Item 8, a debate on the Children's Commissioner for Wales's annual report 2020-21. I call on the Minister for Social Justice to move the motion. Jane Hutt.

Motion NDM7797 Lesley Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd:

Notes the Children’s Commissioner for Wales's Annual Report 2020-21.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to debate the Children’s Commissioner for Wales's annual report for 2020-21 today. And the publication of Professor Sally Holland's annual report provides an important opportunity for us to collectively focus on children's rights. It's a time to take stock of progress and to take account of the commissioner's calls for us to go further. And this last year has been like no other, particularly for children and young people. The impact of the pandemic continues to affect their lives and the lives of their families. I'm extremely grateful to the children's commissioner for her independent role in championing the rights of children during this difficult time.

The commissioner and her team have consistently prioritised the needs of all children and young people in Wales, ensuring their voices are heard and their rights are respected. This has been evident in the engagement the children's commissioner has had with the Welsh Government over the course of the pandemic. The commissioner has retained a relentless focus on children and young people during this crisis, and has worked constructively throughout with Ministers and officials. And this has allowed us to work through difficult issues, ensuring children and young people's needs are taken into account and their rights protected. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank the children's commissioner and her team for their work on the 'Coronavirus and Me' surveys of children and young people.

The commissioner, working in partnership with Welsh Government, the Youth Parliament and Children in Wales, led a project to hear directly how the pandemic was affecting the health, education and social aspects of young people's lives. Nearly 44,000 responses were received in May 2020 and January 2021, ensuring children's voices have been heard during the pandemic. The commissioner used the surveys as an opportunity to listen to the views of children from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds and disabled children. The survey findings highlighted several areas where black, Asian and minority ethnic children and young people's access to their rights was not equal to their white Welsh or British counterparts, and this included their ability to exercise and play, staying in contact with friends and family, food insecurity, and worries about implications for their learning. These findings show us the role racism, discrimination and disadvantage play in these young people's experiences, and focuses us on the need for action in the race equality action plan for an anti-racist Wales. The findings from all the surveys were used cross Government, including when difficult choices needed to be made about restrictions on children's daily lives.

I'd also like to thank the Deputy Minister for Social Services for her extensive work with the children's commissioner. The Deputy Minister meets regularly with the commissioner, as does the First Minister and other members of Cabinet, and this ongoing engagement has helped us to retain a clear focus on the rights of children and young people in our work, especially during the pandemic.

The commissioner published her annual report for 2020-21 last week with a number of calls to action, including in relation to mental health, and I hope that we can use our time today to explore those areas where the commissioner has made calls for us to go further in our work. The report outlines the achievements of her office over the last financial year and their ongoing activity to respond to the pandemic, and this includes her first formal review of Welsh Government's exercise of its functions. She used her formal powers in relation to elective home education and safeguarding in independent schools. Welsh Government responded to her review in March this year. 

This annual report includes 18 recommendations for the Welsh Government. These include recommendations relating to care-experienced children, education, children's health, the youth justice blueprint and the unpaid carers strategy. And this debate today will give Members of the Senedd the opportunity to express their views on the commissioner's report and to comment on the areas the commissioner has raised. I'd like to welcome the breadth and depth of the recommendations. However, I won't be discussing the specifics of our response to them today. The First Minister will publish the Welsh Government's response to the commissioner's annual report by 30 November.

Before Members debate this report, it is important to state that some of the recommendations the commissioner's put forward remain affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and there are some areas where we have not seen the progress we would have liked because of the need to pause or reprioritise workloads. Despite this, our intentions remain resolute. We are proud of our history in Wales, with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child continuing to be the basis for our policy for children. It's central to our approach to our work to improve children's outcomes, by helping and supporting them to achieve their full potential. 

Deputy Llywydd, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that Professor Sally Holland's term as commissioner comes to an end in April next year, so this will be her last annual report. I'd therefore like to thank the commissioner for everything she's done to assist children and young people throughout her seven-year term. She's been a tireless advocate on behalf of children and young people and a champion of their rights and well-being. We are currently going through the process to appoint Sally's successor on a cross-party basis, and the First Minister will aim to make an announcement in the new year.

In conclusion, I look forward to this important debate, as we focus on the children's commissioner's independent report and our progress in supporting children's rights across Wales. The commissioner's independent role is vital, and we will continue to work with her office for the benefit of all children and young people in Wales. Diolch.

