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.