The next item is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being: progress on 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan. I call the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being, Lynne Neagle.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. We are 12 months into delivering our refreshed 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan, and I want to provide an update on our progress. The delivery plan was revised in light of the pandemic, realising the need for it to adapt to evolving levels of need. The plan is ambitious, and establishes the absolute need for cross-Government, multi-agency working to deliver on the agreed actions. To assure us and our partners on progress, we have commissioned an evaluation of our 10-year strategy. This will provide an independent, evidence-based assessment of our progress and will inform next steps.

The pandemic has brought into sharper focus the actions in the delivery plan that needed to be accelerated. We have strengthened support for low-level mental health issues in response to the higher levels of anxiety that we have seen. We have expanded our CALL helpline, which supports over a 100 people a day, providing advice, support and often just someone to talk to. For the first time in Wales, we have rolled out online cognitive behavioural therapy. This digital support is overseen by clinicians and has received over 12,000 sign-ups in the first 12 months. It does not need a referral from a health professional, so it can be accessed when it is needed, providing timely access to support, taking pressure off more specialist services.

Health boards are reporting higher acuity and complexity of patient need and an increased demand for non-clinical support for lower level mental health issues. The ministerial delivery and oversight board, which I chair, is critical to understand the latest evidence and operational intelligence to ensure services can meet changing mental health needs. We are transforming the response to crisis care and are on track to establish single points of contact to respond to mental health crisis in all health board areas by April 2022. These will be for anyone to use, regardless of age or circumstance, and will provide individuals with immediate access to signposting, a trained mental health worker or a referral into specialist services. We have also improved mental health conveyance as part of the crisis care pathway, with a pilot run by St John Cymru. This support has already provided transport for over 400 people, with an average response time of one hour. It has the potential to reduce pressure on the police, ambulance service and mental health community staff whilst providing appropriate and compassionate transport for our most vulnerable people.

We have delivered the specialist perinatal mother and baby unit in Tonna, and it is already making a significant difference to new mothers who need this support and who can now access that closer to home. There is more to do, and I'm determined to see an increase in the pace of health boards achieving the Royal College of Psychiatrists standards for both community and in-patient perinatal mental health services. We must ensure that we have specialist mother and baby provision that is easily accessible for mothers from north Wales, and I am determined to see this put in place as soon as possible.

The delivery plan also includes actions on suicide prevention, and we are working with the police, the NHS and Public Health Wales to establish a real-time surveillance system for Wales. This will be hosted by Public Health Wales, and this approach will be crucial to our efforts to prevent suicide but also to ensure a timely and appropriate response for those bereaved by suicide in Wales.

All of these improvements have been supported by an increase in investment of almost £128 million over the past five years into the mental health ring-fenced budget. This year alone, we have provided an additional £42 million, and our programme for government continues our commitment to prioritise investment in mental health.

We know that the workforce are the lifeblood of our NHS services, and workforce pressures are a real challenge to progress. Health Education and Improvement Wales and Social Care Wales are on course to consult on a long-term mental health workforce strategy by the end of this year, as well as securing more immediate solutions to respond to demand.

Specialist mental health services are vitally important for those who need that higher level of support. Our delivery plan highlights actions we are taking to develop a secure in-patient strategy and further support for early intervention in psychosis services. However, specialist provision is only one part of the challenge to provide the right support at the right time in the right place. By taking an early intervention and prevention approach, we can meet this challenge and reduce demand on specialist services.

All Cabinet colleagues have agreed that mental health impacts will be considered and support embedded across Government. Our whole-system approach is a good example of this in practice, where I am working closely with the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language to drive progress. This work, along with the implementation of our NEST framework through regional partnership boards, underpins our longer term, preventative approach.

In employment, we are progressing action around employability as a key protective factor for mental health. We continue to provide advice and support to employers through the Healthy Working Wales programme and we have expanded our in-work and out-of-work health employability programmes as the pandemic has progressed. These will become more important as support like furlough comes to an end.