I call on the Chair of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee, Jayne Bryant.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I'm pleased to speak in this Plenary debate for the first time in my capacity as Chair of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee. I hope to build on the work of the predecessor committee and Chair, who, throughout their five-year term, demonstrated the value of effective committee scrutiny in driving through important changes to improve the lives of children and young people in Wales. As a committee, we have not yet had the opportunity to scrutinise the children's commissioner on her annual report. We will hold that session on 18 November.

As this is the current commissioner's last annual report, I'd like to thank her and her team for all their work over the past six and a half years in advocating for the rights of children and young people in Wales. I'd also like to echo the words of the children's commissioner, in her foreword to the report, to thank all those front-line workers who've supported, nurtured, cared for and educated children and young people throughout this pandemic, and, of course, to pay tribute to the nearly 700,000 children and young people in Wales who have shown resilience way beyond their years over the past 18 months.

We're all aware that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child underpins all the work that the commissioner does. The right for children to express their views about things that affect them, and have their opinions taken into account when decisions are made, is well understood. And, as the Minister mentioned, a very rare example of this in practice has been the 'Coronavirus and Me' surveys that the commissioner has run over the pandemic, with 44,000 children and young people contributing to them over the reporting period. And we will certainly be taking into account some of these findings as we look to devise and refine our strategic plan as a committee.

It's also very reassuring to see the commissioner state that, despite the pandemic, her office were able to deliver all the pre-pandemic objectives, whilst also doing additional work that arose because of the pandemic. The report also sets out a number of recommendations across a wide range of policy areas. I'm sure that, as a committee, some of these will be areas we will explore in more detail over the coming months and years.

Today, I'd like to seek some further detail from the Welsh Government on how they intend to respond to those recommendations as they relate to children in care. I'm highlighting these as they relate to clear programme for government commitments. The programme for government commits to eliminate private profit from the care of looked-after children. The commissioner calls for a road map to be brought forward by April next year to set out the timescale and action for delivering on this. Can the Minister indicate whether such a road map will be published within the timescale, and if not, why not? In the annual report, the commissioner calls for the Government to bring forward swiftly statutory entitlements and policy for care leavers as a coherent package. I welcome the commitment from the Deputy Minister in our committee last week that the Government intends to legislate in this Senedd term to ensure that every care leaver is entitled to a personal adviser up to the age of 25. Can the Minister outline today what other elements of the package of support they intend to make available to care leavers?

Once again, I'd like to thank the commissioner and her team for all their hard work, detailed in the annual report. The commissioner's role as an independent champion, advocating for children's rights and well-being, has been crucial. I look forward to exploring the report in more detail with the commissioner and the committee members on 18 November. Diolch yn fawr.

Firstly, I would like to start by thanking the children's commissioner for all her hard work and dedication throughout her time in office. I'd also thank her and her staff for preparing this report. Sadly, like many other sections of society, children, particularly vulnerable children whose conditions may have been made worse by the substantial changes they have faced during the COVID pandemic, have suffered disproportionately, and it is certainly recognised that the children's commissioner has genuinely attempted to address many of the issues that they and their families have faced. Indeed, I've read the commissioner's report with much interest, and it is very pleasing to see the care and attention that she has been giving to so many aspects of child welfare.

Personally speaking, I was also pleased to see mentioned the round-table event that was held earlier this year and gave a platform to younger deaf people to voice their concerns. As Members may or may not be aware, I've spoken publicly about the hearing difficulties that I faced growing up and the impact it has had on my learning. As you can tell from what I wear around my neck, it is still something that has an impact on me, and as a result I'm very keen to see improvements delivered within this area. As such, I understand, for many years, that the deaf community have shared with the commissioner's office their frustrations that the needs of the community are not being addressed, and although the report highlighted some engagement, it nonetheless did not make any specific recommendations for deaf children. I believe this to be a shame, given the amount of work and effort that has been put into it by the deaf community to get the Welsh Government to make adequate provision for their needs.

So, with that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to re-emphasise the need for a national charter in Wales to help with the delivery of services and resources, including education, for deaf children, young people and their families. Such a charter would enable local authorities to plan and resource support within a nationally recognised framework and help to ensure a consistency of provision throughout Wales. Likewise, we need to formally recognise that, in Wales, British Sign Language is the first language of deaf people, and we urgently need to address the concerns that they have raised about the standard and quality of British Sign Language for specialist education professionals.

