Cwestiwn ysgrifenedig WQ89585

As I set out in my response to you on 17 October (WQ89272) a systematic assessment of the impact of lockdowns began in October 2020 with a survey of post-16 learners, followed in 2021 with in-depth evaluations of the school age and early years recovery programmes. In addition, a long-term study is being established to monitor the ongoing and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the learning and well-being of children and young people.

In 2020, the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards (RRRS) funding programme was introduced. This funding has been designed to enable all schools in Wales to recruit additional staff to ensure they have the capacity needed to support children and young people’s learning and well-being and to ensure that the impacts of the pandemic are minimised. Funding is distributed to schools and non-maintained settings to enable them to use the funding flexibly in tailored approaches to support their learners’ particular needs. The funding formula has been driven by a focus on the most vulnerable learners and based on a number of weightings linked to specific characteristics with overall funding capped at £125K per school.

Evaluation of the RRRS programme found that wellbeing support has been the most effective and the most useful approach in enabling the development of children and young people in childcare settings, and in schools. Targeting support on specific groups of more disadvantaged learners has been found to be effective in promoting an equitable recovery, as has concentrating spending on early education and younger learners.

Counselling is a key part of ensuring children and young people who require support with their emotional and mental health have access to the assistance they need. The Welsh Government has allocated £2.1m in 2023-24 to fund counselling through local authorities. In addition, we are providing in excess of £16.4m over a three-year period (2022-2025) to ensure national provision of the CAMHS school in-reach service. This sees dedicated mental health practitioners in schools providing consultation, liaison, advice and training.

The Welsh Government has also created an online resource which promotes the numerous digital tools designed specifically to support young people with their own mental health and emotional wellbeing. The Young person's mental health Toolkit links young people aged 11 to 25, to websites, apps, helplines, and more to build resilience and support them.

I have committed to providing regular updates to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on how we are supporting our children and young people to recover from the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. The next update to Committee will be provided in December 2023.