And the next item is the short debate. And if those leaving the Chamber could do so quietly, we will call Rhun ap Iorwerth to speak to the topic that he has chosen. Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. This short debate stems from a conversation that I had with a young constituent a few weeks ago. He prompted me to look for new ways to encourage debate about mental health and specifically about how and where young people can turn for help, and I'm pleased that many Members have been prompted to want to contribute today, and I've agreed to give time to hear contributions from Mabon ap Gwynfor, Peredur Owen Griffiths and Jack Sargeant.

But returning to that conversation I had recently, I was speaking to Gareth. He was the son of a farmer from Anglesey, a student studying law; a young, talented man, a confident man with a bright future ahead of him, I have no doubt about that. But like so many of his peers, Gareth has suffered challenges with mental health; not a bad personal experience, that's not what he has in terms of searching for support, that's not what has driven him. He had support, excellent support from his GP, but he knows about others that haven't been so fortunate to have the same level of support, and as I said, Gareth is a young confident man, confident enough to e-mail his Senedd Member to have a conversation and to lobby him, and I'm so pleased that he did that. But maybe there aren't so many people who are confident enough to do that, and vitally, maybe young people who suffer with their mental health, maybe they wouldn't be willing to do that when they feel vulnerable.

I think that we are in a better place these days in terms of willingness to acknowledge mental health problems. Mental health wasn't something that we spoke about; it was a taboo subject, almost. Suffering in silence, that's what many people did, and I do feel that people—including young people—are more willing now to admit that there is something wrong. Maybe some people will suffer from intense problems, acute problems. I was a witness to that among people who were very close to me when I was a young man. That was my introduction to the reality of mental health. For the majority, the problem starts as a small one, and I'm sure that we all, all of us, can say sometimes that we feel stressed or we feel depressed or feel anxious, and I'm sure many of us turn to our own coping mechanisms, ways to respond ourselves when things aren't quite right.

But many people will need some help. Young people will need someone to support them, and early enough, in the right place, that can prevent a problem from becoming worse, and prevent mental health problems from having a long-term impact on the life of a young person.

The purpose of today's debate is to ask young people to help us as a Senedd, and through that, to help the Welsh Government to understand their experiences. On my social media platforms, I shared a questionnaire for young people, to invite them to share their experiences of trying to get access to mental health services. I hope that other Members today will be willing to do that as well, and we'll share the link to the questionnaire with all of you, of course. I've been in contact with a number of organisations working in the mental health area, and I will share the questionnaire as broadly as I can with them through organisations representing young people in Wales.

Joyce Watson took the Chair.

We have to be prepared as parliamentarians to listen, always, and we want to listen. That's why we're here. And we need to look for ways of giving people a voice, and my hope with this appeal for young people to share their personal experience is that we can reach out to some who perhaps haven't had their say before. I want young people to share their experience particularly about how easy or difficult they have found it to access help with their mental health—early help, timely support. My experience of speaking to young people suggests that there's a lack of signposting, perhaps, a lack of encouragement to seek that early support and to help to understand that early intervention is so important. When problems are allowed to grow, then it is more likely that there has to be more intensive intervention. Look at the waiting times for specialist child and mental health service support—the latest figures, I think, from Welsh Government show that waiting times for specialist CAMHS services are at a new high, with over 70 per cent of referrals waiting more than four weeks for their first appointment.

I'm not the first to ask these questions, of course, but it is important that we do look for new ways of reaching out to young people, and to do that consistently. The Welsh Youth Parliament did excellent work in this area, we have to say, a year ago, in their report 'Let's talk about mental health'. Only half of the parents or guardians who responded said that they were confident in terms of who to refer a young person to. Thirty-seven young people said that they'd had to wait between a month and a year to have support. The Mind charity also published a very important report after the first months of the pandemic back in June last year, if I remember rightly, looking at how the pandemic was affecting mental health, and that found that two thirds of young people said that their mental health had deteriorated during the pandemic. That's a statistic that shouldn't surprise any of us. We know how much stress the pandemic has imposed on people.