In housing, we have ensured that mental health is integrated as part of key programmes, including the rapid rehousing through homelessness scheme. Poverty and financial hardship are drivers of poor mental health, and we are integrating our approach to mental health and debt support provision. During the first year of the single advice fund it secured almost £44 million of additional welfare benefits, and this includes supporting people with mental health issues.

In terms of legislation, we have discussed widely with partners and stakeholders the potential benefits to Wales of the proposed reforms of the UK Mental Health Act 1983. I will be writing to the UK Secretary of State for Health to explore whether legislation brought forward to reform the Act should be extended to Wales, with the exception of those proposals where we have existing or more robust safeguards already in place—for instance, for care and treatment planning in Wales. This, of course, would have to be done in a way that respected the devolution settlement and the Sewel convention. It would be subject to the Senedd passing a legislative consent motion.

Welsh Government will also be consulting shortly on new regulations for Wales to support the implementation of the liberty protection safeguards, which will replace the current deprivation of liberty safeguards. These important safeguards will provide a more effective system, putting the person deprived of liberty at the heart of the decision-making process, and will better integrate the LPS into everyday care, support and treatment planning.

I have provided a snapshot of delivery here today. Overall, whilst there remains a significant challenge to services, we are making constructive progress on our 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan. And whilst I am encouraged by this progress, I do not underestimate the ongoing challenge ahead. However, I am committed to driving actions across Government and with stakeholders to improve the mental health and well-being of the nation as part of our wider approach to recover from this very difficult time. Diolch yn fawr. 

The Conservative spokesperson, James Evans. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, thank you very much for your statement. I want to mention World Mental Health Day and the significance that that day has to raise the profile of those people who are suffering with their mental health. And I want to put on the record my best wishes to my friend and colleague Andrew R.T. Davies, who I hope makes a speedy recovery, and also to my brave colleague Sam Kurtz, who last week opened up about his own struggles with his mental health during lockdown. I hope that, in raising personal struggles, it will help those people who are suffering in silence to seek the help and support that they need. 

Minister, the mental health delivery plan has been refreshed, and it's right that the Government focuses on cross-departmental working, which is right to address the mental health problems. It will take all Government departments to step up to the plate to deal with this. You mentioned you've commissioned an evaluation of the 10-year strategy. Can you outline what methodology and scrutiny will be used to ensure that this Senedd can scrutinise that evaluation when it comes forward? You also mentioned that the delivery plan needs to be accelerated, and I totally agree with you on that. We have no time to lose, and the NHS workforce in Wales is a key part of ensuring that that delivery plan is delivered, and delivered at pace. So, Minister, recruitment shortages in the mental health workforce are a challenge. On workforce plans, last week, you said that HEIW was making good progress on longer term workforce plans. So, when do you expect these plans to be published, and, when more staff are recruited, where will you be placing these professionals?

You also mentioned the delivery and oversight board, which you chair, and I think this is a step in the right direction to, as you said, ensure that services can change and meet the mental health needs that come forward. One thing that I think was omitted from the statement was a position on child and adolescent mental health services support for young people. As I've raised previously, detentions of young people have gone up by 666 per cent in under-16s being detained since March, and two thirds of those were defined as female. That's a shocking statistic, and I think this should be immediately looked at to try and resolve this problem. In CAMHS, four out of seven people are reporting less than 50 per cent assessed at local primary mental health support service levels within 28 days. So, can you outline what efforts you and the oversight board are making to investigate these figures further and ensure that the young girls who have passed early intervention get that crisis care that they need?

With that in mind, 24/7 crisis care centres are vitally important so that people have the care and at the right time, as you said. Crisis care is vital to help save people's lives, and also they reduce the pressure on wider services, and I was wondering what more support can be given to deliver those 24/7 crisis care centres.

You mentioned the perinatal mother and baby care unit at Tonna, and I welcome this. However, you have said that there are gaps in north Wales. So, can you just outline what progress you have made to fill the gaps, and not just in north Wales, but across mid and west Wales as well, so we have that provision right across our country?

Minister, you also mentioned the work with the UK Government over the need to update the Mental Health Act, and I welcome this cross-governmental work and I think it's very positive. However, do you think that maybe we should look at having an updated Welsh mental health Act here in Wales, made in Wales, decided by Welsh policy makers, to make sure that we have fantastic mental health services here in Wales? You mentioned the liberty safeguard regulations, and I look forward to seeing that detail coming forward and having wider discussions with you about that.

