Giving our young people the tools to realise what it means to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world is a fundamental part of civic education. It involves teaching about democracy, our society and how we can all take part, and it's also about empowerment and emancipation.

I'm a firm supporter of enabling our young people to become active participants within the democratic process, from registering to vote through to participating in elections and beyond. I'm proud that we've extended the franchise to 16 to 17-year-olds for Senedd and local government elections. This gives younger people in Wales a voice in the way in which Wales is run, and it's solid foundation for building participatory democracy. My own party is committed to votes at 16 for UK Parliament elections and all other reserved elections as well, which we hope to see in the near future.

We want to help our young people feel confident when they visit a polling station to cast their vote. Ahead of both Senedd and local government elections, we worked in partnership with local authorities to support our 16 to 17-year-olds to register to vote. Engagement through community events, social media content and school visits saw local authorities increase the percentage of 16 to 17-year-olds registered to vote for the recent local government elections.

We also funded several third sector organisations to reach out and engage young people on the importance of registering to vote through their existing networks. These organisations developed and delivered wide-ranging projects, using creative social media content, online webinars and direct conversations with young people, and these social activities created an environment where discussions around politics and democracy could flourish. This approach allowed us to directly reach young people beyond formal education settings, providing a welcoming space for them to discuss the barriers preventing fuller participation.

This was more challenging in the run-up to the last year's Senedd elections because of the public health protections that were in place as a result of the pandemic. But we want all our young people to develop the skills, the knowledge and the understanding about the importance of registering to vote and their voice in our democracy. Learning about the legislative process and governmental structures, law making, devolution, voting and elections are all key to supporting our young people's understanding about politics, but also participating in it. We recognise that education plays a vital role in unlocking their drive for taking part in our democracy and exercising their rights.

When we consulted on extending the franchise in 2018, people told us that greater awareness and education were necessary to increase participation and we know we need appropriate education so our young people can make an informed choice at the ballot box. I agree with many of the comments that have been made in respect of the importance of that civic education. Our new Curriculum for Wales, being rolled out from September, will require schools to include learning about rights in their curriculum, including supporting our learners to develop an awareness and understanding of their democratic rights and how to exercise them. And I'd add the importance of local history as well as part of that education processes. We've invested in educational resources to our schools and colleges to deliver the support that young people are telling us that they need, and we've also produced professional learning resources to support our teachers to teach this area impartially and with confidence. More resources are being developed to support global citizenship and learning about our rights as a citizen.

We've funded the Politics Project's Digital Dialogue Wales programme, where Members from across the Senedd and local government attend online sessions with our children and young people to engage and put questions directly to politicians. These sessions have been hugely successful, as the Member for South Wales West will know, having given up her time to attend one with pupils from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd in Bridgend. I'm thankful to all the Members in the Senedd who have taken part to date and those who'll participate in the coming weeks.

As the Curriculum for Wales is rolled out, the Welsh Government will continue to work closely with our education partners to support our schools in this area of learning. In doing so, we want our children and young people to have the opportunities and the experiences to increase their understanding of democracy and the role they must play as citizens in an engaging way that promotes a lifelong habit of participation. I'd probably also say to the Member that she'll be aware that we are looking at the introduction of an electoral reform Bill, which hopefully will open the way in which our electoral system operates, increase accessibility, creating a twenty-first century modern electoral system, one that potentially is quite diverged from UK Government elections, but one where I believe there will be many opportunities to look at modern innovative and new ways of actually encouraging and initiating participation in our electoral system. Diolch.