Alun Davies: ...Justice on advice services, because I think there is an opportunity there to provide some support for people who require it. I'm also interested in how we can work with the universities and law schools across the country to improve the legal infrastructure and to provide more opportunities to provide support for people. And also, in terms of tribunals—and I think the points that have...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Minister for her answers. One of the issues that has been troubling me for some time, as we've come through this pandemic, has been the disappearance of children from education, and the significant increase in the number of children being educated from home. We know from tragic history that, when children are taken into the home to be educated, we can lose contact with...
Alun Davies: ...equipment available in communities up and down the country. We will build on the work that Suzy Davies led in the last Senedd to ensure that the training is available. And we can't simply rely on schools to deliver that; we have to go to workplaces and communities to deliver that as well. Then we have to ensure that there is a chain of survival in place that enables—
Alun Davies: ...and that is crucially important and must be part of the Government’s strategy. And, secondly, the right of every one of us to learn Welsh. The Minister will know that there is a new Welsh-medium school being opened in Tredegar. When I attended school in Tredegar, I didn’t even have the right to learn the Welsh language in school, so we have seen transformation over recent years, but we...
Alun Davies: ...ensure that, where we're delivering services, we're actually understanding the life experiences and the lived experiences of the people who are using those services. If you're taking your child to school in Ebbw Vale, you don't need a bus in an hour, you need a bus now and then you need to return in half an hour or 20 minutes. And that's what a much shorter urban bus service can do....
Alun Davies: ...is left behind, and that is an extraordinary record of a single parliamentary term. When we introduced the legislation back in 2016, there was clear ambition—clear ambition—to ensure that our education system catered for everybody, whatever their needs, whatever their requirements, and that education was open to all and that all had the same opportunity to fulfil their potential. The...
Alun Davies: ...when the steelworks closed in Ebbw Vale, to create a renaissance, if you like, on that site; investment in the 465 dualling project; the investment in apprenticeships; the investment in people and education right throughout the borough. Minister, I'm concerned that we're going to lose access to this. I'm concerned that we will see projects cherry-picked to meet the ambitions of the...
Alun Davies: ...did not seek to place these matters on the curriculum. My preferred route is to place a duty on Welsh Ministers to ensure that these skills are available throughout our society. That will include schools, but I do not believe it should be limited to schools. I know from my discussions with the Minister that she sympathises greatly with the arguments that are being put and I recognise the...
Alun Davies: ...is this, Minister, on expenditure. I hope when the Government comes back for later debates on these matters they will address these fundamental issues. I agreed with what Mike Hedges said on free school meals. I think the Plaid Cymru amendment this afternoon is broadly right, and I think that the Government needs to address this. The Government's on the wrong side of this argument. I hope...
Alun Davies: ...be rugby or any other team sport—that we're able to ensure that our children particularly, and I'm thinking particularly of age-group sports, are able to maintain that social contact. We spoke in education questions earlier about the importance of socialisation in terms of school and education. And, of course, my son, and I'm sure Laura's and other people's children as well, socialises...
Alun Davies: ...of unpaid carers? I think, if there's a gap in this strategy, it is those people who are taking care of vulnerable adults and children everyday. And finally, Minister, members of staff at special schools. I noticed that you were saying that those staff who do provide care—intimate care—and support for children and children who are particularly vulnerable in special schools will be a...
Alun Davies: ...able to support and sustain a workforce of supply teachers is to ensure that all local authorities have a local register of supply teachers to ensure that teachers are able to find work and that schools are able to find teachers, and to do so in a more coherent and structured way.
Alun Davies: ...receive the care required to lead a normal life afterwards. I recognise that the British Heart Foundation, and many Members, have been campaigning for some years for CPR training to be delivered in schools and colleges. I agree. In this proposal, I am simply asking that the Welsh Government takes responsibility for ensuring that such training takes place. The Government has resisted formal...
Alun Davies: ...and forget about them, but look them in the eye—look them in the eye in the supermarket, in the shops, and talk to people, and talk to members of my own family, and talk to people I was in school with about the impact it's going to have on their lives. It would be the wrong thing to do to do the easier thing and say, 'I'm less sure, I'm not sure.' Because I know that I am sure that we...
Alun Davies: ...that there are elements of normality in their lives? The second issue I'd like to seek the Government's time for, in terms of a statement or debate, is that about access to public transport. With schools and colleges going back over the last few weeks, we have recognised that there are some significant difficulties with public transport, particularly, perhaps, in areas such as Blaenau...
Alun Davies: ...do in these debates is to list all the priorities that face yourself or your constituency. Rather than read out a list of areas where I believe additional spending would help Blaenau Gwent—be it education, health, business support, local government or even mitigating a disastrous 'no deal' Brexit, what I'd like to do this afternoon is to do something a little different and to focus on...
Alun Davies: ...communities up and down this country. There are a number of areas where sport is important for our overall health and mental well-being. It was about a year ago to now that I was in Cwm Primary School in my constituency participating in the daily mile and the physical activity the children were doing in that school. The headteacher was very, very clear that the outcomes of that physical...
Alun Davies: ..., I'd like to put on record my gratitude to you and others who have made this session possible today. Minister, people in Blaenau Gwent tell me that they have great confidence in your leadership in education, and they compare that with the shambles we've seen across the border. People tell me that they're very anxious now that they're able to continue to see this sort of leadership. In...
Alun Davies: ...people are protected in the same way as people who have employment. I've also been contacted by many supply teachers who are concerned about the situation that they are facing with the closure of schools. In the same way, First Minister, many social enterprises, of course, are not covered by the support being given to business, and many social enterprises in my constituency, whether...
Alun Davies: ...also recognise and understand that the policing response to these challenges are only a part of the question, a part of the answer, because the police have to work alongside local government, the education services, health, particularly in terms of dealing with some of the huge issues around mental health and drugs facing us today. They have to work with social services; they have to work...
