Item 10 on our agenda this evening is a statement by the Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee on United Nations Universal Children's Day. I call on the Chair of the committee, Lynne Neagle.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm very pleased to be able to make this statement today, on behalf of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, to recognise the importance of the UN Universal Children's Day. The United Nations Universal Children's Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide and improving children's welfare. Since its establishment, 20 November has become an important date in relation to the progress of children's rights across the world. On 20 November 1959, the UN General Assembly adopted the declaration on the rights of the child. It is also the date in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the convention on the rights of the child. Since 1990, Universal Children's Day has been used to celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of both the declaration and the convention on children's rights. More importantly, it is a day on which, across the world, children are honoured and time is taken to reflect on progress that has been made in promoting their rights.

The National Assembly for Wales has a great story to tell on its scrutiny of children's rights. In 2011, Wales became the first country in the UK to make the UNCRC part of its domestic law when we passed the Rights of Children and Young People (Wales) Measure 2011. The Measure aimed to strengthen and build on the approach the Welsh Government was taking to making policy for children and young people. It placed a duty on Welsh Ministers to have due regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and required Ministers to publish a children's rights scheme, setting out the arrangements in place to have that due regard. These duties must be the cornerstone of how Welsh Government creates its policies for children. Welsh Government actions under this duty are something that this committee has and will continually monitor and scrutinise in order to ensure our children and young people are safe, well, happy and have their legal rights respected. 

The work of the committee has made a significant impact and has directly influenced change and improvement in service delivery for children and young people in many areas. I'm pleased by the progress we've made in scrutinising key areas of policy and legislation during the first half of this Assembly. At the outset of the Assembly, we set clear principles and ambitions for our work. One of those principles was that engagement with children and young people should underpin all the work we do, ensuring that their views and experiences are captured in a useful, sensitive and constructive way. We are now at the halfway point of the fifth Assembly, so this provides a perfect opportunity for me to update Members on the work the committee has undertaken on children's matters and how we have engaged with children and young people along the way. I, sadly, won't be able to cover all of these areas during the statement. Instead, I will concentrate on the ones where I believe we have made the biggest impact and have had the most engagement with children.

In our snapshot inquiry into youth services in Wales, more than 1,500 young people gave us their views. The feedback from young people was incredibly clear: when youth work provision disappears from a young person's life, the impact is considerable. This formed an essential part of our findings and recommendations. We were pleased to note the Welsh Government's renewed focus on these services following our report and the direction of travel appears promising, with the recent appointment of an interim youth work board. 

Despite a number of high-profile previous reports relating to advocacy services, the committee remained concerned that the most vulnerable children in Wales were still not being supported to have their voices heard about issues that affected them. This was despite the need for independent advocacy being a key recommendation in the Waterhouse report in the year 2000. The importance of ensuring vulnerable children have an independent advocate cannot be underestimated. So, in October 2016, we undertook a short, focused inquiry into statutory advocacy provision in Wales. We are pleased that, since our report, progress has been made and the committee's scrutiny is widely credited with ensuring that the national model for advocacy has been fully implemented and funded across Wales. 

As part of our scrutiny of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, we held a series of workshops with young people and held a conference for those working directly with children with ALN to help feed in views on how the Bill affected them. This engagement formed a vital part of our scrutiny and provided a clear insight into the needs of those children and how the Bill could be used to enhance the services they receive. One vital way in which the committee improved the Bill was to include a duty on local authorities and NHS bodies to have due regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came as a result of our representations and those of the children's commissioner.

Flying Start is regarded as one of the Welsh Government's flagship early years programmes. We chose to undertake a focused inquiry on the outreach elements of Flying Start because respondents to our 2016 consultation on the first 1,000 days of a child's life highlighted concerns about the programme's reach. Whilst there was general support for the aims of Flying Start, there was concern that the geographical targeting of the programme had the potential to create further inequality by excluding a significant number of children living in poverty. The committee's consideration of this matter led to positive change, particularly in relation to extending the outreach funding, meaning local authorities have more flexibility to choose to use their budgets to provide Flying Start services outside designated postcode areas. With over £600 million spent on Flying Start to date, our committee will continue to shine a light on whether this investment can evidence it is delivering improved outcomes in the early years.

