Thank you, acting Deputy Presiding Officer and thank you very much for the contributions to the debate today and the support that has been shown for children's rights. As we know, children's rights are entitlements—entitlements that each and every child and young person in Wales should know about and should be supported in realising.

Thank you to Laura Anne Jones and to Siân Gwenllian for speaking so powerfully and sensitively about the needs of children and young people in Wales. Laura Anne Jones in particular drew attention to young carers, and I really think that this is an area that is of great concern to us all. I was very pleased that we were able to announce an extra £1 million today to help carers, including young carers, with some of the small items that they may need to help them manage, because as Laura Anne Jones said, we know that this pandemic, this period, has been a very difficult time for carers and particularly for young carers, and I know she referred to the survey that had recently been done. I was also pleased to be able to give £55,000 for psychological help for carers earlier on in the pandemic because I know that the strain on their mental health has been very extreme during this period.

I'm also pleased that we are pursuing the issue of identity cards for young carers. I think that that is something that will help enormously and we have a number of local authorities who are now using identity cards in order to make life easier for young carers. Because one of the things that young carers have told us is that they feel very strongly that they don't want to tell every new person the whole history of what has happened to them every time they meet somebody, and in school they need to be able to have a card that will help them. It will help them when they go to the chemist, when they go to get medicine for the people that they care for, and, in fact, there's so many ways that a card can help that I think that's another way that we will be able to help young carers.

I've met many groups of young carers, both while I've been doing this job and previously, and you had to pay a huge tribute to them in terms of what they do in order to keep families going, often. So, thank you very much, Laura Anne Jones, for highlighting that in your contribution and also drawing attention to the fact that this is an area that the children's commissioner also feels very strongly about. It's very impressive that Monmouthshire are encouraging particular young carers to apply for apprenticeships.

As well as young carers, I know that Laura Anne Jones mentioned mental health and the mental health of children during this period, and that's been mentioned in the debate a lot this afternoon. I think we're all aware of how mental health is one of the real areas that we've got huge concern about, and we certainly all welcome now the appointment of a Minister with responsibility for mental health, which does show the priority that the Government is giving to that area.

Siân Gwenllian really vividly described how coronavirus has changed the lives of children dramatically. She described all that has been lost, and we know that for many vulnerable children whose lives are held together by school, by outside activities, by the support they get from youth clubs, from youth workers and from many other services—that all that scaffolding has gone and this has been, I think, a very difficult experience. So, thank you, Siân, for describing that so vividly about what children are experiencing and reminding us about what we have to do and what we have to concentrate on to try to mitigate this as much as we possibly can. Certainly, the Government has had the rights of children high at the top of their agenda, and I think you will have seen in the steps that we've taken and that the First Minister has put before you today—you've seen that children have been right at the forefront in terms of keeping as many children in schools as we can, keeping childcare open, keeping playgrounds open, acknowledging the importance of play. All those things are there for children and they have been at the very top of our agenda.

Siân Gwenllian referred to the 18 recommendations that the children's commissioner has put forward, and the First Minister will respond to those by 30 November, but as I said in my opening remarks, we wanted to hear what Members said in this debate, so that we can then respond fully, taking into account what Members have said. Siân Gwenllian referred to elective home education and safeguarding in independent schools, and as I said in my opening remarks, because the Commissioner is using her statutory powers to review these areas, I won't be commenting on those until the Government responds to her review. But Siân Gwenllian has highlighted the issues very powerfully, I think, in her response. So, thank you very much for those contributions.

Just to conclude, while I am proud of the commitment the Welsh Government has made and is making to children's rights, I do know that we can and we must do more to ensure that children all know about their rights, how to access those rights, and how to challenge when they're not receiving those rights. So, we have a big job of awareness and of reaching out to children. The children's commissioner is an absolutely vital partner in this endeavour, and has a hugely important role in holding the Government to account. As we've said, this year has been a challenge for so many children and young people, and of course, this may continue for some time. That's why we have to have children's rights at the absolute forefront of everything we're doing. Children's rights and improving experiences for our children and young people has been at the heart of our responses to the pandemic, and I'd like to remind Members about the free school meals provision over the holiday period that we are providing, the improvements to the mental health services that we have carried out, and working with the commissioner to listen directly to the voices of children. So, thank you very much again for your contributions to this debate. It's a very important debate. It came after another very important debate, but I think the two debates are very closely linked, because children's rights must be at the heart of how we respond to this pandemic. Thank you very much.