While areas in the co-operation agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru will now be of immense help to alleviate the disadvantage inflicted by poverty, such as the entitlement to free childcare for two-year-olds and free school meals for all primary school children, we shouldn't stop there. We cannot lose ambition when protecting those most vulnerable in our society—those who are nothing less than the future of our nation. These long-needed policies are first steps. And when I hear some Members on other benches talk about the cost of these steps, it frankly makes me angry and so frustrated, because when addressing issues such as this, we need to talk less about cost and more about investment—investment in our most important priority. Not a priority, but the priority. And if we don't adopt that mindset, then we will never achieve that which the motion before us represents: a true and binding commitment to hearing and recognising the needs of children, and of putting those needs at the heart of everything we do and want to achieve as a nation in social, economic, cultural, civil and political terms.

An issue that has been repeatedly raised by reports and stakeholders when evaluating the effectiveness of Welsh Government in implementing the UNCRC is that of child rights impact assessments, and we've heard a bit about it this afternoon. While impact assessments are, obviously, an important tool, they must not become that tick-box exercise, and should be, instead, influencing policy—really meaningfully influencing policy.

As we heard the Senedd committee—. The Children, Young People and Education Committee found that child rights impact assessments were being produced far too late in the policy development process, which, of course, is not only detrimental for children and young people’s rights, but suggests that children's rights are not always driving decisions made by Government. As these integrated impact assessments play a role in the draft children's rights scheme being voted on today, the Government must take care to ensure these assessments are carried out properly with due care to benefit the children of Wales. Too often, progressive and enlightened policy falls at that hurdle of implementation.

These impact assessments are also being used to tackle issues of discrimination among different groups of children. We know that young people in Wales face Islamophobia, racism, ableism and other forms of discrimination throughout their time in the Welsh education system and in their wider social life. Recent surveys and reports have shown this to be true, such as the horrific picture revealed by the Everyone's Invited website, which shows how some of our school pupils are having to deal with this terrible culture of misogyny, sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual coercion. So, given the rising tide of this and many other forms of hate crime in our society, many younger people from specific groups may be particularly concerned about their safety and rights. And it's important the Government provide particular support to these groups of children and do them justice within impact assessment. Due diligence should also be paid as to when bullying crosses on to that territory of hate crime, and to ensure the cumulative impact of discrimination on young people does not get to a point where it traumatises a young person and amounts to an adverse childhood experience. We know the human and economic cost of childhood trauma is too high and long lasting. We must do everything we can to prevent it and not just address these issues.

Children and young people cannot be supported to realise their rights as citizens of Wales and the world if they're not aware of them. The lack of awareness of children's rights by children themselves and the wider public was another issue raised by the committee report. Conducting regular reviews, therefore, on the effectiveness of this plan is key to ensure it has the needed reach and the desired results.

One of the things the Senedd can be most proud of, of course, is the Senedd Ieuenctid—the Youth Parliament; we heard it elected here last week—and the decision to lower the voting age to our Senedd to 16. There's no doubt that these steps will help decision makers and policy makers to hear the unique perspective of our younger citizens. But I know, all too often, children sometimes try and make their voices heard, their opinions are not valued, and this is often seen when we look at decisions to close schools, for example—