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.