2. Will the Minister make a statement on perinatal mental health support? OQ56906

Thank you. The Welsh Government is committed to improving perinatal mental health services, which is a priority area for action within the refreshed 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan 2019-22. We also continue to invest in specialist perinatal mental health services across Wales.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for that update. It's estimated that in Wales over 9,000 women suffer for postpartum PTSD, and one in five women suffer with their emotional well-being during the perinatal period. Early research suggests that this figure will inevitably rise. This, sadly, doesn't come as a surprise. The difficult but much needed service changes, made by health boards across Wales during the pandemic, ensured that mothers, partners and staff were COVID safe, but this has had a profound effect on their birthing experience. It's absolutely vital that mothers and partners who have suffered throughout the perinatal period receive the correct diagnosis and the correct support. Will the Deputy Minister work with the Wales Perinatal Mental Health Network and national clinical lead for perinatal mental health in Wales to ensure that perinatal mental health is included in pre-registration training for all mental health practitioners and all health professionals working in the perinatal period?

Can I thank Buffy Williams for that question? I entirely recognise the issues that you highlight and also the impact that the pandemic has had on families' experiences of having babies. This is a priority area for us; it's a priority area in our mental health delivery plan. We've now got perinatal mental health services in every part of Wales and we've invested £3 million a year recurrently to support those services. Health boards are also working towards meeting the relevant Royal College of Psychiatrists quality standards and we're investing additional mental health service improvement funding to support that.

In terms of your question about training, my understanding is that perinatal mental health is included across many programmes, although I'm not convinced that that approach is consistent across Wales. I've therefore asked officials to ensure that the perinatal mental health network works with Health Education and Improvement Wales and training providers to strengthen and standardise this approach. And I should say that perinatal mental health is a priority area for HEIW too. We'll also ensure that this is a core element of the training framework being developed by NHS Education for Scotland, which we're adapting for use in Wales. This multimodule training will ensure that all staff coming into contact with families during the perinatal period will receive appropriate training. I'm very happy to give you the assurance that you asked for.

May I first completely concur with everything that Buffy just said—second what she said—and reiterate her calls for more training across Wales consistently, as you said, Minister, in this regard? May I just make a bid for health visitors in particular? Being a mother myself and having been through a difficult birth, I know of the importance of the role that they play in the first year of a child's life and that first year for the mother in detecting postnatal depression or something going on with the baby that we need to be aware of. Those regular check-ins can be life-saving. So, Minister, I'd be grateful if you could outline what the Welsh Government are doing to support health visitors and the declining numbers.

Thank you for that question, Laura, and I'd like to say that I'm a huge fan of health visitors. I had amazing support off my health visitor after I had my first child and I entirely recognise what you've said about the life-saving role that they can play and also the vital safeguarding role that they play.

The training that I referred to for the perinatal period would absolutely apply to health visitors as well, because we recognise that the contact after birth is largely through health visitor contact, which is now returning much more to a normal position. And I will pick up the issues that you've raised around the recruitment of health visitors with the Minister for Health and Social Services.