Helen Mary Jones: Will the First Minister make a statement on progress in the Mid and West Wales region on 21st Century Schools?
Helen Mary Jones: ...welcomed, as others have said. The foundational economy is made up of those basic goods and services distributed locally that are essential to life, including food, utilities, construction, retail, education, health and social care, and I very much take the point that Hefin has made about the importance of social care and how, in effect, we have outsourced much of that to big international...
Helen Mary Jones: ...it—to be invited in this context to help re-establish the cross-party group on human rights in this place. I was asked to do so by Associate Professor Simon Hoffman of the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law at Swansea University, an expert in the field who I know is known to many in this Chamber. Simon convenes the Wales human rights stakeholder group, a group of over 20...
Helen Mary Jones: Can I also welcome you, Trefnydd, to your new role? I would like to ask you to liaise with the Minister for Education to consider bringing forward a statement about the grave situation that's ongoing in Swansea University at present. In doing so, I need to declare an interest as a very recent employee of the university. Members will have noted from the previous coverage, of course, and...
Helen Mary Jones: 3. What recent discussions has the First Minister had with the Minister for Education about Welsh Government support for higher education in Wales? OAQ53202
Helen Mary Jones: ...Minister for his answer. You'll be aware that I have on a number of occasions raised concerns about the current situation with regard to governance at Swansea University. Now, obviously, as the education Minister has rightly said, our universities are independent bodies, but it is also true that they are in receipt of very substantial public funds in Wales, and that they are very important...
Helen Mary Jones: ..., I wonder if the Minister would give further consideration to how the planning system might be used to ensure, for example, that we no longer have so many fast food outlets really, really close to schools. As I understand it at the moment, there is no capacity for local authorities to limit these on health grounds and I really think that many of us would very strongly support a limit. The...
Helen Mary Jones: ...who I am happy, and I'm sure the Minister would be happy, to call our fellow citizens, because they're our fellow citizens if they're here as far as I'm concerned. May I turn briefly to two education issues? Under the 'Ambitious and Learning' heading in the action plan, action 8 refers to tackling bullying, obviously in schools, and that must be very, very welcome. I'm sure the Minister...
Helen Mary Jones: ...those prisoners' human rights. It is more important, indeed, particularly, as the commissioner highlights, because so many of our prisoners have learning difficulties, they may have low levels of education, they may have disabilities, and many of them have mental health issues. It's clear from this report's findings that the provision currently available to Welsh speakers is inadequate and...
Helen Mary Jones: ...I'd like to raise is the issue of period poverty, and I do welcome the recent Welsh Government investment, but we've seen further evidence again this week that we still have girls missing school because they can't have access to appropriate sanitary products. We still see women and girls using inappropriate things, like having to use socks, having to wash things, and I congratulate the...
Helen Mary Jones: What recent discussions has the First Minister had with the Minister for Education regarding the performance of the higher education sector?
Helen Mary Jones: ...some consideration—and I hear what the Deputy Minister has said about health visiting services, maternity services for very young parents, but also whether there are things that we can do through schools to raise awareness and give access to more middle-class families, who might find it more difficult to access perhaps more traditional routes. And, finally, in relation to the...
Helen Mary Jones: ...Minister will be aware that HEFCW has in the past raised concerns about the robustness of governance arrangements at Swansea University, and I seek the First Minister's assurance today that the education Minister will be working with HEFCW to address any of those weaknesses. In particular, the outstanding situation, where we have senior staff who've been suspended for months on end with no...
Helen Mary Jones: Minister, do you agree with me that one group of children and young people in our schools who are particularly vulnerable are young carers and that they need extra time and support with appropriate staff to help them to both achieve what they can do academically, but also to have time to simply be a child? I share some of the concerns, because, for young carers, being at school is often a...
Helen Mary Jones: ...not whether that's convenient for adults, whether those adults are the teachers who are teaching them or the parents who are looking after them? Can you confirm that in the consultation you expect schools to undertake one of the issues that is covered would be the issue for rural schools of school transport and of children having absolutely no way to get to or from school except school...
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you very much, John. Would you agree with me that it’s really important that we help teach our children, through schools, how to be that positive bystander, how to effectively step in and intervene when you see something is going wrong? Because it can be very difficult, I think, when you’ve got peer pressure, you’ve perhaps got a group of people, and it’s very difficult for you...
Helen Mary Jones: ...Machynlleth; I'd used the other part of the line frequently. And I was struck there by the very high number of passengers using that train for very short journeys—one or two stops—particularly school students. Can I ask the Minister to ensure that, in this review of fares, he does keep in mind, as he says he will, the need to keep fares affordable for young people, because those young...
Helen Mary Jones: ...care, and the quality of management and leadership. Questions should have been asked then. The 2007 General Medical Council deanery visit identified six areas of concern around failings in the educational contract, including induction. The 2018 General Medical Council survey raised concerns with induction and clinical supervision. These reports, coupled with concerns being raised at the...
Helen Mary Jones: 5. What recent discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Education regarding the provision of university courses through the medium of Welsh? OAQ53903
Helen Mary Jones: ...me that one of the biggest challenges is to encourage women and girls to carry on participating in physical activity, particularly, as he's just said in his response to David Melding, after leaving school age. Amongst that group, women from minority ethnic communities are particularly vulnerable and often particularly excluded. Will the Minister undertake today to have some further...