And finally, Minister, will you outline your top priorities now for improving mental health services in Wales? I think it would be very useful if I could get to judge or appraise the top five or six measures and what you really want to get on top of in this first term of the Senedd. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you, Minister, for your statement.

Thank you very much, James Evans. There were lots and lots of questions and points there, but, before I start to respond to you, can I just place on record my good wishes to Andrew R.T. Davies for a speedy recovery and to say how helpful I think it is to everyone that he has shown this courage in speaking out, as indeed Sam Kurtz did last week? In doing so, he helps everyone. So, I send him my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

If I can start with the points that James Evans made about our evaluation of the 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan, that has begun already, and we've contracted with people to undertake that evaluation for us in as thorough a way as we can. Possibly there'll be engagement with stakeholders, et cetera, and that work itself is due to be completed by next year—by September 2022. And I think then we'll have to look at what we take from that evaluation, because, obviously, we're going to have to have new plans going forward. And I think, at that point, then, we would want to be engaging with relevant committees and with the Senedd to make sure that we're also listening to the views of everybody here. But it's vitally important that the plan we take forward is one that will work for people who are going to be in receipt of services.

You mentioned workforce pressures. The workforce pressures are very significant indeed and are something that I am focusing a lot of my time and effort on. The plan that will be consulted on by HEIW and Social Care Wales will identify in a very comprehensive way, I hope, where we need to have the different staff. We know that we've had some success with attracting psychiatrists to come and work in Wales, but we've got shortages in other specialities as well. So, that comprehensive piece of work that is being undertaken by HEIW should give us that full picture. That should be completed by the end of this year, and then we'll go out to consultation. But we aren't resting on our laurels in the meantime. HEIW are looking at what immediate steps we can take to fill vacancies in shortage areas. And I have asked officials to look at whether we can pilot a form of psychological assistance—rather than having fully qualified clinical psychologists, that we can look at earlier intervention with psychology assistance—which is being used very effectively in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. I'm meeting them shortly to discuss what they are doing.

In terms of CAMHS, they continue to be a top priority for me, just as implementing the whole-system reforms of 'Mind over matter' is at the very centre of what I am trying to do. It's why I have come into Government, and I am completely committed to delivering on that. We have seen fluctuations in the average waiting time for children and young people to access specialist CAMHS during the pandemic. Data over the last 12 months shows that the average wait to receive a first appointment for specialist CAMHS is 4.4 weeks, and that ranges from three to six weeks. The latest waiting times data for under-18s primary mental health provisions shows that 83 per cent of young people received their local primary mental health service assessments within eight weeks of referral. We did see a sharp increase in referrals, but thankfully that is now showing signs of levelling off. Nevertheless, we are not complacent, and making sure that children and young people are seen in a timely way is a top priority for me. I meet with the vice-chairs regularly, officials have those regular, ongoing discussions with health boards to drive performance, and where I've had particular concerns about the performance of a health board, I have had a special meeting where I've gone there to discuss their performance and to seek assurances that they are addressing this matter as a question of urgency.

I note your welcome for the 24-hour crisis care provision. I think we are on course to deliver that. It's a big undertaking, a big change, but I am confident that we will be there by the end of this year, and we will be in a position then where people will be able to ring 111 for mental health in Wales. But below that, we're also undertaking an exercise where the delivery unit has been visiting all health boards to discuss the crisis services that operate for children and young people in particular, but across the board. They will be making recommendations about what more we need to do to improve the crisis support beyond that phone line. So, it's very much a major priority for me.

Thank you for your welcome for the joint working on the Mental Health Act. Clearly, it's important that, where we can work with the UK Government in a constructive way, we do that. You asked whether we should have a new law for Wales on mental health. My honest and considered answered is that, no, that is not the challenge that we face at the moment. We know what needs to happen. We've got the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010, which was made in Wales by a Conservative Member, Jonathan Morgan, who took that through this Senedd. Our challenge is to ensure that we are delivering across the whole system. So, I don't think that it's about legislation per se, but we are very happy to build on the legislative opportunities that are arising where they present themselves.

