Thank you very much. I'm pleased to participate in this debate. At a personal level, I've truly enjoyed learning more about end-of-life care in the past few years, working very closely with Marie Curie and Hospice UK, but we rarely have time to discuss this in the Senedd, so I'm pleased that we have the opportunity to do it today. It's such an important area, and that's reflected in how many briefings and so on have been sent to me and others by various organisations over the past few days. I'm very grateful for those.

We will be supporting the motion today. Our amendment, very simply, seeks to ensure that we recognise the inequalities that still exist in access to good end-of-life care. The pandemic, of course, has changed how many services are delivered, and that's no different in end-of-life care. We know that some 2,000 more people have died at home during the pandemic than was the case in recent years, and whilst it has always been an aspiration to enable people to die at home if that's their wish, we don't know, of course, if the quality of care that those people have received over the past months has been what it should have been, and I suspect that it perhaps hasn't been, because of the pandemic. The pandemic has also, I think, highlighted the inequalities that we were aware of prior to the pandemic, because the pandemic itself has clearly demonstrated how unequal our society is, in terms of the disproportionate impact on poorer communities and minority communities, for example.

So, how do we respond to that? First of all, we need a new plan that takes a holistic approach, and one that understands the workforce required to deliver services in all parts of Wales. Secondly, we must realise that care homes are providers of palliative care, and we need to ensure the commissioning policies and regulations reflect that. Thirdly, we need to look specifically at issues related to palliative care for children and young people, not only in terms of workforce, with us being short some 240 children's community nurses in this sector, but also by providing better support for families and for brothers and sisters. And in a debate like this, we'll have an opportunity to hear more ideas being put forward

I will finish by just asking a few questions of the Minister. First of all, what steps are the Welsh Government taking in order to fund community nursing services for children in a sustainable manner, either provided through the NHS or hospice at home services for children? What steps are the Government taking to fill that gap in terms of the community nursing workforce who have the skills and experiences necessary to provide palliative care to children? And how is the Welsh Government holding local health boards to account for the way in which they plan and fund nursing services for children who have palliative care needs? Thank you.