Thank you, Llywydd. I want to thank Mark Isherwood for bringing this important debate to the Chamber and to Dawn Bowden and Rhun ap Iorwerth for their contributions that I have listened to. And I recognise the stories that each of them have told about the direct impact that children's hospices have, not just on the children, but on their wider families and carers as well. I recognise, and I should say, Llywydd, that one of the children's hospices is actually in my constituency. Tŷ Hafan hospice is in Sully, at the southern end of Cardiff South and Penarth. So, before my time as Minister in the Government, I already had some understanding of the incredibly important services that hospices provide to both end-of-life care, but more than that, as I said, the support they provide to patients, families and carers.

My understanding is that every year our children's hospices support around 500 children and young people with life-limiting conditions here in Wales, and that balance of end-of-life and continuing care to children and young people who have care needs arising from life-limiting conditions often takes place over many years. I also do want to acknowledge the invaluable help and advice that our children's hospices provide to families to manage their child's pain and distressing symptoms, but also, as Members have said, the short breaks they're able to offer families, the compassionate end-of-life care support and the emotional support up to and beyond the death of a child. Research does show that the overall number of children and young people with life-limiting conditions has grown, and modelling suggests that those numbers will continue to increase slightly year on year over the next decade. That's partly because life expectancy is increasing, with people living longer due to advances in medical treatments and technologies. As a result, more young people are moving from children's to adult services, and that's been a challenge for those children's hospices, as people they've known for a long time, in managing that transition in their care.