Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 3 December 2019.
I thank David Melding for those important points. I entirely agree with him about the importance of transition and that young people who are already getting help in one part of the system—that the next move that they will make within the education ladder, the work that has been invested with them in one place, is properly translated to the next place that they intend to go, so that that transition is as smooth as it possibly can be.
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales published its position statement on well-being and health in June of this year. It has a series of actions that it proposes from the position statement that it will work on, together with NUS in Wales—the National Union of Students—to make sure that young people with autism who are studying in higher education have all of the help that they need.
I recall the Swansea incident to which David Melding refers. Within the last two weeks, I met a young woman who is studying at Swansea University today who was very positive indeed about the help that she was receiving to make sure that her autistic condition was recognised and understood. She was getting some help through the disabled student support allowance that we have here in Wales—3,400 Welsh students benefiting from that £8 million fund. But the money was a small part of what she felt she was getting. It was the understanding that she was experiencing from the university, from her tutors and others, that she felt was supporting her to make the very best of her abilities and to get everything she wanted out of her higher education experience. Better transition planning, making sure that the things that David Melding referred to are done, would be of help in any young person's experience.