Children and Young People's Mental Health

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 9 February 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:01, 9 February 2021

Well, Llywydd, I thank Laura Anne Jones for that question. I agree very much with the premise of it. I think it's very good that there is innovation in different parts of Wales. I know the Member will join me in congratulating the Connecting with Telehealth to Children in Hospital team at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which recently won the team of the year award of the Royal College of Psychiatrists for its development of telehealth services, and those developments are now being taken up by other health boards in different parts of Wales. And that, I think, is a very sensible way for these services to develop, encouraging local innovation and, as Laura Anne Jones says, where they're demonstrated to have success, then making sure that that success is translated into wider services in the rest of Wales. It's why we have a Welsh national young people's mental health toolkit, it's why we have cognitive behavioural therapy services available online for young people in every part of Wales, while, as I say, continuing to encourage innovation in the third sector and in statutory services in these extraordinary times.