The emotional and mental health of our children and young people is paramount. In our 'Mind over matter' report, we called on the Welsh Government to deliver a step change in the support available. We gathered extensive evidence and concluded that the urgent challenge now lies at the front end of the care pathway, with much more support needed for emotional well-being, resilience and early intervention. Failure to deliver at this end of the pathway will lead to demand for specialist services outstripping supply and will leave a significant proportion of children—the so-called missing middle—without the help they need. Our disappointment with the Welsh Government's original response is well documented, but I welcome the fact that the Cabinet Secretaries have reflected over the summer and established the task and finish group that recently met for the first time to consider a way forward. As a committee, we will not take our foot off the pedal on this and we've requested a revised written response to our recommendations by March next year. We will be keeping a focused eye on the Government's action in this area. 

The issue of the lack of suitable textbooks and other educational resources had been highlighted to the committee as a concern by those across the sector and most importantly by school pupils themselves. The provision of appropriate resources for learners, particularly for GCSE and A-level, is fundamental. The committee therefore undertook work to establish what could be done to improve this. To help understand the problems, we took evidence directly from a number of children through a series of video blogs. Hearing directly from the children helped us understand the nature of the issues they faced and the extent of the problem.

Although not part of the committee's work, on Universal Children's Day it would be remiss of me not to mention the Welsh Youth Parliament. I am grateful to the Llywydd and to the youth parliament project team for keeping me informed on progress. The establishment of the parliament is a genuinely exciting moment in the history of the Assembly. It is a true recognition of the value children and young people have in our democracy and should create meaningful and long-lasting ties between schools, young people and the Assembly. The election, as you know, to the first youth parliament is under way, with votes closing at the end of this week. I want to offer our committee's full support to the youth parliament and its members and I look forward to the committee working with the parliament wherever it can.  

There are many other areas of the committee's work that I could talk about that have impacted on children. We have done much work and we are committed to following through on all our inquiries. A current example of this is the follow-up we are currently undertaking on our perinatal mental health inquiry. Looking ahead, we have a heavy workload, with inquiries on the impact of Brexit on HE and FE and the status of the Welsh baccalaureate, as well as the Childcare Funding (Wales) Bill work ongoing. There's also forthcoming legislation in the pipeline.

The Public Accounts Committee has today published its report on care-experienced children and young people. It is deeply concerning that the report finds that children in care across Wales are being let down because organisations aren't recognising their corporate parenting responsibilities. As part of our work programme, we will look closely at this report and the Government's response. As outlined, the committee will continue its work in relation to 'Mind over matter' and has committed to undertaking inquiries into school funding and obesity in children.

Finally, we will be undertaking work to consider the way in which the rights of the child Measure has operated in practice, and how that legislation might be improved further to put children's rights in Wales on an even firmer footing. We are committed to ensuring that children's rights are not just words on a page—we want to be clear that they're considered, respected and maintained across all Government activity. In closing my statement today, Deputy Presiding Officer, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to our work during this fifth Assembly, but, in particular, our thanks go to the children and young people whose contributions have played such a huge role in helping to shape policy and legislation in Wales. Thank you.

Thank you. I do have a number of speakers, so, if everybody is quite brief, I should get you all in. So, that's entirely up to you. Janet Finch-Saunders.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It's so heartening, actually, to hear the Chair of the CYPE Committee. I know for a fact that your intentions and ambitions for our children in Wales are very genuine and laudable, and certainly your determination is very apparent. So, thank you for the work that you do, and I'm really pleased to be a member of your committee.

We, of course, today celebrate and welcome the UN Universal Children's Day, established in 1954. This year's theme for the day is 'blue', and we all look to build a world where every child is in school, safe from harm and can fulfil their own potential. However, in Wales, we are reminded through our own casework as AMs that the Welsh Labour Government has more to do to ensure that those fundamental aims are fulfilled. The recent children's commissioner's report goes some way in addressing some of the obvious failings, and she is very correct to highlight them. 

