Julie James: ...contract, to a contract holder undertaking study. This exemption only applies where the accommodation is provided solely for the purposes of the contract holder attending a designated course at an educational establishment. Where the contract holder has additional entitlement to the property outside of the need for accommodation to study, the community landlord is required to provide a...
Julie James: I move amendment 9 in my name. Amendment 9 further clarifies when a higher education institution is able to provide a two-month notice under either section 173 or, potentially, a landlord’s break clause. A higher education institution will only be allowed to provide two months’ notice to a contract holder who is provided with accommodation in order to be able to undertake a course of...
Julie James: ...on or for whatever, and for the tenant to get a security of tenure that does allow them, as Delyth says and we have a lot of sympathy with that, to stay in the area where their children are at school and where they are established as a family. Absolutely, we want to get the balance right and we believe that what we are setting out in the Bill does get that balance right and will not have...
Julie James: ...landlords and councils across Wales to understand what a retrofit programme looks like for all housing stock in Wales, and we're very keen to have done that in combination with the Minister for Education and the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales. The reason for that is to ensure that the skills mix that comes out of those programmes is able to be translated into jobs on the...
Julie James: ...the optimised retrofit programme. As I said earlier in response to Joyce Watson, this isn't just a housing programme across the Government; this is jointly sponsored with myself, the Minister for Education and the Minister for economy, exactly for the reasons that I set out. So, this is about building the industry, building the skills and building the technology here in Wales to be able...
Julie James: ...the point of having this as this scheme, so that we can test out what happens in each of the different types of property. It's a key principle, and it's sponsored jointly by me, the Minister for Education and the Minister for economy for this reason. It's a key principle that not only are we retrofitting the homes in the scheme, but we're trialling it for roll-out across Wales across all...
Julie James: ...87 does also not take into account the curriculum and assessment Bill, as it includes a duty on local authorities, whereas the new curriculum is being designed, adopted and implemented at a school level, not at a local authority level. We have been clear in our intention that the new curriculum will allow teachers to decide how to deliver education tailored to the specific needs of their...
Julie James: .... We do want to get social housing built at scale and pace, but we also know that we need good mixed-tenure estates with active travel links to them, good green infrastructure, close proximity to schools, work and health, and so on. So, we've got a number of exemplar sites across Wales where we're showing what can be done by de-risking some of that with Government money, because that's...
Julie James: ...are able to claim for both overtime costs and for additional staffing costs from the hardship fund, and we've already paid for additional staff, for example, to run the community hubs over school holidays and to administer the business grants for us. Other key areas going forward are supply cover for teachers having to self isolate, cover for waste operatives that are self-isolating and...
Julie James: ...that we have is that only two months' notice is currently required to be given and, without the amendment Act, that will remain in place. That's clearly not sufficient to find a new home or new schools for your children, and so on, and so this will give tenants much longer to be able to do that and, of course, it's not able to be served in the first six months, so it gives everyone at...
Julie James: ...infrastructure everywhere in Wales. It contains policies that, even before COVID emerged, sought to diversify and revitalise town centres and local high streets. It says new public services like schools, colleges and hospitals should be accessible in town centres, not out of town, where you need a car to reach them. It emphasises the importance of maintaining and developing natural...
Julie James: ...to sustain that as a home, so we need to make sure that they've got all the things necessary to make that home, including the support services they need. And then, on the last two points, on free school meals, that's obviously Kirsty's portfolio overall, but we are working very hard on a programme to sustain free school meals across the holidays and actually there's a group looking at what...
Julie James: .... We are working in collaboration with our stakeholders to progress this work over the coming months. We are working with local authorities to ensure that local authority benefits such as free school meals and council tax reduction are more accessible, as well as helping to make the administration more streamlined and less resource intensive for local authorities. We're also developing a...
Julie James: ...as yet, as I understand it, we don't know, if you've had the disease, whether you've necessarily got immunity or how long it lasts for and so on. I understand that there's a document going out to school staff about the test, and explaining what it does and why people should or shouldn't have it and so on, and I don't see any reason why we can't share that with Assembly Members—sorry,...
Julie James: ..., in the way that we've worked together. It feels, I think, to them and me, more like a team than it did before. We've obviously got a £40 million commitment to ensure pupils receive free school meals and that they're fed not just through term time, but throughout the summer holidays. I'm very pleased that we had done that; we did not need to be told to do that by a footballer, although...
Julie James: ...made £30 million available for this in the first instance. This included the provision of up to £7 million to urgently provide financial assistance to families of pupils who rely on free school meals but were unable to receive them due to school closures. It also included £10 million to ensure that, with their third sector partners, local authorities can put in place urgent and...
Julie James: ...obviously, the Bill won't be in force by then, but, nevertheless, we're asking people to do the right thing in terms of the by-elections. That's pretty straightforward. The whole issue around free school meals and the issue around what else children receive in schools apart from education is a really difficult issue, and one of the reasons we're urging schools to stay open, at least until...
Julie James: ...be more empowered and better strengthened. This means that there must be a commitment from local authorities to regional working; there must be greater collaboration with health boards and the education consortia to secure improved outcomes and increased resilience. We will continue discussions with local government on our shared recognition of the need to invest in the supply of housing....
Julie James: ...the budget process through the finance sub-group of the partnership council. Cabinet colleagues and I have considered with local government leaders the position overall, and on key services such as education and social care. We will continue these wide-ranging strategic discussions during the coming year in preparation for a comprehensive spending review. This coming financial year, local...
Julie James: ...the homelessness strategy. And he's just pointed out the need for an integrated system to pick up people such as the individual he described, which would need an integrated service between the school education service, the care system, the family support system, the housing system and so on in order to be able to pick up that person. We're just running a public awareness campaign, which...