Finally, in terms of my priorities, my priority is to ensure that everybody in Wales, but especially children and young people, can get access to timely mental health support when they need it, at the same time as we are shifting the whole system in Wales to one of prevention and early intervention, so that fewer people need to access those specialist services in the first place. So, that is what is driving my work and what is taking up my time. Thank you.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. If I may send my best wishes to Andrew R.T. Davies. But I want to wish everyone well who is facing similar challenges wherever they may be. The truth is that we are in a very privileged position to do much more than wishing well, using words alone. The Government can take action, all of us can hold the Government to account and be determined not to be satisfied until we have the services in place that the people of Wales need. Because we are facing a crisis. And perhaps what is most frustrating is the slow progress despite how clear the crisis is. It’s a minority who receive treatment at all for mental health issues, and of those who receive treatment, many of them do have to wait too long.

I do welcome certainly the fact that a report has been commissioned by the Deputy Minister to learn more about where the progress is taking place, where the progress isn’t taking place. I will add a question asking for clarity about that work: who will be doing that work? It’s important for us to know, I think, that there is an independent look being taken at this. The Deputy Minister said in her response a moment ago that the work will be completed by, I think, September of next year. Will the report be published by September or will that be the end date of gathering the information? Because I would want to encourage things to move forward as quickly as possible. Also, because of the issue that we know that we have with child and adolescent mental health services, can I have an assurance that that assessment will include what is happening in terms of progress in that support for children and young people specifically?

We’ve had a list from the Deputy Minister today of the different ways, including some new initiatives, that people can access support. Those don’t work for people if they don’t know about them, of course. I think that there are many people who feel that they don’t know where to go to seek support. So, perhaps the Deputy Minister could tell us what work is being done to ensure that there is a strengthening of that signposting that is so vital, so that people who may have a small issue now can receive that timely support that they need to prevent that from becoming a more intensive issue that might need that elevated psychiatric care.

Finally, I turn to data and transparency. Mind Cymru have voiced concerns over years, I have to say, about the work of gathering the data to measure progress against the Government strategy, because the core mental health data—we’ve been waiting for that for a long time. That hasn’t been received yet. We’ve been waiting a long time, as I said, and I think it’s correct to say that the dataset was meant to be ready by December 2014. That timetable wasn’t adhered to, it slipped again and I think that the date that we now have is that it will be available by 2022. So, when? At the beginning of 2022? Will 2022 be achieved at all? Hopefully it will be achieved next year. Does the Deputy Minister accept, truth be told, that we can’t measure the progress and success of the strategy without having the measures and the core data in place?

Thank you for those questions, Rhun. I absolutely agree that we're in a position in this Chamber where we can take action and not just talk about things, and that is absolutely what I want to do. Can I just correct a mistake that I made about the completion date of the evaluation of the 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan? It's actually April 2022. I was struggling to reach my papers there. So, earlier than I said. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be ready at that time, and I also can't see any difficulty with making that available. Certainly, with other evaluations that the Welsh Government has commissioned, those have been published and made available on the Welsh Government website.

I should be clear, though, that this is an evaluation of the whole delivery plan, which I've tried to give you a flavour of today, which doesn't just cover direct mental health services—it covers housing, benefits advice, all those things. I wouldn't want you to think that it is the only thing that we are doing to track what's happening in mental health services. As I said in the statement, I chair a ministerial delivery and oversight board, which was actually set up by my predecessor, Eluned Morgan, because we recognised there was a need to have stronger oversight of the whole mental health system in Wales. That meets bimonthly, it's chaired by me, and I have a report on that on every single work stream that is being taken forward on mental health in Wales. Every single work stream has to report what they're doing. They have to highlight any risks, and they have to RAG rate their work. It's a relatively new body, but I feel that it is one that is coming into its own and that will help give us that assurance, as well, of course, as the evaluation across the piece of the delivery plan. 