The fact that there are no children's rights impact assessments of last year's Welsh Government budget—and this was despite recommendations by the children's commissioner to have impact assessments for three children's issues: school uniform grants, minority ethnic achievement grants, and the all-Wales schools liaison programme. Of particular concern to me in the report is the fact that the Welsh Government have made very little progress in early interventions for children and young people's mental health. And, again, I would like to commend you again, Lynne Neagle AM, in the work that you've done in wanting a step change with the work that you've done previously. We're all very familiar with the inadequacy of provision for behavioural and emotional needs, not actually qualifying for intervention by child and adolescent mental health services, and that is despite many previous recommendations. It remains as of today that there remains little or indeed no evidence that—. Despite much rhetoric in this Chamber from Cabinet members previously, the Labour Government in Wales is not taking its own obligations seriously enough.

I would like to know how the recommendations in this report by the children's commissioner, particularly the red ones, where no recommendation was made on this topic this year, where it states that:

'The Welsh Government and local authorities should ensure appropriate state support for the communication needs for Deaf and hearing impaired children and young people and their families, including accessible and affordable BSL learning opportunities at a range of levels and the employment of staff in schools who are fluent communicators of BSL, to meet individuals’ needs.'

I just thought, in this day and age, that was a basic requirement, but it's one that the Welsh Labour Government still chooses to ignore.

Ending on a positive note, though, we are all heartened by the establishment of a Welsh Youth Parliament. It is a true recognition of our youth and their own value to our society, and I look forward to working with other parties across this Chamber on behalf of the Welsh Conservatives, with my colleague Suzy Davies AM, to ensure that we really do enshrine those children's rights not only just in our thoughts or in our words, but truly in our deeds.

Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for those remarks and for the kind words, which are much appreciated. A number of the issues that you raised were in relation to the children's commissioner's report. As you know, the children's commissioner will be before us on Thursday, and we'll have the opportunity to directly question plus follow up those issues then, and they are all very important issues that she's raised.

I agree with you on the children's rights impact assessments. This has been an ongoing concern for the committee, and you'll be aware that, last week, we held the concurrent meeting with the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee and the Finance Committee, and I'm hoping that, as a group of committees, we can take forward those recommendations to make those impact assessments more meaningful. But what I would say is that there's a reason why children are singled out for a particular impact assessment, and that is because they don't have a vote, they don't have that kind of democratic say, so I think it is particularly important that we ensure that their rights are at the heart of what we do. Thank you for the comments, and I agree with you on the Youth Parliament.

I welcome the statement today. I think it's very important that we do celebrate this day, Universal Children's Day, and it gives us the opportunity to assess where we are in terms of children's rights. I am a member of the committee, and I'd like to thank the Chair for her statement. It gives a flavour of the committee's work, and I think she's covered the areas very comprehensively. I think she does refer as she goes through the different areas to the particular influence that she feels the committee has had on the Government. So, I don't know whether she could comment further on that. I think there are particular areas where there has been considerable influence, and I think it's been very good that we've been able to do the 'Mind over matter' report in particular, and I'd like to congratulate the Chair on her ferret-like nature in following that through—[Laughter.] Terrier, not ferret. [Laughter.] 'Terrier' is a better word. But, seriously, I think you have shown great leadership in that report, and I wonder whether you could comment on how the Welsh Government will respond to that.

As others have said, it is very exciting that we're celebrating the Youth Parliament. The voting is just about to finish, and I think it's a great step forward. I don't know whether she could comment in terms of how the committee could perhaps work with the Commission and with the Youth Parliament to see that move forward. But then I do want to comment that—I don't know whether the committee Chair can comment on the fact—we are really in a very difficult position in relation to children's rights, because we don't know what impact Brexit will have on children's rights, and also we have had the UN poverty report by Philip Alston, which has been referred to here today in the Chamber already. It's extremely critical of the impact of universal credit, and Alston said that levels of child poverty are

'not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster'.

