, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Thank you. I was just about to ask about those extra burdens of, of course, tracking whether everyone has taken up the offer, and also to measure the outcomes. That also could possibly fall on the schools. But it also could be done by the local authorities…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
I completely agree with what you said. The opportunity is there within the new curriculum, but the worry is that there'll be 22 different interpretations of the curriculum, at the very least. I'm talking just about local authority areas, not the clusters and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Thank you, Chair. A lot of mine have been answered anyway, but I just wanted to carry on from what you've just said now. I completely concur with what Mr Parry and James Evans just said: those pupils are the focus, the children we want to be focusing on. I…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Yes. here could be a requirement to have black this, that and another and no labels. We already do that in school settings, don't we, saying 'We don't want you to have any labels on any clothing.' So, there's that way of looking at it. And, obviously, they're…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Just to add that some of the evidence we've had so far is that the centres themselves said they provide an awful lot of clothing and things like that themselves, including coats and things, to sort of try and be that leveller, so that everyone is using the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
We've had lots of evidence back from learners as well saying that they enjoy the independence and that experience that they wouldn't normally get in a lot of families at the end of junior school sort of age; so, perhaps that is a good time.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Can I concur with what you just said? Obviously, it comes to priorities, and we have to think about core education and providing for that. But, apparently, there's going to be direct money from the Welsh Government to ensure that that's the case, so this…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill - evidence session 4
Can I just ask? You all mention that a lot is being done already, but, obviously, cuts are being made across the board within our local authorities now, due to the pressures that they're under. An example of this has been £70,000 being taken away from…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Yes. Thank you.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Yes, thank you. Can I just follow on from that? You were just saying earlier about expanding that Flying Start provision. What we've heard in evidence is that it doesn't matter what background you're from, how much money you earn, we're seeing that speech and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Just following on from what James Evans just said about additional learning needs and the rise, of course, in the numbers of young children presenting with speech and language problems, particularly at an early age, and coming into school now, post pandemic…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Just talking about prevention and cross-portfolio impacts, to what extent are you concerned that, in the long term, your social care portfolio will bear the brunt of the real-terms funding reductions in other Cabinet portfolios, for example, the static…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Thank you, Deputy Minister. During scrutiny of the draft budget 2023-24, you repeatedly told us that there'd be no reductions to funding in relation to children and young people's budgets, and that expenditure had been maintained for them, yet this year we…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Excellent. Thank you, Deputy Minister.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Okay. Brilliant. And have you made detailed assessments for all the third sector and other providers that provide those vital services for children of the impact of the budget?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Given the significant role that you've just outlined that the third sector plays, obviously, with children and children's services, can I just confirm, then, that you both have made detailed assessments of the impact of the 2024-25 budget on them, and you're…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Okay, great.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Okay. On voluntary sector funding, can you offer assurances in the current financial climate, and is there anything practical that you can do to improve the stability and address the short-term nature of funding for the children’s sector?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Absolutely. Will you be keeping an eye on what local authorities are doing across the 22 different local authorities?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
But there's no guarantee, is there, Minister, that that money, given the significant pressures that the Minister outlined earlier on the NHS, will get to those services, those children's front-line services?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 - evidence session 1
Thank you, Chair. Ministers, the Welsh Local Government Association has warned that it’s only a matter of time before a Welsh local authority goes bankrupt. Its written evidence says that £41 million of the current year's £219 million overspend is directly…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Child poverty and educational attainment
Yes, and it's worth saying again, Deputy Minister. Would you like to take an intervention on PISA results? Maybe you should be quiet, then, and just listen. The Minister has blamed COVID for this outcome, yet other parts of the UK weren't as bad, and they had…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Child poverty and educational attainment
You're lucky it's not a coalition. One key point of the debate today that should not be overlooked is the ever-growing educational attainment gap here in Wales. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation confirmed in its 2013 report that the educational performance of…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Child poverty and educational attainment
Says the Deputy Minister. One key point in this debate that should not be overlooked is the ever-growing educational attainment gap in Wales. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation—[Interruption.]
