Continuity of Care for Young People

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 3:16 pm on 4 November 2020.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:16, 4 November 2020

Diolch, Alun. I think there is an acknowledgment in the 'Together for Mental Health' report that, actually, there is a need to do some work on this, and we're certainly aware that we need to do better in this area. Just to be clear that during the first phase of the pandemic, all CAMHS services paused that transition of young people into adult services, and I think that was the right thing to do. We've got to accept that, actually, just hitting 18 doesn't make everything better; it doesn't change everything and it doesn't turn you into an adult overnight. So, we do need to make sure that we are perhaps more sensitive to the needs of those people who are transitioning. There is, of course, very clear guidance that has been set out with the Together for Children and Young People programme, and people should be following that guidance to make sure that we don't fall into some of the difficulties that I know some people have faced. 

Of course, on top of that, there is the young people's passport and the idea here is that we're empowering the individual to take a bit more ownership of the process, and that, of course, was reviewed in 2019. So, we know there's more work to do here, we know what we need to do, but we know that there are still steps that we need to take and it is of course part of our action plan during these next couple of years.