Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:58 pm on 18 May 2022.
I'd like to start by thanking James Evans for bringing this debate to our Senedd today. It is a very, very important subject to discuss, but as the Member for Ynys Môn said, it's wonderful to see that we are talking about it now and that these conversations are real, because the situation that we face is very real, and it's nice to see that it's no longer a taboo subject, as you said, Rhun.
As James said, mental health is something that affects us all in one way or another, most recently, as has been said already, with our youngest in society with the struggles and pressures that they faced in education and growing up during the pandemic. Sadly, despite Welsh Labour continually claiming that the mental health and well-being of our children and young people is a priority, as James said, the reality is very different. Children and young people are waiting longer for mental health services and, in some health boards, well over nine in 10 are waiting longer than the target time for assessments. Clearly, these problems are historic. Before COVID-19 hit in Wales, waiting times for children and young people were already long, and concerns had been raised by the Children, Young People and Education Committee nearly four years ago now about these problems within the child and adolescent mental health services.