I thank very much David Melding for his contribution and for his welcoming of the announcements today, and I really would like to begin by thanking David for the work that he does, and he has done for many years, as a real champion for children and young people in care and leaving care. I commend him and, again, thank him for the work that he does on the ministerial advisory group as well.

I'll address immediately the issue raised regarding targets. When the First Minister announced the additional £10 million last year, he said it would be his intention to eradicate youth homelessness in Wales in 10 years, so that would be by 2027. I am under no illusions as to how difficult a task that is going to be.

In the first instance, it's very hard to grasp a figure of how many young people are homeless, because many of them don't necessarily identify themselves as being homeless. If they feel unable to stay within the family home and are sleeping on a friend's sofa, for example, they don't identify as homeless, but we would certainly consider them to be so. Equally, young people can become homeless as a result of the family losing their home as well. So, we understand that the estimate of young homeless people is around 7,000, and that figure is a figure given to us by the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign. I think that really does give us an idea of the magnitude of the job ahead of us.

David Melding referred to the St David's Day fund. I'm really pleased that we're able to add additional funding to this, because we have seen the impact that it's already been making. Since its launch just last year, it's helped over 1,900 care-experienced children and young people to receive funding to support their transition into adulthood. Case studies show that the funding has been really used very flexibly and creatively by local authorities to meet the needs of those young people in the same way that birth parents might support their children.

So, for example, the fund has been used to pay for driving lessons to enable care leavers to access employment and education; bridging payments to enable continuity of tenancy and residence, or due to an unexpected shortfall in benefits, for example; enrolment on courses; materials for study; laptops for further and higher education studies; and also clothing and uniforms for work as well—so, all the kinds of costs that young people can incur in their move on to adult life. So, it's a really exciting fund, and I'm glad to see the difference that it's already making.

One of the really exciting parts of the statement today for me, I think, is that innovation fund. I really do want to have that space where we can come forward with good ideas, because one thing I've learned in the year that I've been working closely with this sector is that it is a sector brimming with good ideas and a desire to move forward and look at solutions and opportunities. So, I'm really looking forward to the kind of schemes that will come forward.

Just for clarity, there'll be a bidding process for that funding, and the criteria are currently finalised for that. The funding sits within the homelessness prevention grants, and there'll be a panel within the Welsh Government to assist us in determining which will be the successful programmes, but, absolutely, housing first could be one of those of kinds of programmes.

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to visit the Rock Trust in Scotland, which was the first ever housing first project in the UK. It started in 2017, so it's still early days there, but they are very enthusiastic about what's being achieved there. I liked it when David Melding used the phrase 'whatever it takes', because that, actually, is the Rock Trust's approach to housing first—it is about whatever it takes.

I've also been very clear with local authorities that our housing legislation must be seen within the spirit of it as well, rather than just discharging the duties to the letter of the law. An example would be a young person who risks homelessness. There's an immediate intervention by the local authority to try to prevent that homelessness, but, for one reason or another, it doesn't work out. Well, they've discharged their duties, but, actually, the spirit of the law would mean that they keep going back to ensure that that young person doesn't become homeless. So, we've been very clear with local authorities on that.

Again, the point that David Melding raises about wide-ranging understanding of the risks of youth homelessness and how to identify it is important, and is, again, something that has been identified as suitable for further funding in my statement today. Thank you.