Jeremy Miles: ...looking for an indication of the level of support available, we published a statement, I think either yesterday or this morning, which sets out the range of support that is available for higher education students across grants, loans and council tax reductions and so on. We will continue to look at what more we can do to support students. We've obviously made funding available in many...
Jeremy Miles: Our priority continues to be ensuring that higher education students have access to support that enables them to meet their day-to-day living costs. Our student support system provides support equivalent to the national living wage, with the highest levels of grant being targeted to those students most in need.
Jeremy Miles: I thank Joyce Watson for that supplementary question. She's right to say, of course, that the costs of school uniform are a considerable concern for many families. I wrote to schools over the summer recess, towards the end of the recess, to say to them that we will be looking again, as she says, at the guidance that's been in place for three years, effectively, at this point, but the scale of...
Jeremy Miles: Well, that is a longer term solution to the challenge that the Member correctly describes as being imminent for schools, and I hope, as I'm sure he will, that when the statement is made on Friday, the Prime Minister will be clear in terms of the commitment that she's making to businesses and to individuals about the support for energy costs, which is certainly necessary in order for public...
Jeremy Miles: It's already happening in some schools in Wales. Schools support families in all sorts of different ways to ensure that they can access support more broadly. One of the considerations mentioned by the First Minister yesterday was the need to ensure that any contact between families and any public body allows people to understand the range of support available to them. One of the things, and...
Jeremy Miles: The cost-of-living crisis is having, and will continue to have, significant impact on all public services, including our schools. The First Minister has already made clear in the Senedd yesterday that only the UK Government has the financial firepower to tackle the crippling effects of rising energy costs and other costs.
Jeremy Miles: ...challenging task. But I think the results have demonstrated the tenacity of our young people, their commitment to their own learning, and the incredible work that teachers and the wider education workforce have done in order to support our young people. We are looking at next year already, obviously. People studying exams next year will have experienced disruption in this year, so there...
Jeremy Miles: ...tailored to the needs of individual learners and putting each learner in the best possible position to fulfil their own potential, will be a huge step forward for us. We will all speak to schools in our constituencies and regions. My own experience is that where schools have high levels of disadvantage, they're very excited about the opportunity that the curriculum brings, because they can...
Jeremy Miles: ...to the Bevan Foundation, a programme—I would say a broad-ranging programme—of measures was being considered, and we're implementing those. So, some of those things relate to how we support the education workforce to use alternative strategies, in terms of teacher training, in terms of ensuring peer-to-peer support for school leaders and in supporting schools in recruiting the teachers...
Jeremy Miles: ...parents in this area. To date, we have ensured that there is a specific playlist available on Hwb, which includes a range of resources in 12 languages in order to ensure that local authorities and schools are supported and to facilitate the work that they're already undertaking to work with parents and the wider community to ensure that everyone understands what's happening on the ground...
Jeremy Miles: ...ground. She asserts that there is confusion; she asserts many things in her contribution today. Let's just look at the evidence in reality here. The Member is aware that the code already requires schools to engage with parents in relation to the content of the RSE curriculum, and schools are doing that. It's absolutely core to the requirement of the code and guidance that that should...
Jeremy Miles: ...'s allegations, the lack of specificity, the broad-brush approach that she's taking to this question are incredibly unhelpful. The curriculum has been taught for a matter of days, actually, in schools, so I would be interested in hearing from her either in the Chamber or separately of the specifics to which she is referring. I think it's incumbent on all of us to be cautious and careful...
Jeremy Miles: It is very important that young people in Wales are given an education that enables them to navigate the world in which we live and understand the challenges that young people face, which certainly I didn't face when I was at their age, and that is the underlying purpose and effect of the relationships and sexuality education code and guidance. The Member will be very well aware that there is...
Jeremy Miles: ...the Member will know, a number of initiatives to support the very real cost-of-living crisis that families right across Wales are facing, such as the pupil development grant, PDG-Access, the free school meals programme that we were discussing yesterday in the Senedd, the school holiday enrichment programme and, indeed, many others. This Government will always do everything we can to...
Jeremy Miles: ...has already been allocated according to the revenue support grant last year. That was the basis for their agreement. I agree with the comments made by Sioned Williams on the pressures on our schools because of the increase in the costs of heating and other costs related to inflation and so on. As the Member will know from what we were discussing in the Senedd yesterday, the Welsh...
Jeremy Miles: The cost-of-living crisis is having, and will continue to have, a significant impact on all public services, including our schools. As the First Minister has made clear, only the UK Government has the financial firepower to tackle the crippling effects of rising energy and other costs.
Jeremy Miles: The Welsh Government is working with Health Education and Improvement Wales to review the NHS Wales bursary scheme. We recognise the impact of increasing costs of living on healthcare professional students and we're working to identify immediate actions that could provide additional support.
Jeremy Miles: ...alleviating, to some extent, aspects of the cost-of-living pressures that families are under. If you like, I think a longer term benefit will be both to be able to transform the role of food in our schools in terms of healthy eating but also in terms of the understanding of young people about food—the origins of food and nutrition and so on. And I think it will have the effect of raising...
Jeremy Miles: ...people as possible are able to benefit from this policy, in accordance with a very, very short time frame, and that applies to all authorities in Wales. As I say, where there are a small number of schools that need still to make some infrastructure changes, they are complying with the policy in a different way: so, for example, providing the cold meals, as I was saying earlier, as an...
Jeremy Miles: ...system as quickly as possible. And that, at the end of the day, was the judgment that we reached, and, obviously, in agreement with Plaid Cymru. Does that mean that there aren't a small number of schools that aren't able to offer that full hot meal provision to all their reception—? So, there are, as I was saying, a handful of schools in that position. The funding, both the £25 million...