That Mind Cymru report says that 29 per cent of the young people questioned had tried to access mental health support during lockdown, and it goes on to say that more than 1 in 3 young people in Wales, 39 per cent, were unable to access the support that they sought, higher than the equivalent figure for England, which was around 23 per cent. That to me cuts to what I'm trying to do with this particular exercise. I've encouraged previous Ministers, and the current Minister, to ensure that the support is there, and I do so again today. We have to invest, of course, in services provided by the NHS directly, support services—some excellent services provided by charities and the third sector—ensure that the capacity is there to deal with what is undoubtedly a growing issue, but we also have to ensure that those pathways to the help that young people need are properly signposted. We have to make sure that young people are encouraged to seek that support, that they're taken by the hand on that hopefully very short journey to early intervention. And, of course, this is where the capacity issue comes in. We have to give them the confidence that when they knock on that door, it is answered and answered quickly. 

Mental health problems can take many, many forms. I spoke to Jo Whitfield of the eating disorder charity, Beat, this morning, and she said that we know that reaching out for help for an eating disorder takes a lot of courage. We also know that the sooner somebody accesses eating disorder treatment, the better their chances of recovery, and it's crucial that when somebody takes the brave step of asking for help, healthcare professionals understand how to support them, and they want to see investment in not just healthcare staff training, but education staff training, too. So, young people in need of support need to be encouraged to seek that support in the first place.  

I want to close with the words of the young man who prompted today’s debate and prompted the questionnaire that is being launched by me today. Here are Gareth's words: 'My experience of having support from my GP was excellent, but unfortunately this isn’t the same for everyone throughout Wales. There are cases where people have been turned away from having support and that's not acceptable when someone has fostered the confidence and admitted that they need support.'

'It’s vital to me', said Gareth, 'to see a Wales that's open, where support is available to anyone who needs it, by ensuring early access to experts and creating a safe space for somebody to be able to talk openly without fear.' In words, in video, through artwork or through song, or simply by filling in a questionnaire, people can respond to this in any way that they like, but I do hope that through this we can help the Government to be able to hear their voices.

The questionnaire is available on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter—the usual platforms. I hope that many of my fellow Members will be willing to share it, as well as other organisations working in mental health and with young people. I’m confident that the Minister will listen. Helping the Government is the aim here. After all, helping our young people to find their voice and helping them to face mental health challenges is an initiative that we should all agree on.

I call on Mabon ap Gwynfor. 

Thank you very much, acting Presiding Officer, and thank you very much to Rhun for bringing this very important topic to the Chamber today. The words of Gareth are echoed by the young people of Dwyfor Meirionnydd, I can tell you that. It’s been a privilege for me to visit centres and to speak to people across Dwyfor Meirionnydd since my election. But, in speaking to homelessness charities, for example, job-finding organisations and other public bodies, there are two specific themes that have emerged time and time again, and those are interlinked, namely, the mental health of young people and access to transport and services.

According to the feedback of young people to consultations in Gwynedd, they state clearly that it’s the lack of availability of services in rural communities and the lack of access to the services that are available because of transport problems that are the main challenges facing them. This problem therefore means that many young people see their mental health deteriorating. I would therefore, in your response, Minister, like to hear how you will work with other Ministers in Government in order to ensure that these services are available locally, nearby in people’s communities, and there is better connectivity between communities in order to ensure that people can travel to those services that we already have. Thank you very much.

I now call Peredur Owen Griffiths. 

Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening, and thank you, Rhun, for bringing this topic before us. I've had a discussion recently with Tom Davies from the Children's Society, and during that meeting he explained a little about the work that they do and the good work that's being done in this area, and the work done to support young people's mental health. He also hoped that the Welsh Government would consider some recommendations.

