Diolch yn fawr, Heledd Fychan. I thank you so much for your strong statements this afternoon in support of our, as we've said, made-in-Wales humanitarian response to the situation with the Afghan citizens who we're now welcoming to Wales, and particular recognition of our ambition and our aspiration to be a nation of sanctuary. We have a lot to do to achieve that, clearly. I think, again, your support and recognition of the role of Urdd Gobaith Cymru—we must express it many times this afternoon, I'm sure. But I think it is very important that you can help me, as your Minister, in this respect, to actually engage fully in what the challenges are. And these are challenges for our local authorities; they're challenges for the third sector organisations who are engaged; they're challenges that they're rising too. So, clarity about the funding was vitally important. And if I could just respond particularly on that, because it relates to your questions about what next, integration and funding levels.

We are pleased that there'll be parity between funding arrangements for the two schemes, the ARAP scheme and the ACRS scheme, and we did want this so that there'll be no perverse outcomes in terms of the support that local authorities could provide to those families arriving. Perhaps I could just say also at this point that I'm very pleased that the UK Government has accepted that anyone arriving under the ARAP or ACRS will receive indefinite leave to remain. I've said I've attended two four-nations meetings. These are issues that we've raised at these meetings. It's an important step to ensure families can then access the services that they need. And also, we are continuing to urge the UK Government to ensure that those with any fear of persecution, which would normally entitle them to refugee status, aren't disadvantaged in terms of access to services—these are our public services—if their status under either of these schemes isn't technically considered to be refugee status. These should not be technical issues; these are key humanitarian issues that we closely watch.

But I also wanted to just say that we've also pressed hard to ensure that, under the citizens' resettlement scheme, special consideration should be made of vulnerable people, including women and girls at risk, members of minority communities at risk, including LGBTQ+, ethnic and religious minorities. That point has been made, and the UK Government has confirmed a recognition of that consideration. But also, having met with Afghan families in Wales who've been living here for many years, many of them are concerned about their relatives, because there may be links, obviously, concerns of risk among our Wales-based Afghan communities with any links that they might have with families in Afghanistan. So, those are the kinds of issues that we are addressing.

But I think what's important in terms of the questions that I asked and that have been answered is that the tariff of the schemes is going to be provided over three years instead of five. Now, obviously, we need to see what happens as we move forward, because that was different from the Syrian scheme, the five-year scheme. But also, the UK Government has agreed that this level of funding is necessary, but we will also have to explore what this means in terms of an integration package.

We still don't have clarity yet about how the funding will be awarded, whether it's going to be directly awarded to Welsh local authorities and Welsh local health boards. So, we're seeking clarity on this. We don't want to have any gaps in support, and we can build on our experience of the Syrian system and resettlement scheme. We are pleased that UK Government has stated a further £20 million fund of flexible funding in the current financial year to support local authorities with higher cost bases with any additional costs in the provision of services. We don't know what this means in practice, but this is something where we'll be working with our colleagues in local government to take this forward.

I think, as we know, there are many refugees in Wales who have wanted and been willing and have learnt Welsh. We must now look at our schemes, our existing schemes, and how we can assure they're good, but I also think children are already, in terms of our education system and their experience with the Urdd already for those who have been temporarily accommodated, who have arrived. They are going to very quickly see they're in Wales and what that means as a bilingual nation. So, we need to address all these issues, and I would want you to help me in terms of scrutiny and questioning as we move forward in our welcome to ensure that we can be a nation of sanctuary, as you support, for these citizens from Afghanistan.