Towards the end of the fifth Senedd, my colleague Mark Isherwood proposed a Bill that seeks to ensure that the deaf community and people with hearing loss have a voice in the design and delivery of services to ensure that they meet the needs of service users, with actions including the establishment of a BSL national advisory group, for example. The Bill had cross-party support, and I know it was one that many deaf people were eagerly anticipating to be introduced, but, sadly, the Government has yet to bring it forward. On behalf of all those who suffer from hearing loss and their families and supporters, can I now make a call for this Government to commit to introducing the British Sign Language Bill for Wales during this Senedd term? Many deaf people who use BSL lack access to education, health services, employment and other public services, and it's widely reported that a large percentage of deaf people struggle with achieving higher educational attainment, which can affect them throughout their lives. Given the impact of what proper and correct support can achieve in helping deaf children live an active and full life, I believe that it's vital that we put this into place—this legislation.

Finally, I would also like address the issue mentioned in the commissioner's report of how long the Welsh Government is taking to bring forward statutory entitlements and policies for care leavers as a coherent package. The Government agreed with the recommendations of the 'Hidden Ambitions' report in 2017, which is almost five years ago, yet they've still not implemented those amendments to the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 that were proposed. Likewise, the Government was also asked to develop national standards to address concerns of quality, sufficiency and suitability of semi-independent accommodation for care-experienced young people up to the age of 25 by its joint housing and social services group, but progress on these proposals has seemingly stopped.

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales commented in her report that there is an implementation gap between the aspirations set out by the Welsh Government in policy and legislation and its commitment to drive and resource delivery on the ground. And it appears that it's the same story here as well. The Minister, I'm sure, should be very conscious as to how disrespectful this is to not only all those who have put in so much time and effort at the behest of this Government, but to all those children and young people who are being failed also in receiving the appropriate care that they need. This Government has agreed to the recommendations that they have asked for, and yet you have done very little in terms of implementing them. I believe the issue of caring for the health and well-being of our children and young people should transcend party-political lines, but the fact that the commissioner still needs to make calls for this legislation to be implemented is obscene. Can the Minister explain to all those young people who would have benefited from the implementation of this recommended legislation why this Government has continually failed to implement it? I'm also wondering whether the Minister would actually be brave enough to make an apology for this and recommit to implement the recommendations that were agreed to so long ago. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this report. I would like to focus on specific aspects of the report, namely those that need urgent attention and those that haven't received attention yet this afternoon. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister for her comments, accepting of course that the full official response isn't available yet. 

Turning first of all to children who are excluded or suspended from school. How on earth is it possible that we need to exclude a child of three years of age, a child of five years of age, or a child who is seven years of age from school? How do we need to exclude 768 children who are between the ages of three and seven over a period of a year? These figures from the children's commissioner are frightening, and it's clear that the same process of exclusion should not be implemented for young children as for older pupils up to the age of 16—even though we need to raise questions about the process for older children as well, by the way. But, in terms of the younger children, the commissioner has found that one child was excluded 18 times in a year. We're not talking about a statistic here, we're talking about a child, and it is clear that exclusion for a child time and time again doesn't get to the heart of the problem, nor does it respond to that child's needs. These children need to be supported, not turned away, and the Government needs to implement a policy to prevent the exclusion of children under the age of eight, and we need to review the exclusion guidelines for older children as well. I would like to hear this afternoon that this is a concern and that there is work under way to respond to the situation. 

Another issue that causes concern as a result of the annual report is the reform of the youth justice system. The commissioner states clearly that there hasn't been sufficient progress and, importantly, there's been very slow progress towards that youth justice blueprint. During the pandemic, the commissioner drew attention to children who were held in custody and who were losing their rights, or missing out on their rights. So, may we know what the timeline is for the full introduction of the blueprint, and, in the meantime, how much of a concern is it for the Government that there isn't an emphasis on alternative methods, rather than holding children in custody? There aren't sufficient opportunities for those restorative justice systems. Now, the commissioner also drew attention to the problem of children from Wales being held in custody in England, and it would be good to hear about the progress made with that particular problem.

