With this investment, we have transformed services implemented at the start of the strategy. This includes the creation of local primary mental health teams across Wales, crisis resolution and home treatment teams, psychiatric liaison services and community perinatal teams. We've also established single points of contact for child and adolescent mental health services to improve accessibility, and we have embedded the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010, a unique piece of legislation that provides the framework to improve mental health services in Wales. We have also established a mother and baby unit in south Wales and are progressing our commitment to improve access to these services in north Wales.

We have significantly expanded support at tier 0/1 levels to provide easy access to a range of support and to avoid escalation to specialist support where appropriate. This includes through our 24/7 CALL helpline and online cognitive behavioural therapy. These services alone have received around 97,000 contacts since September 2020. We've also commenced the phased roll-out of urgent mental health advice through 111, which will provide immediate access to advice from a mental health professional. I expect all health boards to have commenced a phased roll-out towards 24/7 cover by Christmas.

However, we recognise the importance of early intervention and taking a whole-system approach to improving mental health and well-being. We have created a joint health and education programme and a joint ministerial approach, built around schools, to deliver a whole system approach to emotional mental health and well-being. Delivering on our programme for government commitment, we are also rolling out schools CAMHS in-reach support across Wales to ensure issues are identified and support provided earlier.

Good progress has now been made with key legislation underpinning our agenda, and we have now consulted on the draft regulations for Wales to support the implementation of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 and the liberty protection safeguards. 

Preventing suicide remains one of our top priorities. We have targeted an additional £1 million in 2022-23 to support this work. In April 2022, Welsh Government, in partnership with the police, NHS and Public Health Wales, implemented the real-time suicide surveillance system. This system will provide crucial information to strengthen preventative work, ensure rapid support and to identify trends or clusters.

I can announce today that later this month we will launch a consultation on new guidance to support people bereaved by, exposed to or affected by suicide. The guidance has been informed by insight from people affected by suicide and aims to ensure a more compassionate response, offering both practical and emotional support, at the different steps on that journey. The implementation of this guidance will be a key focus following the consultation.

Our current 10-year 'Together for Mental Health' and 'Talk to me 2' strategies are based on the principle of partnership working across Government, public and third sectors to improve mental health in Wales. We committed to an independent evaluation of the strategies to assess their impact and inform our next steps. This evaluation was commissioned in September 2021, and the evaluation team has engaged widely with service users, providers and key stakeholders. The team has conducted in-depth interviews and workshop events with stakeholders across Wales and with service users, carers and front-line practitioners. I will issue a written statement shortly, when the findings of the evaluation are ready to be published.

I am today announcing that, following this comprehensive engagement and evaluation, work is now under way to develop the future strategies. It is essential that we now learn from the evaluation findings, build upon our progress, make the best use of our resources and develop first-class mental health services that meet future needs and demand. The main findings from the evaluation will help guide and inform our focus and priorities in developing the next strategies and my officials will now engage further to expand upon this research and evidence. I am committed to a fully inclusive approach and to ensuring that citizen voice and the lived experience of those who use our mental health services are reflected in the design of our future services. 

A key priority will be developing a sustainable and diverse mental health workforce though the implementation of the Health Education and Improvement Wales and Social Care Wales strategic mental health workforce plan. I want to see better integration of mental health services, building on the work we've done to embed mental health in the strategic programme for primary care and the urgent and emergency care programme, and, of course, a focus on inequalities and access to mental health support.

Whilst we must maintain our focus on cross-Government working, prevention and early intervention, we also need to set out a clear vision for specialist mental health services to ensure this level of support is accessible closer to home. In all this work, I expect to build upon the service user engagement arrangements that are now firmly established, including our national service user and carer forum.

These are just a few areas of focus, but we expect to see significant engagement with partners in the statutory and third sectors, as well as service users themselves, as we develop the successor strategies. It will be important to do this in a meaningful way, and I expect this work to be undertaken during 2023, with a view to the publication of a draft strategy for consultation towards the end of 2023. I look forward to updating Members on progress with this important work.