The next item, therefore, is a statement by the Minister for Social Justice, an update on Ukraine. I call on the Minister to make the statement. Jane Hutt.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Thank you for providing an opportunity for me to give an update to Members about our ongoing work to support people from Ukraine seeking sanctuary in Wales. When I last updated you in September, Wales had welcomed just over 5,600 Ukrainians in Wales under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, including under our supersponsor route.

Arrivals have continued, but at a much slower pace in recent weeks. Just under 6,000 Ukrainians sponsored by the Welsh Government and Welsh households had arrived in Wales by 18 October, and there have been additional arrivals under the Ukraine family scheme, but we are not given that data by the UK Government. More than 8,300 visas have now been granted to people from the Ukraine who have sponsors in Wales, so we can expect the number of arrivals to continue to grow steadily in the coming weeks, and we are mindful that events in Ukraine can have a direct impact on the number of Ukrainians who may arrive in Wales. We deplore the latest attempts by Putin to try to break the will of the Ukrainian people. We are continuing to work with the Home Office to ascertain the likelihood of the additional 1,600 individuals we have sponsored arriving in Wales, so that we can properly plan for providing accommodation and wraparound support.

In recent weeks, we have been considering the offer that we make to Ukrainians who we support in our accommodation under the supersponsor route. I and other ministerial colleagues have visited many of our accommodation sites and received feedback directly from Ukrainian guests and the dedicated staff who are helping us to provide assistance. We want to help people to transition from a supportive welcome to active integration as quickly as possible.

We believe that we can enhance personal independence and support people to move on to the next stage of their lives in Wales by revisiting our wraparound support offer. We will be aligning our initial accommodation offer much more closely to the support that would be received in other forms of temporary accommodation, and this will encourage guests to contribute to costs via earnings or universal credit wherever possible, after an initial short period. I have also engaged with my Scottish Government counterpart, Minister Neil Gray MSP, and I understand that they will be taking a very similar approach, as we learn from each others' experiences in our response as supersponsors.

Our supersponsor route is a key part of Wales's response to the Europe-wide humanitarian crisis. We must ensure that we are steadfast in our commitment to supporting Ukraine and displaced Ukrainians living in Wales, despite the increased cost pressures we're all experiencing. The support we provide here will have an impact on the family and friends still defending Ukraine. The changes we make will carefully balance helping people to be more independent, to move on to alternative accommodation more quickly, and to ensure that we have the finances we need to fulfil our commitment to the Ukrainians we have sponsored.

As well as my visits to welcome centres, I recently attended the Ukraine arts festival and the new Cardiff Ukraine centre. In each case, I have been struck by the desire and ability of Ukrainians, with a wide range of skills and experience, to integrate and join the workforce as quickly as possible. Many Ukrainians are already working, including a sizeable proportion of those in our initial accommodation.

We need to be conscious that initial accommodation should be a short-term provision, with our guests supported to move on to longer term accommodation as soon as practicable. We understand that our welcome centres, which are funded by the Welsh Government, are of a good quality—and we are proud of that—but they are not a long-term option for people, not least because roots cannot be properly established in communities in such temporary accommodation.

Last time I updated you, I remarked upon the good working relationship we had with the previous UK Minister for Refugees, Lord Harrington, and my hopes for a similar relationship with his successor. I am sorry to have to report that we have had no engagement from UK Ministers on these issues since Lord Harrington's resignation.

But we are at a critical juncture in the UK Government Homes for Ukraine scheme. Welsh households who signed up as sponsors are at, or near, the six-month hosting milestone that represents the commitment they made to their guests at the point of application. These households have done an inspiring thing and embodied the nation of sanctuary vision in its truest sense. We know many did not plan to continue beyond six months, but we urge as many hosts as possible to consider hosting for a longer period if at all possible. Where that isn't possible, we thank you for everything you have done for your guests and for us as a nation. For those that can continue, we have funded Housing Justice Cymru to provide advice, training, peer support and mediation services for hosts in Wales. More information can be found by calling 01654 550 550 or emailing UkraineHostSupport@housingjustice.org.uk.

We know that hosts in Wales are struggling with cost-of-living pressures, and this is a major factor in deciding if they can continue. This is why I wrote to UK Ministers, with my Scottish ministerial counterpart, to urge a quick decision on increasing the 'thank you' host payment to at least £500 per month from the current level of £350. We are still waiting for an update on this. We do need an urgent decision to avert a wave of homelessness presentations as we move into November, and I again call upon the UK Government to act on this, as well as providing financial certainty for year 2 of the programme, supporting the unfunded English for speakers of other languages provision and ensuring funding parity across the three Ukraine visa schemes.

