Leanne Wood: A former employee of Cardiff council has recently been to see me regarding a serious employment issue. He fell foul of an outdated provision in the Local Government Act 1972, which meant that, after his term as an elected councillor came to an end, he was barred from working for that council for 12 months. It was only after he had worked for the council for six months did they realise that...
Leanne Wood: [Inaudible.]—change in the law.
Leanne Wood: I've received many representations from schools in the Rhondda regarding the funding crisis that they face in this financial year and, of course, for the foreseeable future. Treorchy Comprehensive School alone has lost nearly £0.25 million in this financial year, with no corresponding drop in pupil numbers. Then we have the state of some school buildings. One I visited recently posed a clear...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, can you tell us which areas of Wales have the highest rates of late-stage cancer diagnosis?
Leanne Wood: Rich or poor, rural or urban, man or woman, cancer is an indiscriminate disease, yet diagnosis is anything but. Recent research by Macmillan shows that cancer diagnosis in this country remains a postcode lottery, and our poorest communities consistently face later stage diagnosis. Where stage is recorded, more than one in four people in Wales were diagnosed with cancer at its latest stage,...
Leanne Wood: So, you're talking about treatment and I'm asking you about diagnosis. Cancer Research UK has championed it, clinicians are calling for it, England is doing it, and yet, First Minister, you continue to argue with the experts. You reject 28-day targets not for the good of patients, but for the good of your own public relations. You won't hit those targets and you won't meet those patients'...
Leanne Wood: This is the First Minister's eighth and final statement on a future legislative programme, and we look forward to having a full debate on this question in the autumn. So, what do we have in this eighth statement? Well, council mergers are back on the agenda five years after the Williams commission first raised it. The seemingly ever-present question of reasonable chastisement rears its head...
Leanne Wood: 6. What plans has the Cabinet Secretary put in place for a possible no-deal exit from the European Union? OAQ52556
Leanne Wood: 3. How is the Welsh Government tackling domestic abuse in the Rhondda? OAQ52555
Leanne Wood: Yesterday, Labour MPs voting with the Tories ensured that a critical amendment to the trade Bill fell. The amendment guaranteed, if negotiations failed, that the most basic customs union would still be an option, protecting our steel and agricultural industries, Welsh jobs and wages. A 'no deal' Brexit now looks more likely than ever. European nations have been told to step up planning for a...
Leanne Wood: But you can mitigate it.
Leanne Wood: As a former employee and board member for Cwm Cynon Women's Aid, I've got first-hand experience of the seriousness and the impact of domestic abuse. Failure to provide support can literally be a matter of life and death, and the statistics for domestic abuse in my constituency are particularly shocking. That's why I was concerned to read about the delays to the implementation of the Violence...
Leanne Wood: I'd just like to say that I'm proud to lead a party that stands up for every single citizen in Wales regardless of where they were born, and we stand against everything that was just said by the leader of the far right. First Minister, 'a lack of ambition', 'taking the easy way out' and 'a matter of fairness' were all phrases used to describe your Government's refusal to introduce universal...
Leanne Wood: First Minister, your poverty of ambition is exacerbating the poverty of our pupils. You are instituting a policy here that is harsher than the Tory Westminster Government's. Just one year after a prominent promise on page 38 of the Labour manifesto, which read 'we will introduce free school meals for all primary school children', you are about to break that promise. First Minister, the Welsh...
Leanne Wood: I'm asking you about food in children's mouths, not about school buildings. Now, the take-up of free breakfasts remains low, and experts from the Bevan Foundation and the Children's Society and the Food Foundation have all highlighted the need for universal free school meals. Free school breakfasts do not preclude the Welsh Government from offering free school meals. Now, First Minister, the...
Leanne Wood: I welcome the u-turn performed by the Welsh Government earlier this year on its plans to scrap the school uniform grant, because when household budgets remain squeezed, particularly in my constituency of the Rhondda, going ahead with that would have been unthinkable. Now, around the time that these ill-advised plans were announced, I surveyed local schools in my constituency to see what...
Leanne Wood: Following a campaign and a subsequent post on social media, I received numerous distressing e-mails from women who have suffered as a result of inadequate provision of support and suitable hospital beds for women experiencing miscarriage. One woman told me a harrowing story of being admitted to a hospital with a suspected miscarriage, only to be placed on a ward next to the labour unit....
Leanne Wood: Diolch. First Minister, do you believe that the Welsh Government has an obligation to implement universal childcare, which, and I quote, 'helps address the impacts of poverty and narrows the attainment gap when children start school'?
Leanne Wood: First Minister, that quote that I used was from the leadership bid of the Cabinet Secretary for Children, Older People and Social Care. As I highlighted last week, your Government is slashing school meals provision. We have Cabinet Secretaries in your Government who say one thing and then do the exact opposite. Now, the children's commissioner has lamented your childcare legislation as a...
Leanne Wood: Just like your school meals policy, with this, children will lose out. Parents will lose out, and in particular those who are struggling the most—[Interruption.]—those who are struggling the most will lose out as a result of your childcare legislation. Now, studies from Ireland to Australia to here in Wales show that one of the biggest barriers to people seeking work is access to...
