Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion before us. The statutory instrument before us today extends the scope of the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016's second duty to paediatric in-patient wards. It is the intention that these regulations come into force on 1 October 2021. When the 2016 Act was passed, sections 25B-25E were only applicable to adult acute medical and surgical wards. The reasoning for this was that those were the only wards with a suitably developed evidence-based workforce planning tool. That's cited explicitly by the Act as a requisite part of the triangulation calculation methodology. These regulations have been brought forward because, over the last three years, such a tool has been developed for use on paediatric in-patient wards. The regulations do not amend any of the terms or principles from the 2016 Act. Paediatric in-patient wards will simply become subject to the same duties and requirements that I set out in sections 25B, 25C, 25D and 25E of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006, as inserted by the 2016 Act.

The 2016 Act itself was introduced as a means of ensuring appropriate staffing levels were calculated using an evidence-based methodology. All evidence suggests that having the appropriate number of registered nurses reduces morbidity, improves patient outcomes and saves bed days. The regulations before us will extend the full scope of the duties set out in the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016 to paediatric in-patient wards and ensure that children and young people receive the same level of nursing care as their adult patient counterparts. It marks a further implementation of the legislation originally piloted through the Senedd by my now Government colleague Kirsty Williams. I ask Members to support the regulations before us today.