We now move to the short debate, and I call on Rhianon Passmore to speak on the topic she has chosen. Rhianon.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Perhaps now more than ever we are truly beginning to understand the importance of physical activity to aid an individual's mental and social well-being. Today, across Wales, boys, girls, men and women of all ages, all backgrounds and all sizes will have taken the opportunity in this late and beautiful summer sunshine we are enjoying to indulge in the elemental pursuits of walking, jogging and running, and yet it's not confined to the summer.

In less than three weeks, the capital city of Wales will hold the United Kingdom's second biggest half marathon, and on Sunday, Swansea will host the Swansea Bay 10k run. And this year alone, we have seen Welsh Athletics and their partners showcase high-profile communal and social running events across our nation, ranging from the Cardiff Bay 10k, the Newport 10k, the Newport half and the Newport marathon, the Porthcawl—and I could go on. These events are characterised by mass participation running with so many of the runners running not just for themselves but to raise money for charities and causes close to their families' hearts. It is social and sociable running. And you will see often on the streets large crowds gathered to cheer and will on the runners, because running is not easy, whatever your standard or level of physical fitness. The crowds will on the runners and the runners take part for many, many reasons, but also in part to raise themselves to the challenge. There is a well-known saying, 'You run your own race', and as in life we are challenged to raise ourselves to be the very best that we can be, the same is true of nations. In Wales, we challenge ourselves to be the very best that we can be.

Islwyn is a proud Gwent valley where we also have a strong tradition of running pedigree. Local running clubs like the famous Islwyn runners are pivotal in their community life and continue to reach out to new people, with new initiatives to encourage wider participation. Islwyn runners are currently running a project called Future Flyers, which is targeting women to start running for the very first time. Islwyn runners meet twice a week every Tuesday and Thursday in Pontllanfraith—in case anybody's interested—and the sessions are free for participants with all abilities and all are welcome. The inclusiveness of the club and of running can be evidenced by the fact that over 50 women take part during sessions each week. Only last Sunday, the Islwyn Running Club hosted the Scenic 7, a seven-mile road race at Cwmcarn forest drive. You will have heard me say relentlessly the importance of the full reopening of the Cwmcarn forest drive, not only for Islwyn, but for Wales and internationally. Events like last Sunday's bear true witness to how we can holistically transform communities—a mass participation event for the entire family held within some of the most stunning natural landscapes that our nation possesses. Come and visit us.

The Welsh Labour Government has consistently encouraged the benefits of physical activity and running to the next generation of Wales, and in recent years, we have seen the daily mile officially launched in Wales. This initiative was officially launched in Islwyn, in Pontllanfraith Primary School in Blackwood by the then public health Minister Rebecca Evans and the founder of the daily mile, Elaine Wyllie. This groundbreaking initiative sees primary-aged children run, walk or jog for 15 minutes every day in school. The joy of running ensures that it is inclusive, simple and free, with no equipment or set-up required. In Islwyn, the list of the schools signed up to the Daily Mile include Pantside, Cefn Fforest, Pengam, Ysgol Trelyn, Fleur de Lis, Bryn, Pontllanfraith, Libanus, Ysgol Cwm Gwyddon, Waunfawr, Ty Sign, Ty Isaf, and more to follow. Plus, it is happening within the Newbridge area in the childminding settings of Hannah's Bananas, assisting the holistic offer for childcare applicants.

The daily mile has the potential for numerous benefits beyond simply improving fitness. And like music, and like musical access, it can help children become more engaged with the outdoors, build self-esteem and confidence as well as help developing team-working skills. The Fitbit and counting steps is not the preserve of adults, and so I'm heartened to see more and more children consciously aware of the need to be active, as a former teacher and educator, especially with all the temptations they face of staying sedentary in front of screens and now a myriad of devices, potentially, for many hours. So, from the daily mile, athletics within the physical education curriculum, to promoting the very successful Penallta park run every Saturday morning, it is good for my constituents. The simple and stunning popularity of parkrun throughout the United Kingdom is now spreading across the world. It's an event that I will be working on with my local communities to bring about the first parkrun in Islwyn.

The addition of junior parkruns on a Sunday at some venues is further testimony to how running is for everyone. Many parkruns incorporate the Couch to 5K programme that follows the Welsh national health service plan, thus encouraging people on the journey from sedentary activity to being able to run 5K by the end of the programme. Our council has ambitious plans for running on the school fields located at Rhiw Syr Dafydd Primary School in Oakdale in Islwyn, and the construction has been developed with a track and field consultant, including the sports governing body, Welsh Athletics. The new sports facilities within this proposal will provide an opportunity for 90 schools and the community to use an athletics track that will assist in supporting the increase in demand. And it will be a further opportunity within Islwyn to support the drive to increase participation to include women and girls through targeted interventions, and through partnership working with the authority's sports development team, Sport Caerphilly, Disability Sport Wales, and a number of other key partners.

