00:00 built upon some very significant foundations of success.
00:04 Elaine Dodds AM: Good afternoon, First Minister.
00:09 Just to go back to Julian Tudor Hart, who spent decades of his life in the deprived
00:15 communities of south Wales and saw at first hand the level of poverty, I just really wanted
00:21 to think about child poverty in particular here in Wales, which has remained stubbornly
00:26 high at around 28 per cent.
00:29 As you'll know, the Equality and Social Justice Committee completed a report calling time
00:34 on child poverty, and just to remind ourselves of some of the statistics in there, the child
00:39 mortality rate in Wales is 70 per cent higher for children in the most deprived groups than
00:46 the least deprived children, and children living in poverty are four times more likely
00:52 to develop a mental health problem by the age of 11.
00:55 Therefore, we know very clearly, and it's been brought up to date, the links between
00:59 child poverty and health inequality in our children's population.
01:04 I'm encouraged to see the child poverty strategy being developed, and hopefully there'll be
01:09 some targets within that, which I know many of us have called for.
01:13 I just wondered whether the Welsh Government might consider a target looking at health
01:17 inequality and poverty, and how we can link the two together and make sure we've got clear
01:22 targets to address that.
01:25 Dirprwy Lywydd.
01:26 Mark Isherwood AM: Well, Llywydd, Jane Dodds makes important points, echoing some of the
01:31 things that were said earlier.
01:33 Child health inequality is rooted in broader inequality that children face from the start
01:39 of their lives, and see it in many, many aspects of their lives.
01:46 The Government is committed, of course, to addressing the impact of those factors in
01:52 the lives of those children who live in almost deprived communities.
01:57 Let me make this one point.
02:00 You know how controversial the Welsh Government's policy of 20 miles an hour has been in some
02:06 places, yet we know that children from deprived communities are more likely to suffer in accidents
02:15 than children in any other part of the population.
02:18 The word 'accident' is misleading, because it implies that somehow these things happen
02:22 at random.
02:23 They don't.
02:25 Children in our least well-off communities are more likely to suffer in an accident,
02:29 including accidents on their streets involving motor vehicles.
02:33 The impact of our policy, which will save people's lives, will have a bigger impact
02:37 in the lives of poor children than any other part of the population.
02:41 Thank you.
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