One of these was that the Children's Society recommend that Welsh Government complements its plan for better mental health support in schools through in-reach work from health services, with a strong and consistent community-based offer for those young people, up to the age of 25, who may prefer to receive support outside of education. Community-based support can be delivered through open-access hubs, which are designed to offer easy-to-access, drop-in support on a self-referral basis for young people with emotional health and well-being needs.

I'm not going to presume what the responses of the young people will be to this exciting new questionnaire launched by Rhun this evening, but I would encourage young people to participate. However, I would like to know whether the Government will consider the recommendations of the Children's Society as one way in which we can help to listen to young people and to support those young people.

I now call Jack Sargeant.

Diolch, acting Presiding Officer. I'll extend my thanks to Rhun for giving me this opportunity to talk this evening, but I think more importantly we should extend our thanks to Gareth, the young person who's brought this to you, because the bravery of Gareth to introduce this topic to you and bring it to our Senedd is certainly one that needs commending.

Members will know I do have concerns that mental health services in their entirety are not all they should be. I think it's often said that mental health services should have parity with physical health services, but I want us to start walking that walk now. Now, if services for young people are to get better, and I agree with a lot of what's been said already this evening, I would make the one comment: we have to hear more from front-line providers, from young people themselves, both those who are accessing the services and those who might not have yet, and may never need to. I think we need to hear off them also, and that goes to both the Government, us as individual Members, and perhaps our colleagues in the health committee, and it was great to see Jayne Bryant take interest in today's debate as the Chair of the children and young people's committee. Because I think it's the front-line providers, and, importantly, the young people who may need those services—that's who we need to listen to. I look forward to sharing Rhun's surveys, with Gareth's help with that, and I'd just urge the Minister to reflect on that, about what the Welsh Government can do to listen to those voices as well. Diolch.

I now call on the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being to reply to the debate. Lynne Neagle.

Thank you, acting Llywydd, and can I thank Rhun for bringing this debate today and for sharing with us the views of his constituent, Gareth? I very much welcome that, and I'm sure Gareth is very pleased that you've been able to raise his concerns in the Senedd. I'd also like to thank all the other Members who have spoken today.

Nothing is a bigger priority for me than protecting, improving and supporting the emotional and mental health of our children and young people, and my focus is in three key areas: prevention, early intervention and strengthening specialist services for those young people that need that level of support. But to do this effectively, it does absolutely need a cross-Government and multi-agency approach, and I am determined to play my part in driving this agenda forward, and indeed am already having very positive discussions with colleagues across Government about how they can contribute to this agenda.

Rhun is absolutely right. Listening to young people with lived mental health experience is crucial, and we do have robust mechanisms in place to support this. This includes with our national youth stakeholder group, which ensures that the work of our whole-system approach programme is informed by the voices of children and young people. I take every opportunity that is presented to me to listen to the voices of children and young people, exactly as I did when I was Chair of the committee, and I will continue to do that, including when our new Youth Parliament is elected. Health boards also have arrangements in place to ensure that young people have the opportunity to inform and shape services and support.

We're also working in partnership with the Wolfson centre at Cardiff University. This is a multi-disciplinary team aiming to understand the causes of adolescent mental health problems and inform new ways of supporting our young people. I'm very pleased that the centre has recruited young people with lived experience of mental health to join its new advisory group and I see this as a huge opportunity to ensure that mental health support for children and young people is informed by world-leading research. I also very much welcome the questionnaire that Rhun has put on his social media, and would be grateful if, when he has completed that, he could share the findings with me. I'm actually meeting Beat tomorrow to talk about their services and I'm pleased that Welsh Government has very significantly increased investment in Beat in recognition of the increase and acuity we've seen in young people presenting with eating disorders. 

In addition to this, ensuring that formal advocacy services are available for children and young people is also vital, and each health board has its own arrangements in place to offer this. In addition, there are, as I said, a variety of ways in which individual health boards have been working to support children and young people, including hosting young people's groups and producing a young people's charter that is consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I do, though, recognise that more work needs to be done to strengthen advocacy services for children and young people, because that work has been impacted by the pandemic, and just want to reiterate my commitment to driving that work forward.

