I know we’ve heard a little about children’s hospices from Rhun, and mentioned by John Griffiths, but I’d like to focus my contribution on the fantastic palliative care that is provided by Tŷ Hafan in the south and Tŷ Gobaith in the north of the country. Both places are beacons of light for children and their families in the darkest imaginable times. I have had the privilege of visiting Tŷ Hafan in Sully, and it was an incredibly moving experience. At the time, I was part of the campaign to increase their state funding and to bring them in line with their counterparts in England, and I’m glad to say that the campaign was successful and they received a significant uplift in financial support. So, I’d like to thank the Welsh Government for doing that.

However, I understand that increased costs and inflation have eaten into much of that extra money that came their way. I’d like the Government to ensure that Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith have sufficient money in order to continue to provide care for seriously ill children and the much-needed respite that their families require. I understand that, in correspondence with Ministers, the children’s hospices have pointed out that there has been no mention or recognition of the inflationary pressures that are faced by the children’s hospices. This has resulted in the 2020 funding agreement now being worth considerably less than when first announced. I understand they’ve made it clear that they believe this simple progressive step would have been an obvious outcome to the second phase review. It seems obvious to the children’s hospices that funding should have been raised in line with inflation; it certainly seems obvious to me that it appears to be an obvious step for Welsh Government to take. I’d appreciate it, in her response today, if the Deputy Minister could outline how the assessment of funding priorities was carried out, and why the funding of children’s hospices was not a sufficient priority to ensure that they did not suffer a real-terms cut. Can we have an undertaking here today that the vital funding for children’s hospitals in Wales will be reassessed to ensure that they are not under-resourced?

Finally, looking at the future and the third phase review of palliative and end-of-life care, in the correspondence I mentioned earlier, I understand that there is a concern that lessons aren’t being learnt from earlier phases. In fact, the concern is that the flaws that prevented the phase 2 review from delivering any outcomes of note or on time are now going to be baked into the phase 3 approach from the start. Without significant extra resource put aside to pull together the review, and without the full involvement of children’s hospices and other partners in the process, they simply cannot see how the fundamental piece of work can be delivered to the desired standard in this timescale. They would welcome some urgent assurances about how the process will be run, what the detailed timelines look like, and where and how they can be involved. They go on to indicate—and I echo their points—if past instances are anything to go by, this could be a once in a decade, even a once in a generation, opportunity to get this right.

I know that children’s hospices want to support the Government to deliver a plan and a structure that will both stand scrutiny and the test of time. With a firm commitment from the children’s hospices in Wales, will the Ministers make the same commitments so that children and families who are going through the most heartbreaking and testing times get the support they need? Diolch yn fawr.