Lynne Neagle: 1. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's policy to tackle child poverty in Wales? OAQ51981
Lynne Neagle: A new Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales report estimates that there could be 50,000 more Welsh children living in poverty by 2021 because of the Tory Government's welfare reforms. Given the challenges we face in tackling child poverty and the huge concern that has been expressed over the decision to end the school uniform grant in Wales, will the Welsh Government look again at this,...
Lynne Neagle: Thanks, Deputy Presiding Officer. As Members have said and as the Cabinet Secretary is aware, we are nearly at the end of our inquiry into targeted funding. We've got a discussion about it tomorrow, and I really don't want to pre-empt the committee's findings on that, because we will be making, I hope, a good number of recommendations, which I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary will want to take...
Lynne Neagle: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the allocation of funding to the local government and public services portfolio?
Lynne Neagle: 9. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the support available for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in Torfaen? OAQ52040
Lynne Neagle: Thank you. As you're aware, I recently visited the Torfaen Traveller education service based at West Monmouth School, and it was absolutely fantastic to see how well the young people are doing, how they're getting really good qualifications, and some of them are considering going on to university. As you also know, I'm very much behind your efforts to tackle early entry, but one of the issues...
Lynne Neagle: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what action is being taken by the Welsh Government to tackle childhood obesity? OAQ52041
Lynne Neagle: Thank you. As the Cabinet Secretary knows, Welsh Government will be receiving some £57 million as part of the new soft drinks levy, and I was concerned to see how little of that money is going to be spent on measures to tackle childhood obesity, which is very different to the approach being taken in the rest of the UK. I know that there are good schemes out there. The Health, Social Care and...
Lynne Neagle: The bleak truth is that, without an end to austerity, public services as we know them are under threat. This is understandably a difficult thing for a Labour Government that cares about these services to face up to, but pretending that changing the number of councils will avoid that difficult truth is sticking our heads in the sand. So far, the debate seems not to have progressed beyond the...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you. The Cabinet Secretary is well aware of my concerns about the potential loss of this grant, and I'm grateful to her for her engagement on this and for meeting with me about it yesterday. I have no doubt that she is personally deeply committed to supporting our poorest pupils, but on this issue, we need some urgent clarity and assurances. In the last five years, the school uniform...
Lynne Neagle: Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the Welsh Government’s suicide and self-harm prevention strategy for Wales 2015-2020?
Lynne Neagle: 3. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to improve trunk roads in South Wales East? OAQ52110
Lynne Neagle: Thank you. The recent changes to the A4042 Rechem roundabout in Pontypool have caused massive disruption for local residents and commuters, and I've received a very large volume of correspondence from constituents regarding not just the huge delays, but also fears over the safety of the road. I'm very grateful to Welsh Government officials for agreeing to meet me later this afternoon to...
Lynne Neagle: 4. Will the First Minister make a statement on support for care leavers? OAQ52156
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, First Minister. I'm very proud that, despite the challenges of austerity, Torfaen council became the first local authority in Wales to exempt care leavers from paying council tax until 21, or 25 in some circumstances. As you'll be aware, that decision was followed by six other local authorities. This exemption will provide care leavers with a vital opportunity to transition and...
Lynne Neagle: Can I thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary? I also welcome your recognition that the report does set out a range of failings that led to real harm being caused. I had a few specific points that I wanted to ask about in relation to the report. The first relates to the concerns that are raised about the treatment people get, with dementia, in A&E and in other medical settings in...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for this important statement. As you're aware, the Children, Young People and Education Committee has recently published our report into the emotional and mental health of children and young people, and a number of themes arising in our wide-ranging inquiry resonate with the key findings of the expert panel. First, that the whole school approach is crucial in...
Lynne Neagle: I, too, would like to give a really warm welcome to this statement today. It is really exciting to see the progress that's been made and the scale of the proposals that will enable our young people to have a genuine voice in this new youth parliament. I'd like to thank the Presiding Officer and her team for all their work on it, because I know the scale of the logistics of this has been very...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m very pleased to open this debate today on the Children, Young People and Education Committee’s report on the outreach elements of the Flying Start programme. Flying Start was introduced 11 years ago and is regarded as one of the Welsh Government’s flagship early years programmes. It is delivered by local authorities within defined geographical...
Lynne Neagle: In 2014, outreach arrangements were introduced in response to concerns that basing entitlement to the service on a family’s postcode was resulting in the exclusion of many children who were in greatest need of support. The outreach aspect of the programme was created to enable local authorities to deliver the four core elements of Flying Start to a small percentage of their population...