We are now communicating regularly with hosts and Ukrainian guests, with a monthly newsletter being sent from the Welsh Government, and we'll build upon this with additional information sessions and participation opportunities. Alongside our funded third sector partners, we recently held an open information session, which I was glad to see around 180 people attended to hear more about our work; we are mobilising a Ukraine peer support group through Displaced People in Action; and we'll also soon survey our Ukrainian guests to better understand their unmet skills and employment needs. Ukrainians are clearly integrating very well indeed, but we will continue to consider any action we can take to make this as effective and supportive as possible. Diolch.

Thank you for your statement and for our short meeting earlier, which was very helpful.

Responding to your update on Ukraine statement here four weeks ago, I referred to your constructive relationship, which you've referred to again, with the former UK Government Minister for refugees, Lord Harrington, and asked how, based upon practical inter-governmental working relationships in Wales, you responded to his statement on resignation last month that the role was always meant to be temporary and that his work was essentially complete. I also asked what discussions you had had or were planning to have with the UK Government regarding a possible uplift to the monthly £350 payment to people hosting Ukrainians in their own homes, and again you've referred to that in your statement today. In your response then, you said that the job certainly wasn't done. Referring to the joint letter regarding these matters you had sent with your Scottish ministerial counterpart to the then new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the then new Home Secretary, you stated that you would be, and I quote,

'very interested to see what reply we get'.

Thank you for subsequently copying me into that letter. What, if any, reply did you receive? And if, given events elsewhere, you've not yet received a reply, how will you be following up on this once Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces his Cabinet?

In your reply to me, you stated that local leadership is crucially important in the provision of devolved service for which the Welsh Government is responsible. Following my reference to, for example, the need for English for speakers of other languages, or ESOL, lessons in person and online and for action to support skill and qualification transferability, something we also discussed earlier, what update can you provide on these matters, given your response then that you have fortnightly meetings on Ukraine, chaired by the Minister for Finance and Local Government? 

I refer to the document that I sent to you, produced by the Polish Integration Support Centre, or PISC, in Wrexham, detailing their humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainian refugees and the proposal for consolidated and sustainable support for Ukrainian people, including the construction of temporary housing. What engagement have you or your officials therefore subsequently had with them regarding this? 

More broadly, given that the latest figures show that 4,833 visa applications by people from Ukraine have been submitted with the Welsh Government as a supersponsor, that 4,564 have been issued with the Welsh Government as a supersponsor, and that 2,904 of the people who've arrived in the UK had the Welsh Government as a supersponsor, what is the current position regarding the pause to new applications for the Welsh Government supersponsor scheme announced in June?

Both my colleague Russell George and I have received an e-mail saying, and I quote, 'I ask for Welsh Government help with a pilot project to use long-term empty housing units to provide short-term accommodation for Ukrainian refugees, using a short-life housing model of the kind implemented elsewhere since the 1980s.' Who is the best person to refer the sender to regarding this?

Finally, I've previously referred you to the role played by faith groups in the Ukrainian link programme to support Ukrainians arriving in north Wales. In this context, what engagement have you had with the Catholic community regarding its response to the illegal and inhumane invasion of Ukraine, including the Catholic international development charity CAFOD's Ukrainian humanitarian appeal and dedicated emergency response team to reach people most in need, and the bishops’ conference domestic social action agency, Caritas Social Action Network, or CSAN, which, with its partners, is supporting the relocation of refugees across the UK with the diocese and agencies of the church assisting the co-ordination efforts? Diolch.

Thank you very much, Mark, and thank you for also always giving me updates and insights of the work that’s been carried out in north Wales, particularly in relation to the third-sector engagements and local authorities.

I do hope that we can establish good new working relationships with the new Government, the new Cabinet that’ll be announced over the next few days. You referred to the joint letter that I sent to Andrew Stephenson, who had been named as Minister for refugees by the previous Prime Minister in the department of housing and levelling up, but I have to say, no reply was received to that letter. I asked my officials, and indeed the Scottish Minister asked his officials, to request an urgent meeting with the new Minister, but there was no response. So, I am, in a positive and constructive way, looking towards immediately welcoming a new announcement, which I hope will be made, that we will have a Minister for refugees who we can follow up with. Because we urgently need responses to the questions that we’ve asked, particularly about the uplift to the £350 monthly payment to those hosts for the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

I’m interested as well that in England, a number of charities have come together. I think they wrote to the former Prime Minister to actually say very much what we’ve been saying, actually echoing, in fact, Lord Harrington’s call for an increased payment to hosts to help them through the winter. I think the generosity of hosts at a time of economic strain and cost-of-living pressures is extraordinary; the generosity of hosts across Wales with very different socioeconomic and financial means themselves. So, can I ask you and your colleagues in Westminster to ensure that we do get a positive response?