But it is the lack of facilities that will always be a barrier to further elite participation, and in a decade of austerity, where the Tories have sought to squeeze Welsh and local government until the pips squeak, what further financial support can, and will, the Welsh Government give to aid Caerphilly County Borough Council in ensuring that Islwyn's future runners are given the opportunities they deserve?

A new athletics running track located in Islwyn would offer the wider Caerphilly County Borough Council area, former Objective funded areas, and my communities, the facilities they crave—a facility fit for the twenty-first century, a facility fit to serve the approximate 10 social running clubs of the area as well as the wider social running community. And I would, indeed, welcome an opportunity beyond this debate to discuss with the Deputy Minister this and the opportunities the Welsh Government has to transform Islwyn for her people. And I know that the Deputy Minister and the Welsh Government is committed to doing all that they can to make Islwyn run happy, and our aim together must be to make Wales a happy, healthier country. In running, there is an expression of encouragement that states, 'I know you've got this'. So, Deputy Minister, I know that you've got this. Thank you.

Thank you. Can I now call on the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism to reply to the debate? Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

Thank you very much, Rhianon. It is a pleasure to have an opportunity at the end of today's session to discuss an issue that gives me great enjoyment personally. If I could start on a personal note, I am a runner myself, not as swift as I should be, perhaps, but my aim is to complete 5 km three times a week, but not all at the same time, of course; they are separate 5 km. So, this opportunity for me to come out, as it were, as one who continues to run in both north and south Wales does demonstrate that I myself am entirely supportive of what Rhianon has said. Certainly, I would be more than willing to meet with her to discuss what she has put forward today in terms of the needs of Islwyn in this regard.

​But what I would like to say this afternoon is to respond in more general terms about the importance of physical activity, and to turn this short debate, as Rhianon has already done, to some sort of appeal that each and every one of us in Wales should learn the importance of regular physical activities for both of physical and mental health, and the benefits that they provide. As has already been stated, exercise reduces the risk of ill-health and it is a means of managing existing conditions. The evidence is clear, as it the importance of regular physical activity. If physical activity were a drug, it would be considered to be miraculous—a miracle cure for our health—because it can prevent and assist with so many conditions.

But, as well as being good for individual health, as you said, Rhianon, physical exercise is also a means of bringing individuals together to enjoy activities in a social context. It strengthens community ethos too, and this is exactly what it does when runners come together. This is what it does, too, when individual runners simply pass each other on a daily basis as they jog. People get to know each other because they share physical activity as an interest. Feelings of loneliness and isolation in society are increasing, and participating in physical activity in public, with the appropriate attire, obviously, and with the appropriate footwear, too, which is very important as one grows older—. I won’t advertise a particular shop in Cardiff where I buy running shoes regularly, but it’s important that we have comfortable and safe footwear. And the way we prepare for running is also crucially important.

Unfortunately, the situation we are facing, according to the latest information we have as a Government in the national survey for Wales, is that only 53 per cent of adults—so, a little over half of Welsh adults—say that they undertook 150 minutes of physical activity in the previous week. I don’t want to sound like a nonconformist preacher—although we have an excellent nonconformist preacher listening to us, and thank you for doing so—and I don’t want to condemn this, but it is something that people should reconsider. What is particularly worrying is that men are more likely to exercise than women and that people living in more deprived areas and people over the age of 75 are also less likely to be undertaking any sort of physical activity than any other part of the population. So, that is contrary to what one would hope to see in terms of the value of exercise.

So, increasing physical activity rates is a priority for the Welsh Government, and I, as Deputy Minister in this role, have a particular responsibility in this area, and it’s a responsibility I take very seriously indeed. We are committed to increasing levels of physical activity and, in order to deliver that, we have established a physical activity partnership for Wales. This was one of the most constructive meetings that I have attended, having been in this role for almost two years, in that officials and leaders at Public Health Wales, Sport Wales and Natural Resources Wales have come together, along with Welsh Government officials, to encourage and support collaboration on all levels. I think this is the way forward in this area, namely that the public bodies that work on our behalf in various different spheres—Public Health Wales in health, Sport Wales from the point of view of my department, and NRW from the point of view of the department responsible for the environment—come together and work together. I am pleased to announce that there will be a national summit in the spring for these bodies to come together to develop an action plan.

