Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, I hope that you enjoyed the visit to Llanhari school today and I very much hope that you enjoyed the singing as much as the children and the teachers enjoyed your dancing in the playground. [Laughter.] Indeed, during today's visit, you met two young teachers who were starting their careers in the field of education. So, what message do you have...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...international experience shows that from age appropriate—. From a very young age, from that nine months and onwards, what you need is that unified approach that actually brings the early years education and childcare together. That includes play, but that unified approach is critical to success and outcomes.
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...have to build on what we've got there. I want to start by looking at that and touching on this issue of how we will get to the place we want to be, with a proper unified, coherent early childhood education and care system that goes from the very early years all the way through, with this continuum. And, in fact, that is what was spelt out a couple of years ago when Welsh Government...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...generations—visiting Syrian families there, celebrating their culture, but celebrating the gift that they brought to us, the privilege that we had in receiving them and their families into local schools and communities. And once again, here we are doing it. I very much welcome the measures, the practical measures, within this, and it's that that I want to ask, about one particular one....
Huw Irranca-Davies: ..., it's very well signposted and so on. But my question, as a follow-up, is whether any analysis has been done to see where people who come here are from—whether they come from work experience in schools or whether they apply through open recruitment here to various roles. What parts of the country do they come from? Which offices do they go to work in? What socioeconomic background are...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...managed to adapt very rapidly to moving services and provision online so that we can do the sort of engagement we've seen, and not least amongst this, I have to say, is the welcome approach of the education outreach section, separate from our committees and everything else, who've done so much to keep an involvement with our schools and potential young electorate as well, as we lowered the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 5. What progress has the Welsh Government made in relation to the pledge to provide a work, education or training offer for all under 25s set out in the Welsh Labour manifesto of 2021? OQ57409
Huw Irranca-Davies: ..., were the first to see Flying Start investment. We had the investment in childcare for working families in places like the Nantyffyllon institute, the miners' institute, and pandemic support for school meals in the holidays, the Caerau Primary School investment, and so much more. But can I ask this Government for an assurance that as the years go by, we will sustain that level of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...that can help fill the hunger gap left by UK-wide policies. The additional £52 million funding from Welsh Government to ensure that eligible pupils receive provision in lieu of their usual free school meals whilst not able to attend school during the pandemic—that really helped, and I saw it on the ground in my own constituency. The additional £5 million for the school...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...diversity of them, sometimes we think it's only when you wander up the high streets, but if you look at some of the ones in the area I represent, we've got DAC Training Solutions, which provides education, training and consultancy for other small businesses; we've got Valley and Vale Community Arts; we've got companies like Atomic Knitting in Bryncethin, which has bespoke knitting and...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...within the policy framework in Wales, with the future generations Act, our approach to economic investment, our approach to jobs and skills and our approach to developing and integrating the higher education sector within the work that we do to power the economy forward. If we have random input of funding from the UK Government without any engagement with that, then it's a recipe for...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...fawr iawn, Llywydd. Today, in my role as Chair of the cross-party group on active travel, and after many months of behind-the-scenes cross-party work, we launched the much-anticipated active travel school toolkit at Penyrheol Primary School in Gorseinon. In Wales, we've made important steps to change the way we get to school, but the figures show we need to do so much more, especially on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...he welcome the fact that the cross-party group, which I have the privilege of chairing and which many Members here are on, with the active travel group, will be launching next Tuesday in Penyrheol school in Gorseinon, with the headteacher and with the pupils there, the toolkit for schools to move to active travel? Because that's the secret not only to children moving to cycling and walking...
Huw Irranca-Davies: What support is Welsh Government providing for post-16 vocational education in the Ogmore constituency?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Could I ask for two statements? One of them is actually echoing the point made earlier on—it would be great to get a statement on the timing of the outcome of the extended consultation on school transport. It's been extended to look at this issue over the free travel aspects and the distance. Bridgend traditionally provided more generous than most local authorities in Wales transport in...
Huw Irranca-Davies: What discussions has the Minister had with Bridgend College regarding its vision for post-16 education?
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...Minister has mentioned, our scrutiny of the draft regulations identified what was a typographical error in regulation 11(2), meaning that the wrong provision in the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 had been referenced. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to correct the error, so that the regulations refer to section 13(1) of that Act, before the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ..., Llanharan Drop-in Centre, who provide in Bryncae and Brynna and Llanharan the Playtots Playgroup, and day nursery, and holiday clubs, and the Happy Dayz well-being and support group, and after-school clubs and youth clubs as well. They will be celebrating on that day their twenty-fifth anniversary—25 years of providing such a wonderful service to the children and families and young...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...of aspects of Welsh law as well. But can I just turn to some of those aspects here that I would definitely welcome—things like the social partnership and public procurement Bill, the tertiary education and research Bill, and the renting homes Act? I think all of us would really welcome those, but—and there's always a 'but' coming—as Chair of the cross-party group on the clean air...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Would the First Minister agree with me that we have to invest in Welsh-medium education and Welsh-medium childcare as part of our ambition to create 1 million Welsh speakers? So, would the First Minister join me in welcoming the work that has begun in building a new childcare centre in Blackmill, in Ogmore, as part of the ambition of Bridgend County Borough Council to strengthen Welsh-medium...
