I would like to thank all those who took part in our inquiry and our excellent committee clerks for facilitating this follow-up inquiry into rough-sleeping, notwithstanding the passion for this subject shown by our Chair, John Griffiths, who has taken us to meet people with lived experience, which is very humbling.

We all know that we have a homelessness crisis and that the official figures greatly underestimate the number of people forced to sleep rough. We should feel ashamed that even one person is forced to sleep rough on our streets. It is morally reprehensible in the twenty-first century. Of course, the reasons for homelessness are varied and complicated, and are often far more complex than we can imagine. Not having a roof over your head and our follow-up focused upon rough-sleepers with co-occurring mental health and substance misuse issues. We must ensure that homeless people are treated when they go to seek help with the respect and the understanding that they deserve, so that they don't feel that it's an us and them approach. So, culture towards homeless people when they go to services seeking help must change.

It’s a shocking statistic that two thirds of deaths among the homeless are as a result of drug poisoning. When we look at the time an outreach worker has to talk to a person to build up a rapport and gain their trust, it equates to 2.5 minutes, and this is by far inadequate. This is why I was surprised that the Welsh Government did not unreservedly accept all of our recommendations, particularly recommendation 3. And while I am grateful that the Minister has accepted the principle of the recommendation, Welsh Government must do more to work with the UK Government to mitigate the harms from substance misuse.

I'm also disappointed that the Welsh Government is prepared to step back and hand the reins over to local government when it comes to driving cultural change. Our fourth recommendation was made because evidence was given to the committee that the main barrier to delivering truly integrated services was a lack of leadership and a silo approach. Although the Minister has said that she accepts the principle of our recommendation that Welsh Government takes a lead role in driving cultural change, in the same breath they indicate that Welsh local authorities are to step into that space occupied by Welsh Government direction in the past. This is not leadership, it's abdication. The last thing we need is 22 different approaches to integrated services. Part of the reason we have such a rough-sleeping crisis is because of different organisations taking different approaches. Co-occurring mental health and substance misuse get overlooked in the scramble to tackle the housing need. Public Health Wales told the committee that barriers exist within the health departments also. It is therefore vital that Welsh Government provide the leadership, direction and the funding in order tackle the complex issues surrounding rough-sleeping.

Unless there is clear direction from the top, we are not going to get anywhere and the successor to our committee will be discussing this issue once more in a few years' time. Welsh Government are very good at coming up with plans, but it's the delivery that counts. I really hope that this time is different because some of the most vulnerable people in our society are really depending upon us. Thank you.