As I have said very often in this place, I am not a fan of what's described as a strategy. I'm more of a fan of what one would call 'action plans', and that's why this partnership is so very important, working on a number of priorities to improve data and to encourage behavioural change by developing what we are calling a 'physical activity observatory'. That will then develop communications and campaigning work, and will integrate our programmes in schools, Dragon Sports, the healthy schools network and eco-schools so that all of this can be a comprehensive offer of physical activity to support the new curriculum. I'm very grateful to the Assembly committee, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. Following their inquiry into the physical activity of children and young people, we can make progress with the recommendations made by that committee, and these steps will become an integral part of the 'Healthy Weight, Healthy Wales' action plan, which will support the work of improving health across our population.

I was very pleased to hear Rhianon talk about the development of the daily mile, because I have had an opportunity to go to a number of schools to see the daily mile in action. I'm going to be slightly parochial and just mention a school in a wonderful area called Llansantffraid Glan Conwy at the bottom of the Conwy valley, where I live, and seeing the pupils there enjoying running along a school playing field that wasn't particularly flat—they could run up and they could run down, but they were really enjoying themselves, and they understood what they were doing and why they were doing it. Thirty-six per cent of our schools, that's 450 schools, take part in the daily mile, so there is some scope for improvement there, and I would encourage that.

We have already also committed to increasing the number of children who cycle, walk or scoot to school, and we are re-tendering for an active travel to school programme. I have to say, as a grandfather to four young children of school age, although the eldest has just gone to secondary school very recently, it is something that I find very concerning to see the dangers outside so many schools when people choose to use cars and to drive them as close as possible to schools. I won't name individual schools, but I've seen it happening in north and south Wales, and there have been accidents—serious accidents—in that situation. Therefore, we need to implement the aims of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, including more safe routes to school, in order to encourage people to use those routes rather than using cars driven by parents or family to take children to school and to pick them up.

Our schools have a crucial role to play in encouraging children and young people to undertake more physical activity, and a great deal of work has been done, including provision within the new curriculum. One of the four purposes is that learners within the new curriculum develop as healthy, confident individuals, and that does mean taking part in more physical activity and being able to use knowledge on the impact of exercise and diet on physical and mental health, and all of the benefits that can be derived from that. Physical activity and sports create powerful opportunities to change communities, as Rhianon has said, bringing people together, and that is why we have, as a Government, already been investing in this area. In 2018-19, we provided over £21 million—£21.64 million—to Sport Wales, within their total budget of £43.24 million. Of that sum, £16 million is for community sport work. That's a very clear indication of the Government's priorities.

National sport governing bodies are also determined to support us as we create an active Wales through their work on community sport. May I particularly praise Welsh Athletics? In 2015, they launched their social running programme, Run Wales. I am happy to wear red waterproofs with ‘Run Wales’ writ large on them, following participation in the launch of that particular activity. The programme has had a huge impact since its inception. There are now 331,000 adults regularly running throughout Wales. There’s been an increase from 176,000 adults in 2009. So, that progress is still being made in terms of the numbers that do run, and the success of the Welsh Athletics programmes comes from supportive and inclusive running for individuals and groups who choose to run.

We want people to enjoy improved health and wellbeing through enhanced outdoor recreation and more active lifestyles. I particularly enjoyed Rhianon referring to Cwmcarn. It’s a very special place. I have been there a number of times and was there recently, and I look forward to all of that being reopened. I am sure that running in that area will form a part of that. But I also wish to praise people who perhaps don’t feel that they want to run but are walkers, and I have had an opportunity to walk with the Social Strollers in Treorchy and elsewhere during my time in this post.  

But, to summarise, all of the funding that we have invested—the announcement made by the Minister for Health and Social Services and I in June—has highlighted 17 projects in the healthy and active fund, worth £5.4 million. We’re also working with the health department on social prescribing, if I have the terminology right—and I do look at the GP across the Chamber. This links people with community assets, giving them power to manage their own health and well-being. The national exercise referral scheme has been a scheme that we certainly believe will contribute to ageing well in Wales. 

So, thank you very much to Rhianon for giving me an opportunity to come out as a runner, albeit an older runner who runs at a reasonable level. But may I also thank her for her description of the importance of running? Let us make it part of the duty of each and every one of us as Assembly Members and as members of the Government to run Wales always. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and that brings today's proceedings to a close. Thank you. 

The meeting ended at 18:14.