Turning to another issue, namely the registration of staff in independent schools with the Education Workforce Council, or indeed the lack of progress towards implementing this to safeguard pupils, especially to safeguard girls from sexual harassment. It's been a matter of concern for the commissioner for some time, and I do share that concern. Plaid Cymru has been sharing this concern that the Government is so slow in solving this problem of registration, so it would be good to hear that the Government at last is going to implement the twelfth recommendation of the children's commissioner's annual report, to safeguard school pupils in Wales.

And I turn finally to another issue of concern, namely children who are educated at home. The commissioner has stated that the secondary legislation that the Government intends to introduce on elective home education, that this secondary legislation is insufficient and doesn't go far enough in terms of safeguarding the rights of children. I'd like to know what the rationale is behind not following the advice of the commissioner to bring forward primary legislation on this issue. I know that there's a lack of time within the legislative timetable, but perhaps there might be other reasons for being so unwilling to take robust action in this area. So, I'd like to hear the Minister's comments on these areas, please. May I thank the commissioner very much for her tireless work, continuing to press for these changes that are needed? The sadness is that we are still discussing these issues and that we still need to see action being taken.

Jane Dodds. Can we unmute? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'd also like to thank Sally Holland.

Thank you for all your work, not just throughout the past year, which has been an exceptionally difficult year, but since being appointed in 2015.

I'd just like to focus on one small issue, and again, I'm asking the Minister to look at a road map in relation to this particular issue, and that is children in care. The number of children looked after in Wales has increased by 38 per cent over the last decade to over 6,000 children looked after in Wales as of March two years ago, and we expect that the figures more recently will show an additional increase. The children's commissioner first called for the Welsh Government to take action on residential care in 2016, and despite this recommendation being accepted by the Welsh Government in 2017 and 2018, progress on taking steps to phase out profit in children's residential care services has been very slow. However, I do feel hopeful that work on this complex area will progress, especially after my legislative motion on this very issue passed through the Senedd before the summer recess.

In spring 2021, the Welsh Government published their White Paper on 'Rebalancing care and support', which proposes developing a national social care framework to set fair commissioning practices for providers. This is coupled with a strong Welsh Labour manifesto pledge to eliminate private profit from the care of looked-after children during this Senedd term. The Welsh Government must now bring forward this road map by 1 April 2022, which will set out the timescales and actions that they will begin to safely phase profit out of children's social care provision. So, I would like to ask the Minister: when will we have that road map to realise this ambition? I do totally understand the complexity of these issues and don't want to disrupt the process, but we do need formal proposals being brought forward by the Welsh Government. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Good evening, everybody. I would just like to thank the children's commissioner and her staff for their ongoing work to protect the rights of Welsh children, and for the dedication they have shown throughout this past year. I do, however, have an issue with the stance taken over independent care providers. The private sector provides eight out of every 10 placements for children in care. Given the vast black hole that exists in funding for social services, we cannot expect the public sector to step in. Local authorities were already struggling with cost pressures prior to the pandemic. Services for looked-after children are woefully underfunded and funding shortfalls will be much worse as we emerge from the pandemic.

The WLGA have stated that local authorities are concerned about the demands that will be placed upon services as we emerge from the lockdown. There is still a backlog of court cases that is adding to the challenges faced in making appropriate and sustainable placements for looked-after children and young people. Without private providers, the situation would be much worse. Despite the private sector providing 80 per cent of placements, we still, sadly, saw over 365 children placed outside Wales last year. The problem isn't with the care providers, it's with the system. After all, our NHS and our care system is founded on the principle of public and private sectors working hand in hand together. Without the private sector, we would have no GPs, no dentists, no opticians, no medicines, and large numbers of children and young people without any care.

Lack of funding and, more importantly, demand are the major issues facing looked-after children's care. Just last week, the Auditor General for Wales outlined a stark fact: the number of looked-after children in Wales has increased by two thirds since 2004. The Wales Centre for Public Policy found that Wales has consistently had a higher number of looked-after children than the rest of the UK, and the gap is continuing to widen. It has also found that there is local variation in the number of looked-after children, with numbers in some council areas remaining steady or falling. They found that some of the variation was due to differing social work practices and policies across councils. The centre also found that Welsh judges are more likely than their UK counterparts to make orders allowing councils to take children into care, and I would ask Sally Holland and her team to focus on tackling this disparity.

