4. Will the First Minister make a statement on actions taken by the Welsh Government to improve mental health services for young people? OAQ54645

I thank David Rees for that, Llywydd. We continue to increase our investment to improve mental health services for young people. This investment is part of the Welsh Government's broader programme of work with a range of partners to respond to the changing mental health needs of children and young people.

Can I thank the First Minister for his answer? Obviously, as a former health Minister, he's fully aware of the challenges that child and adolescent mental health services face over these difficult times. But can I also ask a question about the assessments that are required? I'm sure he, like myself, receives many constituents coming to him expressing deep concern, frustration and desperation at the challenges that their children face in actually being assessed. Sometimes, those assessments don't require CAMHS services, but require other mental health services that stop them going into the CAMHS. Can you tell us what actions you're taking to ensure that those children are able to get access to those assessments and get access to those services and therapies that will avoid them having a need for CAMHS later in life?

Well, I thank David Rees for that and I completely agree that the system has needed reorientation so that it focuses on lower intensity services that prevent the escalation of young people to the specialist service that CAMHS represents. Indeed, Llywydd, I remember many times on the floor of the Assembly as the health Minister explaining that sending a young person straight to a specialist mental health service when what they really needed was a different sort of lower intensity service where they could talk to an adult about the difficult business of growing up—that that was a better investment in the future of those young people. And, as research by Hafal, the mental health charity here in Wales has demonstrated, that's what young people themselves tell us that they want.

That's why, since that period, we have invested in those services—the whole-school approach that has flown from the work done by the committee led by Lynne Neagle, where we're investing £2.5 million in bringing that about. The school counselling service that we have in schools: 11,365 young people benefited from that service last year, Llywydd; 87 per cent of them needed no onward referral, and only 3.5 per cent of them needed a referral to CAMHS. Now, that is exactly the point I think that David Rees is making, that, where you have suitable services there that can respond rapidly to a young person's needs, then it will very often mean that that young person doesn't need to have a more intensive and more specialist service. Where those things aren't available and aren't put in place in a timely way, the risk is that that young person's condition worsens and they're accelerated into the more intense end of the spectrum. That's what we would want to avoid. We'd want to make sure that the local primary mental health support service, for example—a great success story, I think, of this Assembly, brought about as a result of the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010—. There are now 2,384 more referrals every month to that primary care service than there were when it began in 2014. It's turned out to be immensely popular amongst patients, and it does what David Rees said: it gets alongside a young person—because it deals with people under the age of 18 as well as adults—it gets alongside them early, and tries to make sure that difficulties can be resolved without those problems becoming ones that require the intensity and the specialist knowledge that CAMHS itself provides. 

The latest data shows, First Minister, that 335 individuals waited over 56 days from referral to a local primary mental health support services assessment. Now, this is the highest number on record since the start of the fifth Assembly in May 2016. Now, sadly, around a third of the people waiting over 56 days for assessment fall within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and I can tell you here today that a number of these actually fall within my own constituency. I have, on regular occasions, young people, and, actually, people of all ages, coming to me in absolute desperation because they cannot access any service or support for mental health issues, and some reporting suicidal thoughts.

Now, in a recent freedom of information request, the Welsh Government has spent around £82 million on intervention and improvement support to this particular health board. Now, this doesn't include the £2,000 a day that my colleague Paul Davies mentioned—this is £83 million just on the technicalities and the processes around intervention and improvement. Now, First Minister, I would be the first here to commend you if I thought that there were those real improvements going on in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, but I'm sorry to have to tell you today: you need to get a grip of this. Your Minister has been asked to resign on numerous occasions, and I can tell you now, as we approach this general election, when you come to north Wales, the people will tell you exactly how you are failing my patients, my constituents, in Aberconwy and the greater people across north Wales. It is an absolute disgrace that you can stand there and defend £2,000—

Ask your question, Janet Finch-Saunders.

—a day on one person's pay. So, with waiting times for assessments that are now deteriorating, despite immense investment—

Just ask your question. I've asked you once.

Okay. What measures are you taking to scrutinise the actual money that your Minister has allowed to be spent on these improvement interventions? What scrutiny are you undertaking as the First Minister to ensure that you are not literally just pouring this money down the drain? We are not seeing the improvements, and I want you, as First Minister—

I think the question—. The question has been asked. Thank you.

—to take some responsibility.

Llywydd, I can tell you that, when I go to north Wales, what people tell me is that they wish they had an Assembly Member who would speak up for the health service in north Wales, that they wish that they had Assembly Members, particularly from the Conservative Party, who would occasionally, just occasionally, find one good word to say for the health service that they depend upon.

And I must say, Llywydd, it's absolute nonsense for the Member to refer to £83 million being spent on technicalities. The technicalities she is referring to is the money that we have provided to make sure that staff at Betsi Cadwaladr go on being paid and that patients in Betsi Cadwaladr go on being treated. I will defend every penny of the money that we have spent because your constituents, as a result, are getting the treatment that the health service provides. The fact that you criticise—that you criticise—a Welsh Government prepared to find extra money for patients in north Wales shows me just what a distorted view of priorities the Conservative Party in north Wales has.