Laura Anne Jones: Apprenticeships will play a key role in supporting job creation as we recover from this pandemic, but several sectors, as has just been discussed, are still struggling to recruit new staff members since the end of lockdown. Following on from Adam Price's question and your answer just now, what assessment have you made—has the Welsh Government made—to increase the scope of the Welsh...
Laura Anne Jones: 2. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language regarding the sourcing of local produce for school meals? OQ57003
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this statement, Minister. Children across Wales have had an extremely difficult time over this pandemic, and the period has highlighted how vulnerable our children's mental health and well-being is through turbulence and significant change in their lives. Ensuring that every measure is there to support them is paramount as we go forward, and...
Laura Anne Jones: —that there's a safe space for adolescent mental health first aid patients in hospitals. Thank you.
Laura Anne Jones: —if they’ve been affected by mental health or if they know someone who has been affected by mental health and been shocked by who it affected, because it is important that your plan can show that it can affect anyone, anywhere, like with Andrew R.T. Davies, and ensures that help is accessible to everyone, everywhere. To this end, Minister, I’d like you to look at a Bill that’s going...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this statement and delivery plan as mental health can affect anyone, regardless of colour, age or creed, and it’s vital that we tackle this head on and with some urgency. I find it very encouraging, actually, that this Government have appointed you, Lynne, as the Minister for mental health, because I know you’re a long-term campaigner on it,...
Laura Anne Jones: Minister, could I call for an urgent statement from the Minister for Education and Welsh Language on our schools' readiness for the implementation of the new curriculum? Alongside the obvious impact the pandemic has had, many schools are currently really struggling with staff absences, and supply teachers are difficult to source at the moment due to the amount of teachers self-isolating and...
Laura Anne Jones: We would like to welcome the introduction of the UK Government's Professional Qualifications Bill, which will ease the transition for professionally qualified citizens of the EU to have their qualifications recognised and allow them to work in the UK. These proposals will make it easier for professionals and businesses to navigate the UK's regulatory landscape by simplifying the process. The...
Laura Anne Jones: First Minister, for me a learning environment in school extends itself to the quality of the facilities in place, and the twenty-first century schools programme, as you've said, is outstanding. It's fabulous. I've visited many schools myself. My son attends one. They're very, very good. But when I was driving back down from the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday, it became...
Laura Anne Jones: Minister, following on from what Gareth just said, he's outlined the extreme of what's going on: it's the end of September and we're already seeing school closures and we're seeing whole year groups going off. Another reason for that has been staff shortages, with people going off with COVID, so I'd like to know what your contingency plans are that you've got in place to help those schools...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, Minister. It was glaringly apparent from our debate last week and from the fact that our post boxes are full of worrying constituents' cases about this that there is a dire need to do something very quickly about this situation. But what I want to ask you today, Minister, is specifically about GPs and supporting face-to-face appointments, as opposed to the online ones, because if...
Laura Anne Jones: May I first completely concur with everything that Buffy just said—second what she said—and reiterate her calls for more training across Wales consistently, as you said, Minister, in this regard? May I just make a bid for health visitors in particular? Being a mother myself and having been through a difficult birth, I know of the importance of the role that they play in the first year of...
Laura Anne Jones: 4. What contingency plans does the Welsh Government have in place to support the Welsh ambulance service during unexpectedly busy periods? OQ56926
Laura Anne Jones: First Minister, I hope you'll join me, and the Member, in congratulating the Conservative UK Government who are protecting millions of jobs across the UK thanks to the furlough scheme. But it is glaringly apparent at the moment that there is a skills shortage in Islwyn, and across our country, including the problems we're all currently experiencing, compounded by the fact there's a lack of...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you very much. I'm just wondering in what you're saying if you could just explain to me how this would impact education in Wales.
Laura Anne Jones: Would the Member give way?
Laura Anne Jones: Thanks, Janet. On that, it's completely clear from what you said, and other Members of this Chamber today, that we are in a crisis and it's not a crisis you can hide from, Minister. But you're right to address the wider impact of this and it also needs to be addressed, and I'd like the Minister to address it later on and tell us what the Government are going to do on the wider impacts. Peter...
Laura Anne Jones: Business Minister, following on from a question to the First Minister last week, please can I call for a statement from the relevant Minister—an updated statement—on the advice for sending children and young people to school or other educational settings when a member of their household has tested positive for COVID? Obviously, this is causing significant distress for many headteachers,...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, First Minister. The importance of mental health, of course, has raised its profile significantly during this pandemic. Due to its importance, I'm thrilled to have recently been made an ambassador for the Where's Your Head At? UK campaign, which has been very successful. This campaign has culminated in a Bill currently going through the UK Parliament to ensure that, within first aid...
Laura Anne Jones: 8. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the importance of mental health first aid training in and across all educational settings? OQ56871