Why are children in Wales more likely to end up in care? We all know that children in care are more likely to suffer poorer outcomes. While it's right that we should do everything in our power to improve the life chances of care leavers, the best action we can take is to prevent children from going into care in the first place and remembering that prevention should be our main focus. Thank you very much.

The children's commissioner's annual report notes that groups of children currently face inequality due to a variety of factors, but it's on the effect of poverty that I'd like to focus. I welcome this report, and I really urge the Welsh Government to consider its recommendations with the sense of urgency that is suggested, particularly in regard to the expansion of eligibility for free school meals. Given Westminster's cruel decision to cut universal credit last week by £20, and the lack of interest, it seems, in truly addressing fuel poverty, we know Welsh children will be suffering this winter through absolutely no fault of their own. The Welsh Government has a duty to govern in the interests of the people of Wales, and so a failure to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from Tory austerity would be a gross abdication of this basic responsibility. There's also a need for Welsh Government to implement the principles it claims to represent—the principle of universality, for example, which was crucial to the establishment of the NHS and the welfare state, needs to be adopted if we are to end child poverty and the disadvantages it causes, which are outlined by this report.

On the issue of tackling child poverty, the report states that the commissioner had recommended that the Government publish a delivery plan, but the Government had rejected this. The report notes that the Government had undertaken their own child poverty internal review and found that not everyone was accessing their full entitlements. There is low awareness of entitlements, exacerbated by literacy and language barriers, and the programmes restricted by postcode/area exclude some people in need. Introducing universal policies such as free school meals for all children in state schools would go a long way in tackling these issues. The example given in the report of a family who went without any payments for free school meals during lockdown for six months due to a local authority cross-boundary issue and changes to local authority policy clearly shows why implementing a universal free-school-meal system would ensure no Welsh families would find themselves in need in this way. So, the question must be asked why the Welsh Government thus far has not done so, given it's supposed commitment to socialist principles, the widespread calls by anti-poverty and children's rights campaigners to do so, and the large and international body of evidence that points to the transformational effect of universal free school meals. There can be no doubt that the Government needs to take urgent action on child poverty. More of the same won't cut it. Bold action is needed if we are to end this moral stain on our society. The recommendation of the children's commissioner report that free-school-meals eligibility should be urgently addressed couldn't be clearer.

As the winter approaches and the pressures on Welsh families with children are highlighted in report after report, and in this Chamber time and time again, the Government needs to set a statutory target to cut child poverty and act without delay to extend the eligibility of free school meals, and this has to happen now, as Welsh families with children face a hard and difficult winter, their living costs rising as their income is being so cruelly cut. Can the Minister give us her assurance that the Welsh Government will finally act on this? Diolch. 

I call on the Minister to reply to the debate.

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you to all the Members today who've contributed to the debate on the children's commissioner's annual report. Also, it was very important to hear from Jayne Bryant, our new Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, that her committee will be considering this and considering the recommendations and the report as well. All of this is going to help inform and guide us as we move forward. Also, thank you to Jayne Bryant for acknowledging again the important independent, strong voice and role of the children's commissioner and, indeed, the recognition that the children's commissioner and the Chair of the committee of those key workers at the front line working with children and young people, and the resilience, as the children's commissioner has highlighted in the report, of our children and young people through this most challenging time for our generation and for their generations for which we have such a responsibility to listen, learn and support them.

So, it is quite clear that the Coronavirus and Me surveys were very important. I do thank Joel James for his recognition as well of the important role of the children's commissioner, and for acknowledging one specific area. It is important that you drew attention to the round-table that was undertaken and the recognition of the needs of deaf children. Although this debate is about the report, I certainly will undertake to update you on our work and response to the BSL charter, and the research that's being undertaken, of course, having responded to Mark Isherwood's debate in the last Senedd. I'm very happy to separately respond and update colleagues and Members on that issue. 

Members have referred to important recommendations and areas where there is expectation that the Welsh Government needs to respond appropriately and fully to those recommendations, which we will do in due course, as I've said, by the end of November. And I think the recommendation in terms of statutory entitlements for care leavers is very key to this, as the second recommendation is calling us to

'swiftly bring forward statutory entitlements and policies for care leavers as a coherent package.'

