3. Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government's priorities for mental health for the remainder of the current Senedd term? OQ55804

Diolch yn fawr, Angela. Our priorities are set out in the 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan 2019-22, which has been strengthened to reflect the impact of the pandemic. Now, my focus in the shorter term is on driving the necessary cross-Government and multi-agency working needed to deliver on these well-evidenced and agreed priorities.

Thank you for that, and, first of all, may I say welcome to the role? I think it's excellent that mental health has a focus specifically on it, especially at this time. I was delighted in your answer just then that you talked about the inter-governmental and cross-departmental working, because I believe that there has been good progress made with mental health support for college and university students, provided for by partnerships between the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, educational establishments and student unions. However, I am concerned that there remains no overarching official Welsh Government strategy for student mental health and no strong methodology in place for monitoring the effectiveness of the schemes currently running, and I think this is even more key now, given that our students are under extraordinary pressures never before experienced, because of COVID. And I know we can say that that goes for all of society, but they have a disruption that will live with their generation for many, many, many years to come. So, Minister, could I ask if you would commit to working with your colleague the Minister for Education to deliver and implement a student mental health strategy at the earliest opportunity to ensure that the mental health needs of our student population is safeguarded, and also that schemes currently commissioned fully deliver on their aims—that the ones that work well are promulgated throughout Wales, and the ones that aren't working are hit on the head and that money is then used elsewhere to deliver for mental health?

Well, thanks very much, Angela. As someone whose child has gone to university this year, I'm one of these people who is very aware of the kind of pressures that many students are under, the first time away from home.

Just to make it clear, in 2019 all universities committed to a step change in relation to mental health, and they came up with proposals where every university was required to submit well-being and health strategies. So, all of those have been received, and so there should be a programme that they're already undertaking. Now, what we haven't done is to, as you suggest, set out a methodology and things at this point. You'll be aware that we've just put an extra £10 million into this area. Now, we could have sat around and said, 'Let's work out the methodology'; we thought it was more important to get the funding in there to really make sure—. We're in a crisis period; we have to get the money to the front line as soon as possible. We've done the same thing in relation to help for health workers. We've got the money there, without the evidence sometimes that there's a massive problem. We're just guessing that there is going to be a big problem, and you're quite right that we probably need to put some methodology behind it now, just to look at whether we are doing the right thing. But we're not starting from scratch here, as HEFCW have done quite a lot of work in this space, but what we probably could do is a bit more of learning best practice to see what works in one university and whether we can share that amongst the other universities. So, thank you for that question.

Minister, the Children, Young People and Education Committee published our follow-up to our landmark 'Mind over matter' report last month, and we are eagerly awaiting your response to our updated recommendations. The report does, I believe, set out a clear route-map for the changes that we know are so urgently needed to support children and young people's mental health. Although there has been some very welcome progress on the whole-school approach to mental health, there is some considerable way to go in ensuring the system-wide reforms of health and social care that are so crucial. Would you agree with me, Minister, that the COVID pandemic makes it more, not less urgent, to deliver on these recommendations, and would you agree with me that we know what needs to happen and the priority for the remainder of this Assembly term must be an unrelenting focus on delivery?

I would agree with you. I think it is really important. I am very aware of the stresses that young people are under. I'm very pleased that there has been considerable progress in terms of the whole-school approach. I think there is more work to be done on the whole-system approach, but I do think that we're heading in the right direction. I think the Together for Children and Young People programme is making considerable steps in this space. You'll be aware that we've put £5 million extra into this area. One of the things I'm really keen to do is to make sure that we're developing these structures and there's some clarity in terms of the user, in making sure that we're not just focused on the plumbing—and I think there's work to do on the plumbing—but that we're looking at the whole system from the perspective of the user. We have to just make sure that that is something that we're taking into consideration. I do hope that I'll be able to report back to you within the time frame set so that we can really focus on those areas where the progress has not been perhaps as fast as you and the rest of the committee had been keen to see.

I was very pleased, Minister, to hear what you said to Rhun ap Iorwerth about the Time to Change campaign. I was also pleased to hear what you said about not unnecessarily medicalising distress. In the region that we both represent, in Llanelli and Carmarthenshire, there is a very innovative project being run by the voluntary organisation Connecting Children, Youth and Adults, where GPs are prescribing support from that charity to children and families, and a wide range of support that I can't go into here. I'd like to invite you, Minister—. I don't think we can do a visit at this time as it wouldn't be appropriate, but I wonder if you would agree to meet with Tracy Pike, who is the chief executive, who's developed this really innovative model where the GPs are prescribing not just counselling, but a whole range of social support for a family. The initial results have been hugely encouraging, and I'd like to think that that's a potential model that might be able to be developed and provided elsewhere—a very useful partnership between public sector money through the local health board, through the GPs and third sector innovation. So, if I write to you on that matter, Minister, would you consider a meeting with Tracy and her team to see if there are lessons that could be learned for communities elsewhere in Wales from this innovative work?

I like the sound of that, I must say. I'm very much up for seeing how we can get GPs to prescribe things that aren't necessarily medical at all times. My husband's a GP, and I know that for several years he's been involved in prescribing sports, for example, and exercise, and that's something that has been going on for a long time. I'm keen to see that expanded to other areas—things like arts and other facilities. So, I'd be very interested in hearing more about that. Some of this is about support systems and networks, and really providing people with that extra help. In particular, some people were struggling on their own in families, under huge pressures, and sharing that burden sometimes can be enough to get people back into a different place.