Your referred to CAMHS as well in your comments. Can I also assure you that, in addition to the ministerial delivery and oversight board, we've also got the ministerial task and finish group on the whole-system approach, which is jointly chaired by myself and Jeremy Miles? That used to be the task and finish group on the whole-school approach, but following 'Mind over matter: Two years on', we recognised that although there was a lot of focus on the whole-school approach, we needed to make sure that we didn't take our foot off the pedal on the more specialist services. So, that task and finish group was adapted to cover the whole system that would impact on a child, from school right up to the tier 4 services. I hope that that does give you some assurance that there are a number of mechanisms in place to scrutinise and drive performance in this area.

You mentioned the core data set, and I entirely recognise that it is vital that we have data if we're going to improve services. Before I became a Minister, I was constantly calling for the core data set myself. I don't recognise the date of it having meant to be ready by 2014, although I acknowledge that we haven't made as much progress as we would have liked, and that's partly due to the pandemic. Just to confirm to the Member that this work was relaunched in September as the mental health outcomes and measures board, and this work has been separated into two phases, which are developing an integrated mental health outcomes framework and a communication plan. That work should be completed by March 2022, and then there will be a period of implementation. But also to assure the Member that I entirely recognise where he's coming from on the need for robust data and driving that forward will be a priority for me.

Thank you, Minister, for bringing forward this important statement today. As both an individual Member of the Senedd and also as chair of the cross-party group on mental health, I'd like to pass on my best wishes to Andrew R.T. Davies and say just how impressive his openness, and indeed the openness of Sam Kurtz, was last week. C.S. Lewis once remarked that we read so that we know we are not alone, and there are many, many people who will have read Andrew R.T. Davies's comments last week and felt reassured that they are not alone.

Minister, we went into this COVID pandemic with an intensifying need to both address and prevent mental and emotional illness across our population, and we're emerging from the pandemic with that need even more pressing and intense, particularly for children and young people, as you have identified today. Indeed, Barnardo's produce a UK-wide quarterly practitioner survey, and since April of last year, respondents have consistently ranked the increase in mental health and well-being issues amongst children, young people and families as the No. 1 issue. And of course, in the workplace, we know that presenteeism is now costing businesses more than absenteeism. There's also emerging evidence linking the body's vulnerability to cancer to the combined impact of social isolation and sustained elevated levels of cortisol that comes with many mental illnesses and with stress. And this further demonstrates—

Can the Member ask the question now, please?

It further demonstrates that we do need to tackle mental illness. Now, one question in particular, cross-Government working, and you've alluded to it today, could you elaborate on how you're working with particularly the education and economy departments to tackle mental illness? And can you also identify how you're promoting the online cognitive behavioural therapy resource that has proven so popular to date and will be invaluable for many, many people?

Thank you, Ken. And thank you, too, for the work that you're doing in chairing the cross-party group, which I also very much appreciate. As you've highlighted, that cross-Government working on mental health is absolutely crucial, and there is a huge amount of work going on across Government in this area. I'm working closely with the Minister for education on the delivery of the whole-system approach to children's mental health and I feel that we're making good progress there and we're going to be hearing more about that shortly.

We've also got a range of employment projects that are designed to support people who are at risk of leaving employment because they've got mental health problems, and we've also got a peer support programme that is designed to ensure that some of the people who are furthest from the workplace can get back into employment. But I think it's really important that we don't stop there, and I'm very pleased to say that I've had very positive discussions with colleagues across Government about the need to work together on mental health. I see mental health as everybody's business in Government. We're taking a different approach to the budget this year, where we're having thematic discussions and one of those has been around the need to protect funding in mental health and to ensure that decisions taken in other departments don't cause disadvantage to people with mental health problems. So, I think we're making good progress. I also referred to the housing issues, but there's much more that we can do and I think we're all up for that challenge.

