8. Will the First Minister provide an update on the work of the ACE Support Hub in Wales? OAQ54703

Yes. The adverse childhood experiences support hub continues to provide expert advice and support to public services such as education, health and housing, to help them to operate in a trauma-informed way.

Thank you, Minister. I was very pleased to visit the ACE support hub last week and to meet with the small team there who are doing such important and transformative work in ensuring that there is that good awareness of trauma-informed working in Wales. However, I'm very conscious that the funding for the hub is coming to an end in the near future. So, what assurances can you give that not only will that important work be able to continue, but that the Welsh Government will look at ensuring that that work is fully embedded across Welsh Government? Most importantly of all, what can we do to ensure that we actually reduce the numbers of adverse childhood experiences in Wales in the first place so that that work is less necessary?

That, indeed, is part of the point and purpose of setting up the hub in the first place—to try to make sure that we do embed that learning to help in trying to ensure that we have fewer ACEs taking place, but we're actually intervening at an earlier point to help support children and their families.

I can say, in terms of the budget, it is an active consideration for Ministers and as soon as we're in a position to have our budget published, I expect we'll have some positive news for the ACE hub and its continued work right across public services.

Thank you, Minister.