Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 4 November 2020.
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?