And just to say—I should have said in response to Rhun as well—that we are really upping our activity to promote the tier 0 support that's available. There's been a significantly enhanced presence of the C.A.L.L. helpline and SilverCloud on social media. I know that my predecessor, Eluned Morgan asked health boards to make sure that they were much more open in terms of advertising how everybody can access their services. But, of course, there's always more that we can do. But I'm focused on trying to improve the awareness of the support that is available and there is a lot of support available out there, especially at that tier 0, which we've invested very heavily in.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to raise a couple of questions about the progress of the 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan and to explore the key issues for the next plan. I also want to recognise the contribution to this work by those who have lived experiences of mental ill health, for their energy and commitment in providing their advice. My questions are: whilst welcoming the update this afternoon, can the Minister outline exactly how those who have lived experiences of mental ill health have contributed to the mental health strategy and any evaluation of the delivery plan? My second question is: you say in your statement that, by taking an early intervention and prevention approach, we can meet the challenge and reduce demand on specialist services, will the Minister consider the need for mental health A&E services to provide that early intervention? My third and last is: I would like to welcome the work being done on the long-term mental health workforce strategy; can the Minister confirm specifically which gaps in staffing need to be addressed and whether the health boards have the resources to recruit? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Altaf Hussain, for those questions. You are absolutely right: lived experience is absolutely crucial, and if we are going to have effective policies, they have to be co-produced with people with lived experience. We already have the input of people who have mental health issues across the board, really, in the work that we're doing. We have a youth stakeholder group that informs the work in education. We also consult with Young Wales about mental health, and I am going to be attending their workshop on mental health in a few weeks' time.

But, we have also got people with lived experience who are involved in the partnership council, which takes forward a lot of this work across Government as well. But, I'm always open to looking at what more we can do to have lived experience, and one of the areas that I'm particularly interested in is the area of suicide prevention, where I think people with lived experience have got a huge role to play.

You mentioned mental health A&E. I think, really, that we don't want people to be getting to that situation where they are in an emergency. The last place that we want people who are in huge distress to be is A&E, really. So, what we are trying to do is prevent those problems from escalating.

We know from the work that was commissioned previously by the Welsh Government on urgent access to NHS services that many of the problems that people are presenting in crisis with are not mental illnesses. They are problems with debt, with housing, relationships—those everyday problems that we have but that have spiralled out of control. So, our approach is to try and stem those problems and support people earlier, but with a crisis provision there if people really need it.

As I said in response to James Evans, the detailed work on the gaps in the workforce across Wales—. This is a complex issue because, obviously, all health boards are different. They have different populations. That work is being done by HEIW and Social Care Wales, and when they have completed that work and drawn up the plan, then we'll have to look at resources. But, as far as I'm concerned, as Minister, the workforce is a key challenge to delivering the reforms that we want to see. So, I will certainly do everything that I can to assure you that we will find the resources that we need to. 

Minister, 10 years ago, a constituent of mine saw a decline in mental health, which meant that he had to go for specialist care. He was prescribed anti-depressants and anti-psychotic drugs, and he's been using them since that time. Despite that, he hasn't had a review of that medication since that very early period, over 10 years ago. He went for a review to the local hospital but he was told that he would have to have a referral from a GP. The GP, in turn, said that he couldn't help because he couldn't prescribe or change such medication. So, the patient was in a cycle.

Can you ensure that you put clear guidance in place as to how often anti-psychotic medication should be reviewed, and who can review it, and that patients who are in very vulnerable situations have a clear and simple understanding of the nature of the medicine, how often it will be reviewed, and who will carry out that review, avoiding a situation where a patient is pushed from one part of the health service to another without anyone taking responsibility, and patients being lost in the system?   

Thank you very much for that question, and I'm very sorry to hear that your constituent has had that experience. Clearly, that is something that shouldn't have happened, and if you would like to write to me with the details of the constituent, I will certainly follow that up with the health board. But, I am also very happy to look at the wider issue that you have raised about the need for there to be guidance on timings, et cetera, for reviews of medication. Everybody should have regular medication reviews, whether it is physical or mental health, and that is a serious shortcoming if that hasn't happened.

But, what I would also say as well is that, what you have described—that sort of merry-go-round of services—is what we, as a Government, are committed to ending. It's in our programme for government that there will be no wrong door for people with mental health problems. That applies to adults and children, and that's what we want to see. But, if you'd like to write to me, I'd be very happy to follow up your constituent's situation.