Peredur referred to the recommendations of the Children's Society, so I thought it would be useful to highlight the work that we're doing already to ensure that there is support for children and young people available at the earliest opportunity. Our current approach in Welsh Government has been informed by a number of key pieces of work, including the 'Mind over matter' report, the inquiry that I chaired and drove forward as Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, and the whole-system approach task and finish group. It's also been informed by the national youth stakeholder group. This work has supported a whole-system approach, ensuring that this support is available across multiple settings to improve access and, vitally, those are settings where children and young people live their lives—in schools, in colleges and in youth services.

Health boards are currently establishing single points of contact, which will help identify those young people who do not require specialist mental health support, but link them to appropriate support in the community. We're also finalising plans to pilot alternatives to admission for young people in crisis. Providing the right support in the right environment is essential, which is why, in March this year, we published a new statutory framework to embed a whole-school approach to support children and young people's mental health and well-being across Wales. Supporting implementation of the framework, we've agreed funding of £360,000 in 2021-22 to appoint implementation co-ordinators to work with schools and partners, supporting them to assess and address their well-being needs.

As part of our whole-system approach, we've invested in child and adolescent mental health services school in-reach pilots. The final evaluation, published in June 2021, showed promising results, and, in particular, the support provided by dedicated mental health practitioners in building capacity within schools to support pupil mental health and well-being. And I'm pleased to say, Peredur, that, based on this positive experience, we are now rolling out this service across the whole of Wales, and, earlier in the summer, awarded almost £4 million in the current year to support national roll-out. We see the in-reach service as a key aspect of support under our whole-school approach and the statutory framework we published on 15 March. In the three-year budget period, 2019-20 to 2021-22, we've increased the budget to support our whole-system approach work by 360 per cent, demonstrating our commitment in this area. Nine million pounds has been committed to support this programme in 2021-22. This includes funding to extend and improve school counselling provision, support to deliver universal and targeted intervention for learners in schools, and to support the training of teachers and other school staff on their own and children's well-being. 

Earlier this year, we also published the NHS NEST, or NYTH, framework—nurturing, empowering, safe and trusted is what NEST stands for—and this framework provides a planning tool for regional planning boards to implement a whole-system approach for developing mental health, well-being and support services for children, young people and their families. We're supporting regional planning boards to implement the NEST framework in a systematic and integrated way across Wales and I'm holding regular meetings with health boards and will be visiting individual regional partnership boards across Wales to drive progress. Crucially, this will help provide appropriate emotional mental health support for those who do not need clinical support or intervention. Crucially, it will also be co-produced with children and young people and their families. 

We're also making good progress in terms of delivering on actions to improve mental health in youth work approaches. We've introduced additional flexibility into the youth support grant and national voluntary youth organisation grant. This has enabled local authorities in the voluntary sector to respond in a more agile way to the needs of young people to help support their emotional well-being and mental health needs throughout the pandemic. This includes online activities, keeping in touch and face-to-face contact for the most vulnerable young people. 

I do of course recognise the need to ensure that specialist services are available for those children who need that level of support. Building on our previous investment this year, we've committed an additional £5.4 million to improve CAMHS support both in the community and in our specialist CAMHS units in Wales. We've also invested in NHS crisis services and we're on track to have a 24-hour all-age single point of contact available for mental health crisis in all health board areas by April next year. This support will be critical in providing rapid access to a mental health practitioner to advise and support and to refer into other support if needed. 

So, in conclusion, acting Presiding Officer, I hope that I have been able to demonstrate today and give some reassurance that this issue remains top of my political agenda and that I'm absolutely determined to continue to drive this work forward. There is nothing more important than delivering on the mental health and emotional support needs of our children and young people. Diolch yn fawr. 

Thank you, everyone, and that brings today's proceedings to a close. 

The meeting ended at 18:28.