It wasn't very encouraging, I thought, that Amber Rudd's response was to comment on the extraordinary political nature of his language. I wonder whether the Chair could comment on the fact that we are looking at all these areas within Wales where we believe we are making progress, but it's hard going in this climate where the actions of the UK Government are having such a terrible detrimental effect on children in Wales.

Thank you, Julie, for those remarks, and thank you for the ongoing very positive contribution that you make to the committee. I did give a few examples in the statement of where I think that we have been able to secure some change. You referred to 'Mind over matter', and, as you know, the committee was very disappointed with the Welsh Government's response to 'Mind over matter'. But the task and finish group has now been established. I am a member of it, as a fully participating member but retaining with an observer status, so retaining my ability to criticise and call things out if I'm not happy with things, and I will certainly continue to do that. I think that both Cabinet Secretaries, and hopefully across Government—everyone realises that the committee is absolutely determined to see what I think is a comprehensive route map for change in 'Mind over matter' delivered. We're not going to take our foot off the pedal; we're going to keep drilling down on it, because we don't want to hand this over to another committee in another Assembly. The time to deal with this is now.

Thank you for your comments about the Youth Parliament. I'm really keen that, once they're in post, we establish a strong working relationship with them. I think it will be important to listen to them about how they want to engage with us, rather than us saying, 'Well, we're the children's committee; we'd like to do such and such.' But I hope that, as soon as they are in place, we can start to have those discussions and that they know that we're as keen to work with them as possible.

You referred to the UN envoy report, which was certainly a very sobering report last week, with talk of destitution and people in extreme poverty, which of course has a massive impact on children. I hope that, when we do the work on the rights of the child Measure, that will include some scrutiny of the areas around child poverty, which of course are featured by the UN. But I think it also raises challenges for us as an Assembly, because, although things like universal credit have been visited on us by Westminster, we're going to have to try and pick up the pieces as best we can, and a common theme in the committee has been concern about where poverty and child poverty now sits in the Assembly, because it's not with a particular Minister and that does present challenges with scrutinising it. I hope that, going forward, we can look at that, and also with John Griffiths's committee, because we have to—. So many of these problems that we see, like mental health problems, start with people living in poverty, and we have to tackle them.

Thank you very much to Lynne for the statement and for providing this opportunity for us to put a clear focus on children's rights here in Wales tonight. I'm particularly pleased, as I'm sure we all are, that Wales adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2011—the first nation in the UK to do so. It is entirely appropriate that the Welsh Government should publish a review of its commitments to the convention next year, and this will provide us with a direct opportunity, as an Assembly, to scrutinise the implementation of the Measure. As we've heard, the children's commissioner is very critical that no CRIAs were carried out on the current budgetary proposals. Article 4 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child make it a requirement for every level of government to act in a way that is consistent with the convention. It states that there needs to be regular assessment of how budgets will impact on different groups of children, ensuring that the budgetary decisions lead to the best possible outcomes for the greatest possible number of children, also taking into account, as a central part of that process, children who are vulnerable. But the commissioner said last week:

'children’s rights appear to be an "add-on" within this budget',

rather than those rights being part of the analysis from the very outset, with that then leading to the budgetary decisions.

So, yes, the children's commissioner is very critical, and has every right to be so, but, to be fair, she also said that there are few examples of good practice. There are very few examples of governments working systematically to ensure that priority is given to children and children's rights as they draw up their budgets. So, Wales isn't alone in that regard. There are very few examples of states that are truly successful in budgeting in accordance with their commitments to the rights of children. So, why don't we in the Senedd of Wales show the way? We are the first in the UK to adopt the convention. Why can't we be the first Senedd—the first Parliament in the world—to put children's rights firmly at the heart of our budgetary processes? I would like your view, and, more importantly perhaps, the view of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on that particular point. It would be excellent if we were able to support that today, on UN Universal Children's Day.

