Bethan Sayed: Thank you very much for that answer. As part of your financial inclusion strategy, credit unions are required to provide outreach services and education, such as school savers clubs. But when I introduced the Financial Education and Inclusion (Wales) Bill, one of the key things we identified after consultation was the availability of these services throughout Wales. There would be some...
Bethan Sayed: ...to look at the practicalities of how this radical policy can be successfully implemented. We took a wide range of evidence, including informal external engagement sessions with stakeholders and school pupils across Wales. It is clear from considering the evidence that success will require hard work, considerable additional resources and clear targets. It will also need to be founded on the...
Bethan Sayed: ...a payslip, while a third have never put money into an actual bank account. Now, this report is very worrying, especially at an age when children are potentially leaving their homes to seek higher education elsewhere. Has the Welsh Government compared the cost of providing financial inclusion to adults in the community against providing it to young people in schools, and is the approach...
Bethan Sayed: In an interview with the BBC in December 2016, Dr Owain Arwel Hughes, founder of the Welsh Proms, and a former conductor at the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, explained that cuts to school music services, and a consequent lack of tuition opportunities, were causing what he described as a crisis in Welsh music education. Dr Hughes's concerns were also reflected in the committee's public...
Bethan Sayed: ...£2 million your Government announced earlier this year for mental health initiatives in university was much needed and welcomed. And you told me in July that this funding was to develop a whole-school approach that would support staff as well as students. But, at the same time, I believe you gave ColegauCymru just £175,000 for the same purpose, with regard to implementing this in further...
Bethan Sayed: ...issue I have is with regard to the question I asked last week. I don’t think I had a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ from you with regard to whether we could have a statement on autism and the post-educational needs of those who’ve left school. It’s an urgent situation. Leighton Andrews, in his capacity as education Minister, did have a taskforce looking into provision for those who’ve...
Bethan Sayed: ...between the Government and housing associations and monitoring their progress, I would be very grateful indeed. The second statement that I wanted to request from Welsh Government was one from the education Cabinet Secretary with regards to financial education. I note from today’s news that the report from Estyn—its thematic review—has come out, and says that more needs to be done to...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you for that reply. The policy of school reorganisation and the creation of the centralisation of superschools, particularly in Neath Port Talbot and across Wales, has caused some concern, particularly with the potential closure of Cymer Afan Comprehensive School in my region. It's particularly acute in relation to the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, and it's going against that, because...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you. I recently raised an issue with the leader of the house on a local issue brought to me by a constituent, who is trying to keep an autistic grandchild in a special school, Maes y Coed, in the Neath area for an extra year, in addition to the school year, until they can reach agreement with Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health board on the long-term future. There is provision to allow this...
Bethan Sayed: ...curriculum. In response, the Government has said that the new curriculum will be broad, balanced, inclusive and challenging. But if diversity is not prescribed, then how will it ensure that every school teaches the history of our BAME communities? We have heard that it isn't happening sufficiently and we do need to ensure that it can happen if there are to be changes made. Again, if the...
Bethan Sayed: Whilst Plaid Cymru has been supportive of some of the changes that you've made in relation to schools, when it comes to post-16 education, some of the people that I've talked to have said that they believe that the Government have taken their eye off the ball. Even the former Minister—I'm not sure of the title at the time—said that further education was not given a priority. Do you agree...
Bethan Sayed: First Minister, on Friday I was with the ethnic youth support team in Swansea, and they were saying that they would like to have much more support going into schools and education venues in regard to trying to get communities to work together. And so, in one school, they had a white girl wearing a hijab, and she walked down the street, and then she came back and said how different she felt...
Bethan Sayed: Can I ask for a statement or a debate in Government time on post-education provision for people aged 19 to 25 specifically with autism? I don’t particularly want to be going into constituents’ casework here but I feel I have to briefly because it’s come to the position where the grandmother was at my office on Friday, crying her eyes out because she’s trying to keep her grandson at...
Bethan Sayed: ...the deliberations around Brexit. On the third and final question, I just wanted to ask in relation to continuing the theme on the curriculum reform, but specifically in relation to further education. I've heard that many—. There has been welcoming of the actual change in process, but I've heard from some in the sector that they are worried about the progression to work-based learning...
Bethan Sayed: ..., who was killed in a car accident on the M4 at Port Talbot last year, along with her eight-month unborn baby. Many Members in the Chamber will know Rebecca through her work as Shelter Cymru’s education and youth officer. In fact, I met her many times to discuss my financial education Bill. She and her husband, Alex, were on their way to work at Shelter Cymru when that crash happened,...
Bethan Sayed: ...it would be useful for us as AMs to understand what those deliberations were. I say it in the context of having been at a public meeting last night, where there are proposals to close Cymer Afan school in the Afan valley. We appreciate that the taskforce isn't just to do with education, but if you do close the school, it will take away the heart of the community, and therefore may lead to...
Bethan Sayed: Obviously, the special educational needs code is currently, as it stands, being considered as part of the school organisation code. While reading it, it was clear to me that it says that children should have their needs met, that the views of children should be sought and taken into account and that the parental role is vital. If we bring you back to the debate that we had on the autism Bill...
Bethan Sayed: I would be interested in hearing about the pilot that you mentioned in answering Lee Waters, because I’ve been asking, over a number of years, about work in schools in the context of self-confidence, given the work that I’m doing on the cross-party group on eating disorders. On that basis, I’d like to ask you what work you have been doing with the health Minister on the eating disorders...
Bethan Sayed: ...unions have said that the Government's allocation of an additional £24 million for the whole of the curriculum roll-out is nowhere near enough. Professor Calvin Jones from Cardiff Business School told us that the current funding for schools was pretty dire and another £200 million a year was needed to deliver education fit for the future. He said, and I quote:
Bethan Sayed: Thank you. Page 8 of 'Education in Wales' discusses the need for a strong commitment to effective collaboration as well as the integration of services where appropriate. Could you expand on what the opportunities to collaborate more effectively are in terms of colleges and schools? For example, the Welsh Government used to fund 14 to 19-year-old fora through the medium of Welsh, and this did...