Whilst welcoming this statement, I note that these don’t exist in the ether. If the ambition and the actions are delivered upon in this, they’ll have a real, tangible effect on our constituents, not least those who attended the Bridgend mental health round-table organised by my good friend, Sarah Murphy, and which we co-hosted last week. They raised many of the issues that you’ve referred to, curiously, in this report: referrals; signposting; and continuity of funding, curiously, for some of the wider support organisations on the ground. So, could I simply ask the Minister: what level of confidence do you have that our constituents within the Cwm Taf health area will have that prompt and timely access to early intervention, which is key, but also to acute services? What can she do to monitor progress in the individual health boards, and share that data with us? And will she, as has been said by other Members of the Senedd, engage directly with people with real, lived experience—listen to their experience of whether things are getting better at the speed she wants to see as well, and which our constituents certainly want to see?

Thank you very much, Huw, and can I thank both you and Sarah for the round-table that you organised? I think things like that are an incredibly valuable opportunity to listen to that lived experience at a local level, and I do really commend you for doing it.

We do have to make sure that what we say in this Chamber becomes reality. I hope that I’ve given a flavour of some of the mechanisms that are there within Government, in terms of the ministerial delivery and oversight board and the other bodies that we’ve got. Also, I meet regularly with vice chairs. I’ve told the regional partnership boards that I am coming around to visit every one of them to discuss how they are taking forward our NEST framework, which is our key early-intervention mechanism for children and young people. But I’m always looking to do more in this area, and I will certainly take away what you’ve said as well about lived experience to check that we're doing absolutely everything we can to make sure that the voices of those with mental health problems are fully heard in the development of our policies.

And finally, Laura Anne Jones.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this statement and delivery plan as mental health can affect anyone, regardless of colour, age or creed, and it’s vital that we tackle this head on and with some urgency. I find it very encouraging, actually, that this Government have appointed you, Lynne, as the Minister for mental health, because I know you’re a long-term campaigner on it, and you listen to people across the Chamber and you act on it. So, I welcome that, and I also welcome your focus on prevention. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.

I’d also like to take this opportunity, Deputy Presiding Officer, to commend everyone that did talk in the last mental health debate last week. I listened at home because I was ill at home, unfortunately, and couldn’t do my speech, but I found it a really, really good thing and a very powerful debate, actually, and I think it will make some difference going forward. And it’s this openness and honesty that will cement mental health no longer being a taboo subject, won’t it, Minister, and show that mental health issues can affect anyone.

I was going to say to Members in my speech last week—I was going to ask them to raise their hands—

Can I remind Members that it's not a speech? You've got a question to ask. You're going over time.

—if they’ve been affected by mental health or if they know someone who has been affected by mental health and been shocked by who it affected, because it is important that your plan can show that it can affect anyone, anywhere, like with Andrew R.T. Davies, and ensures that help is accessible to everyone, everywhere.

To this end, Minister, I’d like you to look at a Bill that’s going through the current UK Parliament at the moment. It’s ensuring that there’s parity between mental health and physical health, and ensuring that mental health first aid training forms a part of all first aid training within our businesses across the UK. So, can you ensure that that extends to Wales, and that it is happening in Wales? And then I’d also like to say as to your work in hospitals, if I may, just quickly—

You're out of time—[Inaudible.]

—that there's a safe space for adolescent mental health first aid patients in hospitals. Thank you.

Thank you, Laura, for those points, and thank you for your kind words, and I'm very keen to work cross-party to deliver this agenda, and I certainly echo your strong points about the contribution everybody's openness has made.

I belive we should have parity between mental and physical health, and that is what I've called for for a long time in this Senedd, and that is very much what I'm trying to drive forward. I'm aware of your interest in mental health first aid. I think that's one of a range of tools that can be used to support people, but, in this context of education, I would say that what we are doing is much more fundamental and radical than that really, and is designed to prevent people needing that mental health first aid. It's about embedding prevention and early intervention at a much earlier stage, really. But I'm very happy to look at the legislation that you've referred to, but please be assured that early intervention and prevention is absolutely core to what we're doing. 

Thank you, Deputy Minister.