Lynne Neagle: ...as part of this process. In terms of the call for a doubling of hepatology staff in Wales, health boards and NHS trusts are responsible for recruitment and workforce planning, supported by Health Education and Improvement Wales and other partner organisations. We need to develop an approach to the hepatology workforce that achieves the right match between demand and supply, and we are...
Jack Sargeant: ...community assets in a broad sense, but there have also been a number of petitions that we've considered as a committee seeking to specifically preserve local buildings, for example Cowbridge Girls School or Coleg Harlech. Every single one of us in our communities will have a building that doesn't make enough money for its owner, a building that has become perhaps too costly to maintain,...
Natasha Asghar: Minister, it's a fact that fewer than half of children walk or cycle to school. Research shows that the encouragement of active travel to school is hampered by issues related to the amount of traffic outside school gates. I've always supported 20 mph speed limits outside schools to help keep our children safe, but some councils in Wales have gone further, introducing 'school streets', where...
Laura Anne Jones: I strongly believe that our education system needs to adapt to reflect the needs of the future job market locally, nationally and, of course, internationally with the opportunities that now come because of Brexit and opening up ourselves to the rest of the world. Even though you've ploughed £5.7 million into your Welsh Government's 'Global Futures' programme, as John Griffiths outlined just...
Jack Sargeant: .... Minister, can I ask you how your department is working collaboratively not only with the Minister for Economy's department, but industry partners and our trade union colleagues to ensure that our education system is delivering the future talent that a net-zero Wales needs?
Jeremy Miles: ..., by the way. It's really important that we start that work in primary, whether it's the funding that we provide to Techniquest and Explore, for example, which encourages engagement from primary school kids, in particular, but also the funding we provide for things like the Engineering Education Scheme Wales, to Technocamps, which provide coding in schools right across Wales, the further...
Jeremy Miles: I've been clear with every council—I'm not going to single out any one particular council—I've been clear with every council that I expect the ambitions that they have outlined in their Welsh in education strategic plans to be fulfilled, and that is obviously also the intention of the councils themselves. I have also said that we will have regard to the extent to which the WESP...
Jeremy Miles: ...hear their concerns directly in terms of cost-of-living pressures. In FE and in HE, the Government has a range of things that we're doing to support students. In terms of FE, we continue with the education maintenance allowance. We're ensuring that there is a means to expand the reach of EMA, to ensure that people can apply in-year if their circumstances change, and can ask for backdating...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I have an opportunity to visit primary schools throughout Wales, as the Member described, and I have to say that I also feel that schools have got a lot smaller since I was a pupil, so I possibly share that concern with him. What I'm committed to doing is ensuring that I insist that progress is made against what's contained in the WESP. They will have a partner in the Welsh Government...
Jeremy Miles: ...—I would encourage him or her to contribute to the consultation. It’s important that all voices are heard as we approach the question of recasting our qualifications in Wales. One in five schools in Wales currently teach three separate sciences at GCSE level, so the overwhelming majority do not. The proposals that Qualifications Wales have brought forward do not combine the sciences....
2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Julie James: ...workforce that you were just talking about, which we absolutely need to do, that we'll be able to identify what the skills are and where the shortages are, so that I can work with my colleague the education Minister and my colleague the economy Minister to make sure that our FE colleges are providing the right kind of provision for the workers of the future in the retrofit space, and that...
Julie James: ...want to see, as part of the 30x30 targets, what we can say about the diminishing use of pesticides and herbicides across the piece for ordinary things, if I can put it like that. We've got a re-education piece to do here as well. All of us will receive complaints from constituents about weeds on the pavement, for example, but weeds on the pavement are necessary, they're necessary for...
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Julie James: ...to action to improve the condition and resilience of our protected sites network, each project is required to support the active involvement of local communities through training, apprenticeships, school engagement or strengthening volunteering bases. Through the programme, we aim to create both resilient ecological networks and networks of people actively engaged with nature. Further...
Rebecca Evans: ...through various different forums when we're setting the Welsh Government's budget. In the past, I've engaged with economics students and have had discussions with them. My officials have gone into schools and talked about budgets. I've gone into a school as well and talked to them about Welsh rates of income tax and things like that. So, all of that sort of thing, I think—just the...
Jane Hutt: ...in the longer term, and much broader links. You will know about Food Cardiff and the initiatives that they've taken. We're sort of building on that and the Big Bocs Bwyd scheme, linked to schools, to get partnerships to tackle the root causes of food poverty and the focus, as you have always stated very clearly, that we need to focus on prevention, sustainability and also co-ordinate this...
Vaughan Gething: ...people will have about the safe operation of facilities like this, as well as seeing the potential for investment. I'm very proud that we're continuing to make progress on the north Wales medical school. I see the former Minister for north Wales on the screen in front of me—it was part of the conversation we had in the last Government, and we're looking to carry on and deliver within...
Laura Anne Jones: .... Is this something that you'll look to do in Wales? And, at the end of your statement, you were talking about prevention and you recognised that there might be increased pressures now that schools have returned. From what I understand today, from what I've heard, there are already high levels of staff and pupil absences in Bridgend schools because of contagious illnesses. How are you...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: May I ask the Minister for Education and Welsh Language to make a statement on how the Government intends to ensure timely Welsh-medium assessments for children who require an autism assessment? I have a few cases in my constituency of children who require Welsh-medium autism assessments but who are having to wait years. For example, Rhodri—not his real name—who is eight years old was...
