Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 12 February 2020.
You're right, Mick: we need to ensure that any Government investment and policy response to promoting children's good mental health and well-being needs to be on the basis of evidence. And there are a variety of ways in which we do that. We have the formal statistics that are collated as a part of the formal counselling service. Most recently, in reporting back to the 'Mind over matter' stakeholder group, representatives of the Association of Directors of Education in Wales had canvassed each local authority and had asked for details of services across Wales that both local authorities and schools were employing. And, of course, we also hear from young people themselves, via our support for the healthy schools questionnaire that goes out to young people, where they themselves have an opportunity to express how they're feeling about their own mental health and well-being. So, we use a variety of sources and data collection points to establish a firm evidence base for investment in this important area.