Of course, this is something that we've been working on very closely. Just to reassure colleagues here today and Senedd Members, we are committed to legislating in this Senedd term to ensure all care leavers have an entitlement to a personal adviser up to the age of 25. And we are able to make this change via regulations under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, and the timetabling and prioritisation of subordinate legislation is currently being considered for this term, and we anticipate that this will be taken forward in 2022-23. So, this is an important opportunity to reassure people. We of course remain committed to supporting care leavers to adulthood and independence, and we're keen to build on the work that was undertaken in the last Senedd term and the outcomes achieved. This is going to be about delivering on this commitment to provide care leavers with that statutory entitlement to access a personal adviser up to the age of 25.

And, of course, there are key issues that have been raised by Members today. Siân Gwenllian raised the important issue in terms of the recommendations around exclusions for our youngest children in the foundation phase. Just in 2019, of course, you will recall we published updated guidance, which was published back in 2015, on exclusions from schools and pupil referral units. This sets out the support schools and local authorities must put in place for all children who have been excluded from school and from pupil referral units, and it is vital that we have early support and intervention that leaves no young child excluded from education. I am absolutely clear that exclusion should only be used as a last resort. This is about underpinning the commitment that every child and young person receives an education so that they can thrive and flourish in society, and so it is that vital, important early intervention and support that is crucial, and I thank Siân Gwenllian for raising that point.

But also, it's important to recognise the issues around the youth justice blueprint, and I'm glad that I've got responsibilities, but of course responsibilities for many of these recommendations lie across the Welsh Government and are jointly shared in terms of our responsibilities. In terms of moving forward with the youth justice blueprint, we've got updated implementation plans, refreshed project delivery timescales, and they were published in consultation with our partners in March of this year, but also a further £500,000 to the blueprint programme as well—strong partnership moving forward. And it's with the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services, Julie Morgan, and me, that we agreed to work with the Ministry of Justice to deliver an outcome that will see children in the welfare and justice systems in Wales co-located in the same building and site. We've got a joint programme. The custody project is also a joint programme. So, it's crucial that we are moving forward, and I can even respond today positively in terms of those recommendations.

Of course, there are many here; I can't answer them all, but we will do when we have our final report. Of course, recognising the issues around independent schools, the safeguarding and well-being of young people is crucially important, and we need to look at this in terms of the importance of registration of staff working in the independent school sector with the EWC, which would supplement the safeguarding provisions already in place. Of course, home education again—another recommendation of the children's commissioner. And, Deputy Llywydd, I will just say that this is again an area where we're making progress in this area. Of course, there has been an impact of COVID-19, as I said in my opening remarks, but the work, although it had to be paused in 2020, has been restarted.

Now, I do want to finally focus on the two key final points that have been made by Members. Jane Dodds gave very powerful—as she has done previously—support for the recommendation in terms of eliminating profit making from the care of looked-after children. It's one of the highest priorities for this Government. And I will say that to Gareth Davies—that is of highest priority, and we intend to remove all private profit from the care of children in relation to children's care homes.

Finally, Sioned Williams, yes, of course we see the work that we're doing in terms of free school meals not just in terms of a central pillar to our approach to tackling poverty, but also the eligibility review. I think it's good that, also, the children's commissioner recognised the importance of our free school breakfasts, where we led the way by introducing those free breakfasts in primary schools in 2004. But clearly, the important points that have been made in this debate today, covering a whole range of areas that affect our children and young people, will be vital as we move forward to fully respond to the children's commissioner's report. Can I just finally say, we have a very proud tradition of putting children's rights at the heart of our decision making? The children's commissioner's annual report is one of the ways we are held to account, and that's what's happened this afternoon, which is important for how we support children's rights as entitlements for children and young people. I do want to mention the fact that my colleague Julie Morgan, Deputy Minister for Social Services, will publish the Welsh Government's revised children's rights scheme before the end of the year and it will set out the arrangements we have in place for having due regard to the UNCRC when Ministers exercise any of their functions.

Finally, Dirprwy Lywydd, I'm sure that you will all again join me in thanking the commissioner, Sally Holland, for everything that she's done to make sure that all children know about their rights, how to access those rights and how to challenge when they're not receiving those rights. She has done this consistently during her term in office and we wish her well as she comes to the end of her term. Thank you, all, for the roles that you've played today in today's debate. Our response in November will show how seriously we take our commitment to children's rights. We respect the recommendations and the report of our children's commissioner. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you, Minister. The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? No. The motion is therefore agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36. 

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

That brings today's proceedings to a close.

The meeting ended at 18:16.