit a young couple not far from here in Cardiff, actually, who were part of the Adopting Together programme. I think you mentioned previously about this issue around ethnic minorities that they weren't specifically mentioned within that. Actually, they are, and I think we've written to you now to explain that, within the literature, it specifically refers, for example, to children from a black and minority ethnic background. So, I'm very happy to put on record that there should be nothing that disbars people from adoption—from becoming a loving, caring family—based on race or ethnicity or gender or sexuality or whatever. What matters is a caring, loving family that will give that child the very best start in life and the stability they have to live and thrive. That's what this is all about.

Thank you very much, Minister.