I thank the Member for that important question. She makes a series of points that absolutely deserve to be thought through carefully. I've said many, many times on the floor of the Senedd that the rate at which children are taken away from their families in Wales is unsustainable and that the gap between the rate at which children in Wales are taken into public care continues to accelerate away from the rate in other parts of the United Kingdom. The result is, and this is the reason why it is unsustainable, that local authorities find all the money they have for children's services taken up in looking after children who they have now direct responsibility for and nothing left to help families through difficult times where a bit of investment in preventative work could have helped those families to stay together.

On the specific issue of another inquiry, I certainly don't think this is the moment to commission such an inquiry. In the case that the Member highlighted from Bridgend, the serious case review is still to report. There are other cases in Wales before the courts still where court hearings are yet to be concluded. So, I don't think this is the moment to make a decision about an inquiry of the sort that Jane Dodds has advocated, and I think there would be other important questions that we would need to think through as well.

Are we short of advice, Llywydd? In 2018, we had the care crisis review here in Wales. In 2019, we had the Nuffield Foundation's 'Born into care Wales' report. In 2020, we had the public law working group's report into the way that public law proceedings can be improved in Wales. Last year, we had the legacy report of the improving outcomes for children ministerial advisory group chaired by David Melding, and this year we've continued to receive the thematic reports of the Wales Centre for Public Policy into looked-after children. This is not an area where anybody could argue that we are short of independent advice that has looked across the whole practice landscape here in Wales.

Are we confident, Llywydd, about what we might learn from the huge effort that would have to go into an inquiry of the sort that would do justice to the points that Jane Dodds has raised? We know we have to tackle issues of recruitment and retention in this workforce. We know that we have to invest in prevention and de-escalation in the system. We know that regional working is an important component in the answer to the challenges that children's services face today. So, I think it is incumbent on people who argue for a public inquiry to articulate where they think the gaps in our knowledge are to be found and where they think we would learn something that we don't already know about the challenge facing those services and the answers that have already been devised to meet those challenges.