Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to discuss this report and thank you for the work that the children's commissioner does to try and improve the lives of children and young people in Wales. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis has changed the lives of the children of Wales in a dramatic manner, with schools and childcare settings closed for long periods of time, lectures and lessons delivered online, playgrounds closed and major restrictions on opportunities to socialise. And it's no surprise that there's been more demand than ever before for the Childline service, and there are major concerns as to how the pandemic is impacting the mental health of children and young people in the present and in the longer term. 

Although COVID-19 may have changed the lives of the children of Wales forever, one could argue that many of the issues contained within this report—this latest annual report—tell the same old stories, unfortunately. The report includes a broad range of well-established concerns on the quality of mental health services for children, children continuing to live in poverty and children in care not receiving the specialist care that they need. These are some of the complex issues that impact the lives of children and young people and are likely to have been exacerbated by COVID-19. 

And one could argue that the need to ensure that the Welsh Government's policy approaches are successful is more important than ever before. We therefore need to implement the 18 detailed and sensible recommendations made by the commissioner across a range of specific areas: in terms of residential care for children with complex needs, in terms of personal advisers for young people leaving care, reforms to corporate parenting, support for young offenders and strengthening child protection measures. These are just a few examples. There are many very practical recommendations contained in this report that could make great differences to particular groups of children and young people. 

There is one area that is a cause of specific concern, namely elective home education, an issue the commissioner has made recommendations on in her past four annual reports—that's four annual reports. She has called for some legal changes in this area. Now, prior to COVID-19, the Welsh Government had consulted on statutory guidance and regulations to tackle the commissioner's concerns, but in June the education Minister announced that that work couldn't be completed within this Senedd term. In September the commissioner stated that she does intend to use her statutory powers for the very first time to review the actions of Welsh Government in this area. I support this and I believe that the commissioner has been very patient indeed on this issue—too patient, perhaps—and that swifter action and a swifter review from the commissioner would have led to the improvement that we need to see.

Unfortunately, another area that the Welsh Government has decided not to take action on is the need for teachers in independent schools to register with the Education Workforce Council. We will all recall the headteacher in a Ruthin school who was sacked from his post after a report discovered that pupils there were at risk of harm because of failings in child protection. Extending the law that places a duty on private schools as well as state schools to register their teachers is one way of seeking to avoid such serious failings for the future, but action on this too has been pushed on to the next Senedd, and once again, the commissioner has stated that she will use her statutory powers in order to review the actions of the Welsh Government in this area.

I know that this public health crisis means that we must shelve some legislative issues, but these would have been quite simple issues to deal with, and one has to question the wisdom of leaving both of these issues on the table when the well-being of the children of Wales is one of the main priorities of this Government and this Senedd. The commissioner will use her statutory powers on two issues, and they are two issues of concern for everyone in the Senedd, and it's a cause of concern that she has to use those statutory powers.

Before I conclude, I would just like to draw attention to the commissioner's report 'No Wrong Door' and the need for regional boards to ensure that no child or family will fall through the net in seeking support for mental health and behavioural issues. This is a very important report, and we need to maintain a focus on this work. The 'Happy, healthy and safe' manifesto is also of interest, with some of the ideas certainly corresponding to Plaid Cymru's priorities. There'll be an opportunity to discuss some of the issues contained within the children commissioner's manifesto in our debate on education tomorrow, so I won't expand on that.

The report before us today does include a period prior to the COVID period, from 1 April 2019 to the end of March 2020. Now, the next report will deal with a very difficult COVID period, and it's likely to have a very different flavour and will focus on issues that will have emerged anew during the COVID crisis, or that have been highlighted anew as issues that are of some importance. But it's important that we maintain a focus on those issues in this report too. I'd like to thank the commissioner and her team for the collaboration between us, and I look forward to further collaboration during the rest of this Senedd term.