Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 26 April 2022.
Well, I very much thank Jayne Bryant for that question, and I strongly welcome the Project Perthyn initiative taking place in Newport. It is an absolute public policy priority for this Government to see more children looked after closer to their homes and the communities where they grew up. Too many children in Wales are looked after outside Wales; too many children in Wales are looked after outside the county that has parental responsibility for them. And Newport council, working with other local authorities in Gwent, has I think been a leading example of the way in which, provided we invest in the right sort of facilities, with properly trained staff, it is absolutely possible for those children to be looked after successfully closer to their families and closer to their homes, with better long-term prospects for those children themselves and a better return on the investment that the taxpayer makes in looking after them.
I absolutely pay tribute to Councillor Paul Cockeram, Llywydd. He's somebody who I have known for over a decade and whose work not simply in the field of children's services, but using some of the same ideas in adult services, means that, in Newport, I know the local authority has been able to bring some former privately run residential homes back into the direct service of the local authority, which is financially a more effective way of using the local authority's resources and making sure that the care provided is provided as a public service.