1. What action is the Welsh Government taking to support mental health provision in schools? OAQ54591

Thank you, Alun. Today I launched the formal consultation on an updated draft of the school and community-based counselling operating toolkit. This is an integral part of our work to embed a whole-school approach to emotional well-being, led jointly by the Minister for health and myself. 

I'm grateful to you for that, Minister. You will remember a few weeks ago, I was very grateful to you, spending time at my old school, of course, of Tredegar comprehensive. During that visit you spent some time talking with the school council, and you will remember that the thrust of their questions to you were on issues around well-being and mental health. And I thought the conversation you had with the school council was a very good, strong and powerful conversation, and they, I'm sure, will welcome the statement that you made earlier today. But how can you build on this and make a more holistic approach, create a more holistic approach, to ensuring that the mental health and well-being of young people and children in school continues to be a priority both for the schools and for this Government?

Well, thank you, Alun. I was very pleased to visit Tredegar comprehensive with you, although slightly disappointed not to see your photograph on the wall, amongst other notable ex-pupils of the school. [Laughter.] But I have to say the conversations that I had with the pupils at Tredegar are ones that I have with school pupils constantly. I've yet to go to a school council meeting where the issue of mental health and well-being isn't at the top of the agenda. And we are, of course, aware that the Youth Parliament regards mental health and well-being as one of its priorities for its term. What's important is that this Government is investing, in this year alone, £2.5 million to embed activity across a whole range of whole-school approaches, including additional resources to cut waiting times for school counselling appointments. And, as a Government, we are determined to work with schools, and those in the middle tier who support our schools, to ensure that mental health and well-being is indeed taken as not just an element of the curriculum, but underpins a culture of how education operates in our country. 

Minister, a survey by the mental health charity Mind Cymru of over 3,000 young people aged between 11 and 19 found that one in seven young people described their mental health as either poor or very poor. Almost half of the young people surveyed said that they would not know where to go to access support within their schools, and more than half did not even feel confident approaching a teacher or other school staff if they needed help. Minister, what is your response to Mind Cymru's call that mental health and well-being be made a statutory part of the national curriculum for all learners in schools in Wales?

Well, Oscar, it's disappointing to hear those statistics because for the academic year 2017-18, over 11,000 young people benefited from the school counselling service. But we do know that, for some young people, there are barriers to accessing that service. That's why we are, as I said, putting new resources forward to local authorities to look at ways in which we can address more collaborative arrangements with other counselling providers rather than just traditional services, for instance, online services, which might make it easier for some children to address and to raise problems that they're experiencing. 

With regard to the new curriculum, one of the six areas of learning and experience will be health and well-being, and there will be ample opportunity, and indeed an expectation, that that area of learning and experience will afford teachers and other professionals working alongside our schools to deliver really effective lessons in mental health and well-being, including encouraging a habit of help-seeking behaviour if people feel that they need to seek help. 

As you may be aware, I've been looking recently at the issue of neurodevelopmental conditions, and I'm discovering that many children with neurodevelopmental conditions who are on the autism spectrum as well get referred to mental health services—to child and adolescent mental health services. Sometimes there is a co-occurring mental health problem, but often other specialist services are required. So, do you have a policy on screening for neurodevelopmental conditions in schools? Do you think it would make sense to screen pupils who present with serious mental health conditions, or substance use problems, children who are excluded, or at risk of being excluded, screening them for neurodevelopmental conditions? Because there are treatments available, and, for some people, they are very, very effective. But many of our kids who have this need are not having this need being met. They're not getting the screening, they're not getting the right diagnosis, and therefore they're not getting the treatment. Is there something you can do about this?

Well, I think the first aspect to respond appropriately to the needs of those children is to ensure that their particular learning needs are identified early in their school career. And that's why this Government is spending resources on ensuring that more and more of our professionals are provided with training to spot signs of a range of different factors that could affect a child's well-being and their ability to learn, and to be able to seek help from other professionals, if appropriate, to meet those children's individual learning needs. But I'm happy to meet with the Member to discuss the use of screening tools and whether there is a strong evidence base that that will make a difference.