In line with their corporate parenting responsibilities, Welsh local authorities will play a critical role in delivering the basic income for care leavers in Wales pilot. They will act as a first point of contact for the recipients of the basic income and will be responsible for guiding the young people in their care through the pilot. They will escalate issues and highlight any implementation challenges of the scheme to the Welsh Government, and provide a link to recipients for researchers and national policy leads for the purposes of evaluation and monitoring. The Welsh Government will provide the national policy direction for all aspects of the pilot and provide guidance to support equitable delivery across Wales. We will be the central point of contact for all those involved with managing, delivering and evaluating the pilot, and we'll respond to feedback accordingly, with updates to policy, delivery and guidance as necessary.

Payments to participants will be made through an external provider procured under an existing procurement framework. Using a single payment provider ensures a consistent and efficient system that provides the same service to all recipients of the basic income. It will also provide a single point of contact for all participants in relation to payments of basic income. The pilot is not only about supplying money to recipients; it's vital that, before choosing to participate, care leavers are supported to make informed decisions about their finances and their futures. We know local authorities already provide a range of support to care-experienced young people as part of their statutory obligations as a corporate parent. The care leavers we've been engaging with were clear that all young people eligible to take part in the pilot should be offered access to consistent, independent, quality-assured financial advice and support throughout their engagement in the pilot. We've therefore developed a package of financial advice and support for care leavers who are taking part in this pilot that expands the Welsh Government's single advice fund grant agreement, currently held by Citizens Advice Cymru. The service will provide direct advice to young people and also second-tier advice support to local authority professionals working with young people. This will include advice at all stages, from working through a pre-pilot better-off calculation to budgeting advice or financial crisis support. Care leavers will be able to access impartial advice tailored to their individual circumstances, and a single lead organisation will ensure consistency of service delivery throughout Wales. In addition to the individual financial advice provided to recipients of the basic income, we're working with other organisations, such as Voices from Care Cymru and the UK Government Money and Pensions Service, to deliver more holistic advice around money management, education, training and well-being. Recipients will be signposted to these opportunities via their young persons advisers and other support services.

Capturing the voice and experience of the young people taking part in this pilot will be critical to its success. We will work with them throughout to contribute to our dynamic evaluation and ensure lived experiences are central to its outcomes. The evaluation will consider the impact of the pilot in terms of improvements in the experiences of individual care and how being part of the pilot has affected young people's lives. Regular feedback from recipients will ensure an evaluation that provides emergent themes on participant experiences and supports improvement to the pilot as it's rolled out.

Through this pilot, we want to build on the existing support offered to care-experienced children in Wales and ensure young people who take part get all they need to give them the best possible chance to make their way in life and make the transition out of care better, easier and more positive. The focus will be to create independence from services rather than dependence on services as they enter adulthood. We will work with stakeholders, recipients and our evaluation team to monitor the progress of the pilot and make changes where necessary, and I'll pleased to continue to share our experiences and outcomes as this important work develops. Diolch.