I'd like to look first of all this afternoon at those overarching issues. In terms of the early years, we continue to shape and improve the lives of all children in Wales. Over 36,000 children are now using the Flying Start programme, which focuses on early intervention and prevention, working with whole families in order to prevent problems from getting worse, and bringing services together in order to improve the opportunities available for children.

There is a responsibility on the whole of Government to ensure that more affordable homes of high quality are available. We are still on track to provide 20,000 affordable homes during this term, and councils are building homes once again. As we have heard in the previous statement, some people do need intensive assistance to break the cycle of homelessness and rough-sleeping, and there are seven new projects in the Housing First programme that are identified in this annual report. They do exactly that: they break that cycle and offer a safer future to those people who have a history of regular rough-sleeping.

Reducing the impacts of poverty is a priority for all Ministers, as is clear in this year’s draft budget. We have increased our pupil development grant to £5 million, we have extended our support for period dignity by providing free sanitary products for all schools in Wales, and we have enhanced access to free school meals in order to reduce the impacts of universal credit.

Fair work that is rewarding is still the best way of coming out of poverty, and it is crucial for any prosperous nation. The apprenticeships provide a route to qualification and provide a means for everyone to enhance their skills. We are on track to deliver our commitment for 100,000 apprenticeships of all ages.

This Chamber has argued for some time that identifying and dealing with mental health issues is more than just a health matter. In 2019 and 2020, we increased the mental health budget to £679 million, and we are taking mental health way beyond simply health services—in the workplace, through our whole-school approach, and in talking strategies.

In social care, we increased the funding that can be retained before people have to pay for residential care to £50,000, which is the highest level in the UK. We did that two years earlier than the original proposal.

Wales is leading the world in recycling rates, but we need to do more by moving towards a more circular economy and contributing as much as we can to decarbonisation. Already, half of our electricity comes from renewable sources, and we are establishing a marine energy sector that is world leading. Our activity in promoting sustainable means of land management contributes towards biodiversity in our nation, and to safeguarding the excellent environmental assets that we are fortunate to hold.

And, finally, in terms of these all-Government priorities, we are drawing everything that we do together in order to restore biodiversity the length and breadth of Wales, by promoting sustainable farming, of course, but doing all of those little things too, along roadsides and verges, in creating schools and colleges for the twenty-first century and in using health service land to restore species.