5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services: The Loneliness and Isolation Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 11 February 2020.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 4:28, 11 February 2020

I really welcome your statement today, but I want to particularly focus on 16 to 24-year-olds and loneliness, and to recognise, as it says in your statement, that 60 per cent of that population do suffer some loneliness at some stage in their lives. Unemployment, of course, is a main driver for that, and there are things that the Welsh Government is doing in terms of training and education that will help keep young people engaged in the workplace or any other opportunities and chances that they have. And some of those are going to perhaps be volunteering in, particularly, community activities where they live.

It's already been said that local authorities, investment in community provision for young people, has seen, over the years, some budget cuts due to the austerity agenda, and that, again, does feed in to this isolation and loneliness, and particularly in rural areas like the area that I cover.

But one area where community activity is probably extremely prominent is sport, and that is fantastic, in the main, for young males in particular, but we all know that the evidence shows us—and there's been plenty of evidence presented—that young women around the age of 15 or 16 do, in the main, drop out of actively being engaged in sport. So, I wonder whether this group might look at, perhaps, some way of engaging, or keeping young girls engaged in that.

I welcome the £1.4 million that the Government is going to invest within the next three years, and I do welcome the advisory group that will work right across all of the Government. I would identify—and Rhun has already identified—that cyber bullying is probably the major part of isolation. When young people, or anybody, but I'm talking particularly about young people, feel bullied even in their home, where in the past young people would have been able to shut the door and know that they felt quite safe, cyber bullying actually impacts right into where they exist and how they live. So, I'd be really interested to see if any work is being done around that and whether the Government would look at any possible schemes that would encourage exchanging ideas or maybe even some equipment that would allow young people to have opportunities to trial some activities that might otherwise be unavailable to them because of poverty.