However, out of these circumstances, Rhian established the 2 Wish Upon a Star charity—a charity that provides vital help and support to others. 2 Wish supports families and staff through the unexpected loss of a child or young adult by providing memory boxes, counselling and a number of immediate support services. Longer term support can include complementary therapy, play therapy, focus support groups, residential weekends and monthly events. The offer of support is made by front-line healthcare workers at the point of or in the hours following the tragic death. Once verbal consent from the family has been gained, the healthcare worker will contact 2 Wish with information regarding the death and the family. 2 Wish will make the first contact within the first 24 to 48 hours of the referral being made. However, at present, not all families are immediately or directly offered support, and Rhian seeks to ensure that a pathway for bereaved families must ensure that a proactive offer of support is made. Acting Presiding Officer, families must be asked, and, of course, they may decline that offer.

Without an offer of support, families who have just lost a child are left on their own to cope. Some are given information leaflets about services, which places the onus on families to reach out and find support available and the appropriate support available for their need. They face answerphone messages, long waiting times and the possibility that the organisations listed on those pieces of paper might be unable to support them. Rhian herself describes how this causes feelings of isolation, loneliness and low self worth. 2 Wish works with every hospital, mortuary, coroner's office and police force in Wales. They have strong relationships with the Wales Air Ambulance, organ donation teams, and are involved in the child death review with Public Health Wales. Referrals by these organisations are, sadly, made daily. It provides support to staff who deal with sudden death in young people, and provides training around the offer of support and how to support suddenly bereaved families. It also offers immediate and ongoing support to professionals who are struggling following the death of a child. Members of the Petitions Committee have received testimonials of their work from every police force in Wales. These petitions clearly express how reliant they are on the services, both to support members of the public, and, importantly, their own officers. My own police force, North Wales Police, told the committee that the support of 2 Wish has enabled them to revitalise and streamline the support provided in response to tragic events.

When the Petitions Committee considered this petition for the first time, the Welsh Government had established a bereavement support working group to help develop and deliver improved support arrangements. Bereavement support, as Members will know, has three components, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence: provision of information and signposting; formal opportunities to reflect upon grief, in individual or group sessions; and specialist interventions, possibly including psychological support and counselling. The Government has also commissioned a study of bereavement services. It has highlighted that several organisations indicated challenges in meeting the demand for their services. This is a clear issue, considering the vital importance for services to be able to respond quickly to support the people at their very time of need.

Services such as those provided by 2 Wish already provide support to significant numbers of families each year in Wales. The number of referrals to the services has increased every single year since the charity was established in 2014. These referrals have been generated through their own dedication and dedicated working with the NHS, police forces, GPs and mental health services. However, they do cite examples of significant numbers of families not signposted to their support. The petition calls for every family facing the most difficult of circumstances to be offered support. No family, professional or individual should be left to cope on their own. As the petition goes on to explain:

'Families require support immediately after such loss. They need to have a point of contact if they have questions and a friendly ear to listen. You never get over the loss of your child and families need to know there is long term support in place for to help them through the grieving process.'

So many bereavement services, including those of 2 Wish, are provided by charities, and the committee has received concerns about the lack of funding from the public sector for the services that these organisations provide. Despite referring people to the services, no health boards in Wales currently provide any funding to 2 Wish. We as a committee believe that this is something that could and should be addressed by the Welsh Government. There is a question of long-term sustainability when we are relying on fundraising and charitable donations alone to pay for such vital services.

In conclusion, the committee acknowledges the steps taken by the Welsh Government for the establishment of the bereavement support working group and the associated study of existing services. We note the development and consultation on the draft national framework for bereavement care. We hope that these will deliver lasting improvements to the support available to everyone affected by the loss of a child or young person.

However, through this debate today, we are seeking further commitments about the Welsh Government's approach moving forward. Does the Government intend to work towards ensuring that all professionals follow an immediate support pathway at the time of death? The petitioner has proposed that this should be done in a way that takes responsibility away from the bereaved family or individual and places it upon the organisation to proactively offer and arrange that support. I hope that the Minister—who I know is very keen to support this charity, and I praise the Minister for the work she's done both before her post and in her post to date—will be able to refer to this in her response to today's debate.

The petitioner has also called for improved training for healthcare workers who may need to support bereaved families and for those professionals so that they themselves have somewhere to turn for support. 

Finally, Llywydd, what approach does the Welsh Government intend to take to ensure that these critical support services are available for everyone who needs them and are adequately funded for this purpose? Can we continue with a situation in which support signposted by the NHS, by every single police force in Wales and others is provided in large part through charitable funding? Providing support to people dealing with sudden bereavement is something we should all aspire to. Acting Presiding Officer, this is an area where Wales can set an example to other nations, and I want us all today, as Members of the Senedd, to light a candle, a candle that will give people heat and light in the darkest and coldest of circumstances.

I very much look forward to hearing the contributions of Members here in the Chamber, and, of course, the Deputy Minister's response. Diolch yn fawr iawn.