Local leadership is vital, so myself and the Minister for Finance and Local Government, and indeed the Minister for Climate Change, are meeting every fortnight with the leaders of local government. Our officials are working very closely, particularly around a framework for accommodation in terms of move-on opportunities. But that local leadership is robust, it’s positive. In fact, Ukraine is on the agenda as a standing item as we meet every fortnight. The response that we get from local leadership is about not just the support they’re giving to their welcome centres, if they have them in their county areas, but also ways in which they're supporting hosts as well, the hosts who are providing that important support for so many of our Ukrainian guests in Wales.

It's very important in terms of the move-on accommodation that's being provided that we look to, as the Minister for Climate Change was able to do last week, the £65 million transitional accommodation capital programme. This is something that will help us increase accommodation to support existing housing pressures, together with the Ukraine response. Local authorities are coming forward and working with registered social landlords to provide this type of accommodation. Of course, there's huge pressure on our capital programme, which you are well aware of, but this is transitional accommodation that can also meet a wide range of housing need in Wales. So, we hope that we will get the support, and that includes support in terms of UK Government's forthcoming announcements. We're very concerned about what this will mean for capital, because this will be a really important way to help those who are in housing need move forward. We have to remember that we've got more than 8,000 people in temporary accommodation already, and these are housing pressures that our local leaders are supporting.

Thank you, again, for raising the work and the support of the Polish integration society, and I will make sure that there is a response to them. And also, just in terms of any suggestion about other use of accommodation—I think you mentioned Russell George as well who had received an approach about possible use of short-life accommodation—they should go to the local authority in which that accommodation is provided.

Of course, it is a challenge regarding our supersponsor scheme. We are committed to it, it provides a safe way to welcome people, Ukrainians fleeing from that terrible conflict. They come here and they are given that support, that wraparound support that we have provided. Remember that the original commitment we made was for 1,000 Ukrainian people being supported; now we're four and five times the number of Ukrainian people that we're supporting through our supersponsor route. Our welcome centres are now running at full capacity, but we're working quickly to ensure there's a reliable pathway to longer term accommodation for everyone we accommodate.

Thank you for the statement, Minister. It is true that the reports of the war in Ukraine and the intensification in terms of tactics and the inhuman response of Russia are very concerning to those people who have sought shelter in Wales, and likely, of course, to have an impact on the number of refugees.

The changes that you've mentioned in terms of the support available to the people sponsored by Welsh Government, who, of course, left everything behind, who've experienced trauma and loss, do cause some concern. While recognising that we need to encourage people to move on, to integrate into society and to pay their way wherever possible, we should do that as quickly as is appropriate, rather than as quickly as possible. So, what's the voice of the refugee here? Who decides which costs are to be paid, and what are the criteria for that? Would a taper of some sort in terms of the support available from Government be appropriate if people are earning a salary or receiving universal credit, for example?

Since the Minister presented her latest update on Ukraine, more and more third sector organisations are very concerned about the very real threat of homelessness facing refugees from Ukraine. According to a report in The Guardian, up to 50,000 Ukrainian refugees across the UK could be homeless next year. Already since February, we know that 1,335 Ukrainian households, including 945 with children, have registered as homeless. So, Minister, is now the right time to be making this change, given that we are facing the hardest winter for decades and with the harsh winds of the economic storm particularly threatening those who've had to flee, leaving everything behind in their home country?

Welsh councils are warning us already that they're going to be facing huge shortfalls in their budgets as a result of the COVID pandemic, market reactions to Westminster chaos, the energy crisis and inflationary pressures because of this cost-of-living crisis. The Welsh Local Government Association has warned that councils are at risk of being forced to make significant cuts to key services. So, how is the Welsh Government supporting and working with local authorities now to ensure that there is local support and housing available for those who need it, especially given the change in support announced today?

I asked you this after your last update to the Senedd, but you didn't answer me, so I'm asking you again whether we could potentially allow our local authorities to become guarantors for Ukrainians faced with having to enter the rental market, which is, as we know, at the moment extremely competitive and costly.

Finally, you refer in your statement that you've had no engagement with Lord Harrington's successor, and he was the Minister for refugees in Westminster, and I want to put on record the Plaid Cymru view that this is entirely disgraceful and unforgivable in light of the crisis facing thousands of refugees in Wales, who are in such a difficult situation in making their homes in a new country. Now, many are on the edge of a precipice, given the fact that many of those who have come here through the Homes for Ukraine scheme are close to the end of that six-month period with their hosts.

With the cost-of-living crisis and without an increase in the monthly payment of £350, it'll be very difficult now for many people to extend that welcome. It is disgraceful that the Tories in Westminster care so little about supporting the people of Ukraine. Minister, as we in Wales, here, are a nation of sanctuary, can we use other cost-of-living payments to support these costs of living to prevent homelessness, stress and poverty?  

