Written question WQ90101

The Welsh Government provides funding for the School Essentials Grant (formerly PDG Access), which is distributed to families via local authorities. It has made a significant difference to many lower income families across Wales, helping to reduce the worry surrounding the purchase of school uniform and equipment, enabling children to attend school and take part in activities at the same level as their peers.

Last year, our School Essentials Grant helped over 100,000 children from families on lower incomes with school costs. The grant can be used to pay for school uniform, including coats and shoes, classroom essentials, like pens, pencils and bags and school activities, like learning a musical instrument, sports kit and equipment for after school activities.

In 2021/22 the grant was extended to eligible children and young people in all compulsory school years, meaning that even more families can now benefit from this support. £13.6m has been made available for the School Essentials Grant in 2023-24.

Our Programme for Government commitments include promoting equal access to sport, supporting young and talented athletes and grassroots clubs. The £31m we are providing to Sport Wales in 2023-24 is supporting the sport sector to invest effort and resources where it is needed most.

Sport Wales’ Be Active Wales Fund distributes around £4m a year to sports clubs and community organisations to support projects that promote equality, sustainability and innovation in sport. The funding is used to access equipment, coach education, training, pitch maintenance and a wide range of other aspects that directly help sport in Wales to take place.