3. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that all local authorities and schools are using the new guidance on talking about suicide and self-harm in schools? OAQ55100

Lynne, since you and I launched that guidance in September, hard copies have been distributed to schools, and it's also available online on the Hwb platform and on the Welsh Government website. We are working with partners to raise awareness of this issue as part of our whole-school approach to emotional well-being.

Thank you, Minister. And of course, I very much welcome the excellent guidance that has been published. I'm also really pleased that you've made a commitment to including the guidance in the new framework that is being published on a whole-school approach to mental health. But in the meantime, what more can we do to ensure that all schools and all local authorities are aware of the guidance and are actively promoting it?

Lynne, back in September, the existence of the guidance was publicised in our weekly newsletter, Dysg, to all schools. We have used a variety of Welsh Government platforms to draw attention, not just to schools, but to the wider community, of the availability of the guidance. I'm very pleased to say that we've had significant traffic, with regard to clicks, on that particular guidance on our Hwb website, and we've had numerous requests for further copies of the guidance from individual schools. At the end of March, we'll be holding a conference with all secondary school headteachers and I have asked that the event is used to both further promote the availability of the guidance and to consider its usefulness and take-up by those schools.

First of all, Minister, I'd like to thank you and Lynne Neagle for all the work that you are doing in this area, because it is vitally important. Lynne touched on a question that I wanted to bring up, about how we are making sure that it gets out to secondary schools and primary schools, because of course one of the big issues I have concerns over is the use of social media and the way that social media really does drive vulnerable children—particularly at an age when they've got so much happening in their lives. I'd like to see that happen in primary schools, that kind of education on social media.

So, really, I have two questions. The first is to re-emphasise the point that Lynne made about how do you get it through to all of our local authorities. Today, we've had a very disappointing report on Pembrokeshire County Council schools. So, if they're struggling to do educational standards, how are they struggling to do the well-being standards? Secondly, specifically on social media, because I think it does cause so much angst, is there anything more that the Welsh Government can do?

Presiding Officer, I absolutely agree with Angela Burns about the importance of educating our children on the potential harms and the safe use of the internet and social media channels. Just yesterday was Safer Internet Day, as I'm sure the Member was aware, and I was delighted to join finalists in the Welsh Government's Safer Internet Day competition, where both primary and secondary schools had been producing films to highlight the dangers of inappropriate internet and social media use amongst their peers. I'm sure the Presiding Officer would be delighted that it was Ysgol Bro Pedr who won the primary school competition, and I was delighted to meet them and to watch their film yesterday. So, schools are very alive and alert. They're taking very proactive steps to work with their children and students in this regard. And of course, our digital competence framework, which is the first part of our curriculum for reform, focuses very heavily on ensuring that children know how to use social media and digital skills and the internet in a safe way, and what to do if they are unhappy or unsettled by anything that they see, or see other people doing, using those platforms. But you're absolutely right: there is a close correlation between mental ill-health and distress and some of the stuff that our children and young people are accessing online.