Diolch yn fawr, Sioned Williams, and thank you for those important questions. I think that, what I'm signaling, I suppose, is that we're working with not only our Ukrainian guests but our local authority partners to find a way in which we can ensure that we can provide that initial support through our supersponsor scheme in our welcome centres across Wales, and, also, help them with their engagement, because this is about working together in collaboration to move, as you say, in an appropriate way to enable them to move forward into more independent living.

So, some of our guests who come, they've said, 'Can we contribute?', because they see that there's been this welcome. They've come, they haven't had to be matched—they've literally come and they've been welcomed into a welcome centre or, indeed, other temporary initial accommodation, and they're saying, 'We want to become independent'. If, of course, they then get into work, into jobs, they're using their skills and, also, beginning then—because we have every agency at hand to help them access benefits like universal credit, they are willing and wish to make a contribution. But, also, we consider the fact that they would, perhaps, prefer to be more self-catering in terms of diet and access to appropriate food and provision for their lives, rather than, perhaps, depending on a set arrangement or a menu that has been provided in a welcome centre.

Of course, when we started along this route, and that's why we work very closely with our Scottish Government colleagues, we were supersponsors to provide that welcome, that wraparound support. That includes the support that, obviously, is crucial, in assessing health needs, educational needs of the children, and I've talked about access to benefits and also to skills and jobs. So, you know that, through our website and through our work, we have free personalised careers advice, coaching and employment support from Working Wales for every—of course, they come to every welcome centre, so people are encouraged and supported into work.

Many of our Ukrainian guests have independently moved on, but there's a real pressure in terms of availability of housing, in terms of that move-on opportunity. So, we want to avert any threat of homelessness—we want to avert that. We know that every Ukrainian guest who comes through the supersponsor route, or, indeed, supporting hosts, and funding—substantially funding Housing Justice Cymru, Asylum Justice Cymru, the Welsh Refugee Council and the British Red Cross to ensure that they're all engaged in supporting the refugees who are either with hosts or in our welcome centres.

What I would say is to thank you for your recognition that we need to have a response from the UK Government, not just in terms of the £350, and lifting that up for hosts, but also the fact that we've called on them to give more support for discretionary housing payments and for local housing allowances, so that local authorities can use their discretion to help people move on into the private rented sector. Indeed, as I've mentioned, this letter from refugee charities in England, they are actually saying help refugee families find homes—this is the letter to the Prime Minister—a rental scheme for refugees arriving through a Government-backed scheme. Of course, local authorities are using their discretion, their powers, in order to try and help people get into long-term accommodation.

Good afternoon, Minister. On Thursday last week, I was actually on a stall with the Brecon, Hay and Talgarth refugee support group, and I met a refugee there, a young woman, who has three children, the youngest of whom was actually born in a bomb shelter in Kyiv. She's an amazingly entrepreneurial person and is trying to set up a business making jewellery. But she wanted me to pass on her thanks and her family's thanks to the Welsh Government for all of the support that they've received. 

One of the issues raised by the group is around access to dental care for refugees. Many arrive needing support and then their host families find out that they actually need dental care. I know one family who've had to pay around £2,000 for the refugee from Ukraine who was staying with them, so I just wonder, Minister, if you could just let us know what your understanding is of the situation with regard to the health authorities responding to requests for dental check-ups and dental care for refugees, not just those from Ukraine. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Jane Dodds. Also, it's really good to hear of the progress of that refugee you met at the stall so recently, and what she's come from—giving birth in a bomb shelter in Kyiv—just shows how important it is that we continue with our support as a supersponsor and as a nation of sanctuary. And so many of us across this Chamber have met people who have had the same experience, and also who want to get on and set up businesses, get into work, be independent, become citizens of Wales. Many wouldn't have imagined that they were going to come and stay as long as they have; they would have hoped that the war would be over and that they would be back with their loved ones. We must think, always, of the fact that their loved ones are back, so many of them are back in Ukraine, fighting, defending their country. But we must make sure that we give them the support that they need to set up in business, to get housing, to help make their contribution, which is part of what I'm saying in my statement, but also get the UK Government to play their part. This is not just an issue for Wales, this is an issue not just for the UK—it's the whole European humanitarian response that has been so important.

Just in terms of access to dental services, obviously we need to make sure that those who are with hosts—. Perhaps again, it's so much up to the host to access the information. We are funding organisations to support hosts, which I think is very important, so that they can look to the information they can get so that they—. Hosts shouldn't, themselves, have to be paying for that kind of access to services, and we need to make sure that they know where to go, and signpost them. So, it is advisable for Ukrainians to register with a dentist as soon as possible, but there may not be a dental practice opening capacity for accepting new NHS patients. But the local health board has got that list of practices, and also, if it's a dental emergency, then NHS Direct Wales should facilitate access to community dental services. So, if I can just say that today and put it on the record: NHS 111 for the local health board to get a list of NHS practices and 0845 46 47 for NHS Direct Wales, leading them to a community dental service.

Thank you, Minister.