Hannah Blythyn: ...for tackling this. On a Welsh Government level, we are committed to using all those levers at our disposal, as I just said to Mark Isherwood, whether that's through what we can do in terms of education, supporting childcare—. And that is a commitment that the Minister is taking forward—my colleague the Minister Julie James—in terms of actually how we maximise that funding and those...
Hannah Blythyn: ...reforms as well. We are committed to taking action to reduce and ultimately eliminate child poverty by not just using the levers at our disposal across Government, whether that be through housing, education, health, but also the First Minister is committed to and work is under way on the First Minister's commitment to reorganise Welsh Government funding programmes to ensure that we have...
Hannah Blythyn: ...We’ve heard today how we have to act for our environment and for our future generations. And so much of the work to tackle plastic pollution is being led by young people, whether through our eco-schools network, localised action, and events of our own Youth Parliament. We can be proud of what we've achieved in Wales to date. We know we lead in the UK in municipal recycling with rates of...
Hannah Blythyn: ...these people, this is a consequence of the roll-out of universal credit. Therefore, we are increasing funding by £2 million this year, and for 2019 and 2020. In order to meet the additional free school meal costs associated with the roll-out of universal credit, we will be providing additional funding of £5 million to local authorities in 2018-19 via a grant scheme. We are also making a...
Hannah Blythyn: ...approach to the assessment of local air quality. This focuses monitoring on the locations where members of the public are more likely to be exposed to excessive levels of air pollution, such as schools, hospitals and nurseries, among others, known as sensitive-receptor locations. National and local monitoring and modelling were established for different purposes. In order to develop an...
Hannah Blythyn: ...and, of course, politicians. And our local authority partners have a pivotal part to play, both in working together to reduce the use of plastic in publicly supported organisations, specifically schools, and in the collection and processing of waste and recyclables. We know that Wales is the only nation in the UK that has statutory targets for recycling. All of our local authorities...
Hannah Blythyn: ...encourage them to include robust approaches to increase the resilience of the sewerage system against any blockages. But, as we've discussed today, part of the challenge is awareness and around educating the public on what not to put down the toilet or drains. The twenty-first century drainage programme recognises that a change in behaviour is needed to reduce blockages and pollution,...
Hannah Blythyn: ...authorities, I would expect all local authorities to assess the potential for what action is required to achieve reduced pollution levels and improvement in public health, and also, working with schools through the eco-schools project, to develop their own campaigns with the children and to achieve that behaviour change in the local community as well. But, obviously, there's action we're...
Hannah Blythyn: ...approach to relationships with businesses. Hopefully, it will enable better collaboration with public sector delivery partners, including local authorities and providers of both higher and further education. It will enable better integrated infrastructure decisions, including transport and digital requirements as well as the provision of good-quality commercial property. The new chief...
Hannah Blythyn: ...how we get where we want to get. One of the things I think you said at the end there, which is absolutely key, is the role that children have to play, because we've got a really wide spread of eco-schools now across the country, and I'm keen that these eco-schools are central to our behaviour change campaign going forward, not just within their own schools, but within the wider community...
Hannah Blythyn: ...importance of what I said in the statement about working with the public when it comes to behaviour change campaigns. When we talk about enforcement, we are talking about perhaps communication and education, rather than necessarily penalising people in the first instance. I know that it has worked in communities where face-to-face contact has made a huge difference in terms of talking...
Hannah Blythyn: ...sense. And it's access for young people, the Plant! project, for example, and I'm pleased that the strategy just emphasised the role that woodlands and green space, forest, play in terms of education, because I don't think you can underestimate that, for some children, getting them outside in a forest school, taking part in eco-schools, you see a complete change and the opportunities that...
Hannah Blythyn: And the second is educating both children and parents on air quality issues and exploring solutions collectively, such as car sharing and no idling policies around schools. To support this guidance, I will provide funding to raise air quality awareness through the Eco-Schools initiative and the Young Dragons project. In fact, I met with pupils and staff at Pen-Y-Bryn school in Cardiff just...
Hannah Blythyn: ...to reduce levels of these pollutants across the board. Our consultation on 'Planning Policy Wales' reiterates these points. The local air quality management guidance also identifies the role of schools in tackling air quality. The first is a contribution we've heard much of today about the school run. Like David Melding says, it seems to be a modern phenomenon. When I went to school, the...
Hannah Blythyn: ...'s office, to develop a range of measures that allow us to identify trends and actions to help reduce the use of plastics, including things like straws within the public sector, particularly within schools. I'm sure other colleagues have received numerous articulate and well-argued letters from primary school children about their campaigns to get rid of plastic straws in their schools. In...
Hannah Blythyn: ...of tackling the two together—litter and on-the-go recycling—because a lot of what is littered can be recycled on the go if we have the right infrastructure in place. But also I think those educational and behavioural campaigns are at the core. That will be one of the things that we will be exploring as part of this going forward, too, but also, actually, how it takes in a range of...
Hannah Blythyn: ...cultural change too. We know that a lot of people now take it as the norm to separate and do their recycling and have separate waste collection. In terms of your second question, in terms of the education, that's such a huge part of it, and one of the most enjoyable things I've found in this portfolio so far is doing the eco-schools work. The children, they are so well informed. I went to...
Hannah Blythyn: ..., poo and pee, not plastics. So, if there's one thing for Members to take home—. But Dŵr Cymru have a Let's Stop the Block campaign, so I think it does come back to what we do in our work on education and behavioural change, coupled with, actually, how we address packaging and labelling to make sure people are clear on what can and can't go down the toilet, and actually not just saying,...
Hannah Blythyn: ...for her questions? I know that you've got a keen interest in this as the regional Assembly Member. The point in terms of the consultation and directly contacting individuals like care homes and schools is a really, really good point, and I'll take that on board and speak to officials about how we can do that. In terms of Port Talbot, you're absolutely right that there are the two strands...
Hannah Blythyn: ...our monitoring, what is the best solution, what is the action needed in certain places and what best suits those places and what the problem is. I think one alternative with that, in terms of schools—and you've all raised that today—I think I'd go back to this behavioural change, and this generational shift and bringing the younger generation with us in terms of tackling any pollution...