Thank you to Siân Gwenllian for her comments. I'm very pleased to have her as a member of the committee as well. I completely agree with you on the children's rights issue. It has been a constant theme in the Assembly—that we are concerned that, despite this wonderful start back in 2011, there has been a dilution of that commitment in recent years for what seem like very worthy reasons, with things like the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. But, as I said earlier, there is a reason why we've singled children out, and we have to stick to that really. I hope that we can progress this, working with the other committees.

Another very positive suggestion that came out last week was to look back at the excellent work that was done, when Jane Hutt was Cabinet Secretary for Finance, around children's budgeting, because it isn't enough to just talk about these things; we have to make sure that they happen. I think that it would be wonderful if we, as an Assembly, could make sure that we do continue to lead the way in this area. I would be very, very enthusiastic about that.

I'm also proud to be able to speak on Universal Children's Day in this institution, which has done so much for the rights of children here in the National Assembly for Wales. We can be proud that the rights of children are at the cornerstone of everything we do. The Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 ensured that Wales was the first nation of the United Kingdom to integrate children's rights into domestic law. John F Kennedy once said:

'Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.'

Though I'm sure that this sentiment is shared around the Chamber, I believe that we can all be proud that this Assembly's support for our most valuable resource is not confined to well-meaning statements, but is enshrined in legislation, and, on White Ribbon Day, the legislation around domestic violence, spearheaded by Carl Sargeant, has a valued place in ensuring the rights of the child.

We can also be proud of leading the way with the creation of the Children's Commissioner for Wales in 2001—something that has been replicated in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It's important that we, as politicians, listen to the voices of young people, and that is why I'm delighted to see so many youngsters across Wales engaging with the first election to the Welsh Youth Parliament. So, well done, to all of our candidates and, obviously, good luck to Islwyn.

Although there is much that we can be proud of, we must also acknowledge the challenges that still face too many children in Wales. It is right that we in this place acknowledge the pressures that are currently being placed on youth services, not least by the Tory Government's harmful and cruel austerity agenda passported to local government, which deals with the most vulnerable in our society. It is sobering to hear the UN rapporteur on poverty and human rights in his just-published damning report on poverty and the impact on children across the UK. This is now the second highly damning UN report on the UK Government's social policy, which is, in his own words, creating poverty and homelessness through a cruel and misogynistic welfare system, and in the report's words, failing the rights of the child. I am deeply concerned about the potential rise in youth homelessness, exacerbated by UK welfare reform and the UK Government's regressive policies. 

Despite this harsh backdrop, progressive steps are being taken by this Welsh Government. Just yesterday, I was proud to welcome the First Minister to my constituency in Aberbargoed to see the fantastic collaborative work going on between Caerphilly youth services, the Welsh Government and third sector groups such as Llamau—collaborative working for the individual child —and to announce an additional £10 million of funding for projects to prevent youth homelessness. That is real action and a real initiative. I welcome the Welsh Government's additional funding of £15 million, announced last week, to tackle the rise in children being taken into care. And I ask that all in this Chamber work together and call upon the UK Government to protect the rights of the child and to make another UN report on UK poverty and human rights unnecessary by ending austerity and not furthering the universal credit roll-out fiasco by ending it. I call upon everyone in this Chamber to call upon the UK Government to end that. Thank you.

Lynne Neagle, briefly, to respond.

Can I thank Rhianon Passmore for her comments? I agree that we have a very good record in Wales, one that we can be proud of, but we can't be complacent, especially at a time of austerity when there are such competing priorities. It's incumbent on all of us to do what we can to ensure that the rights of children are central to what we're doing.

Thank you for mentioning youth services. They are crucially important. It was our first inquiry. They're important to the most vulnerable children, but it's also important that we remember that they're there for all children, and that was a very clear message in our inquiry, that this should be universal provision that is open access for all children and young people so that everybody is catered for.

I agree again with your remarks about the UN report. I think it is something that we will have to look at. I hope that it's something that the committees can work together to look at, and I hope that everybody will convey the messages in it, because there is only so much that we can do on some things while we are still having some very adverse welfare reforms inflicted on us. At the end of the day, poverty is such a big driver for all the other issues like mental health problems, family relationship breakdown, et cetera. So, I hope that we can all work together on it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.