Kinder Public Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 8 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:43, 8 December 2020

Well, I can't give the Member a specific figure for her own area. I can tell her that, through the ACE hub, comprehensive training has been provided to over 600 schools in Wales and that the work of the ambassadors has been fundamental to that. The Member will know that we have increased the funding for school counselling services and that school counsellors are also part of the group of public sector workers who are informed by the work of the ACE hub, as are youth workers and housing workers and all health visitors here in Wales. The extra funding, therefore, that we have placed into school counselling draws on that work, allows more help to be given to a wider range of ages in our school system, and more young people who have—. Suzy Davies says, and it was reinforced to me in a meeting that I held with the Youth Parliament, chaired by the Llywydd, only last week, that the impact on the sense of well-being and mental health of young people in Wales in the pandemic has been profound and will be with us, I'm afraid, not just while the pandemic lasts, but there will be a recovery period that will go on well beyond that.