4. How is the Welsh Government supporting local authorities to welcome and support refugees fleeing Ukraine? OQ57778

Llywydd, we are urgently preparing to support refugees from Ukraine and are doing that in close dialogue with Welsh local government and others to understand what will be possible within the parameters of the overall UK Government schemes.

Thank you, First Minister. Wales is a nation of sanctuary, and this includes welcoming those fleeing Ukraine to my community of Bridgend and Porthcawl. Across Bridgend, residents have gone above and beyond to collect donations, raise funds, and I want to thank Community Councillor Heidi Bennett, Councillor David White and Reverend Wheeler, in particular, for co-ordinating a beautiful and very powerful and emotional local vigil to listen and stand with the people of Ukraine last week.

First Minister, people want to help and do what they can, from local businesses to school pupils. This is our community at its best. But we must never forget that, at the heart of this, there are people who have now suffered great trauma. We see this on our tv screens, our papers, our phones. This invasion has scarred a population through what they have experienced. So, First Minister, how will the necessary public services be mobilised to help those affected by the invasion of Ukraine who come to Wales, and will mental health provision be extended to include them?

I thank Sarah Murphy for that, Llywydd. I imagine that there are Members right around the Senedd who have taken part in local events and local vigils, spontaneously organised by faith groups and others in their own community. They are practical demonstrations of the generosity that we know is on display across our nation.

On the specific point as to how public services will be mobilised, in my earlier answer to Adam Price, Llywydd, I tried to explain how, working with local government, we hope to create a way in which people coming to Wales will receive an initial period of support and reorientation, where we can make sure that those public services are aligned to their needs, where they themselves can simply regroup for a short while. It's impossible to imagine, isn't it, really, what it must be like to find yourself transported across a continent, and finding yourself, no matter how welcoming the context will be, when only a few short weeks ago, you were living absolutely peaceful lives and couldn't imagine that this was about to happen to you. So, there's bound to be, isn't there, a need for a period in which, when people arrive here, they have a chance just to breathe in and think about what has happened to them, and think about people that they have left behind and so on. So, we are trying to create a way in which that can happen, and then, with an assessment of the needs that people have, to make sure that the services they need are aligned with them.

And in mental health, of course Sarah Murphy is absolutely right, Llywydd; people will come to Wales having witnessed unfathomable things that they never thought they would ever see. We have already begun to prepare for that. The experts who work in our health boards, working with asylum seekers and refugees, have already had translated into Ukrainian and Russian mental health information that people will need to help them with that initial stabilisation. We're publishing that information on the Traumatic Stress Wales website, and we're working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, who have also themselves already published specific support materials to help people during that initial resettlement phase. We're working with our CALL mental health helpline to make sure that it has access to services in the languages that will be needed. And all of this is being done, as Members here will recognise, under the pressure of events and the pressure of time, but those things have already happened and there will be more that we will need and want to do to make sure that people who need the support of mental health services will have that as part of the offer that we will want to make to them when they arrive in Wales.

Well, speaking here two weeks ago, I called on you to ensure that the Welsh Government provides local authorities with support to enable and encourage them to come forward with a quicker ability to provide support to refugees fleeing Ukraine. But of course, effective delivery will also require local authorities to work with community organisations, and much of the heavy lifting across Wales is already being done, often on a shoestring, by a myriad of third sector bodies and partnerships between the third sector and others, including NWAMI, Networking for World Awareness of Multicultural Integration; Synergy in Flintshire, and the Wrexham Town of Sanctuary coalition. Ukrainian Friends and Families Link has also now been in touch. They're being established by a team of local professionals and partnering third sector organisations and churches across north Wales, working from a central hub in Llandudno, to prepare for the arrival of Ukrainian nationals and others affected by the war who will come to north Wales in the weeks and months ahead. How will the Welsh Government support these vital initiatives and facilitate local authority engagement with them?

Llywydd, all of that sounds very encouraging in terms of the actions that Mark Isherwood set out that are already happening in north Wales. I said in an earlier answer that at the meeting of the Welsh cabinet yesterday afternoon we were joined by the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, but also by the chief executive of the WVCA, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. We heard from her about the way in which local CVCs will be part of the response that they will mobilise, and responding positively, I hope, to the Member's question, we are playing our part in making sure that the efforts of public authorities and the efforts of third sector groups are aligned from the very beginning. And again, in a positive reply, Llywydd, the letter I received overnight from Michael Gove confirms that when people come to Wales the £10,500 per person that is to go to local government in England will be available in Wales as well, that the £350 a month for individuals will be available to Welsh individuals who make that offer, and that the UK Government intend that those payments should be exempt from tax. That is helpful for us to have that confirmation at this stage in order to allow us to work with others to put in place the sorts of arrangements that Mark Isherwood has referred to.

I am grateful to Sarah for raising this issue today. These are dark days in which we are living, so it's important, I believe, to seek out the light wherever possible. Andy Davies's report on Channel 4 on the Urdd's Afghan refugee initiative showed us that light, with children and families receiving loving care and opportunities to learn new skills as they try to build a new life here in Wales. The report mentioned, First Minister, that consideration will be given to establishing a similar initiative for refugees from Ukraine, so could you please say whether this is something that is currently being considered and whether the Welsh Government is able to try to help the Urdd to share the good practice witnessed in this successful initiative with other organisations and nations?

I agree entirely with the Member on the importance of the work done by the Urdd in the Afghan context, and of course, they've learnt a great deal that will assist us now when we respond to the needs of the people coming from Ukraine. The Urdd will be part of the discussions that are to take place during this week. We will need to think about a number of different approaches in providing support to those people coming here to Wales. The experience that the Urdd has had, and the fact that the Urdd is so open to sharing their experiences and to assist others to provide assistance too, is something unique to us here in Wales, but something very practical for us too.