Helen Mary Jones: ...the Minister can tell us today how confident he is that this increase in places is going to meet the future need. I appreciate that some of this may come into the work that's being done by Health Education and Improvement Wales and Social Care Wales around workforce strategy, but a raw increase in training placements, if we're not sure that those are linked both to the present need and the...
Helen Mary Jones: ...today if she will have further discussions with the Minister for Health and Social Services about what more we might be able to do through the new curriculum, but also immediately, to work with schools, and also with youth groups, where some young people who perhaps find it harder to take a message in a classroom might hear that in a more informal setting to counteract some of these...
Helen Mary Jones: ...with Huw Irranca-Davies, around the need for the right services for people who find it more difficult, for poorer communities. It's very interesting she mentions the final arrival of the clinical school in the north, which was, of course, another thing that was promised in Labour's 2003 manifesto. I don't think we would have it by now if it hadn't been for the pressure from Siân and her...
Helen Mary Jones: ...it wouldn't reach the right people, and perhaps we can keep under review whether the approach that the Minister has suggested will be effective. But the Minister says in his written response that education and training for health professionals is already available. Well, the evidence that was placed before us, as Angela Burns has already said, made it very clear that that education and...
Helen Mary Jones: ...of the virus from health professionals, often being given inaccurate or outdated information and advice. The Hepatitis C Trust recognises that initiatives that have been introduced to provide educational support to healthcare professionals are valuable, but says that more needs to be done. Witnesses called for protected learning time for such health professionals, and for more awareness...
Helen Mary Jones: ...his answer. I'd like to draw his attention to the situation faced by pupils and staff at Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant in Llanelli, which as the First Minister will know is Wales's oldest Welsh-medium school, where publicly funded Welsh-medium education began. He may also recall that the situation faced by pupils and staff in the school is serious. Whole classes are being taught in corridors and...
Helen Mary Jones: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for Welsh-medium education in Mid and West Wales? OAQ54623
Helen Mary Jones: ...exports could be very serious—up to 10 per cent—which will really hit the competitiveness of Welsh manufacturers in this really important sector. He will also be aware of the Cardiff Business School report for the Welsh Government in 2017, highlighting how firms linked to the automotive sector based in Llanelli, such as Calsonic and Schaeffler, could be exposed in this scenario. We now...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the Minister for her reply. I'd like to suggest, Minister, this afternoon—to offer you the opportunity to congratulate the governors, the local authority, staff and school pupils at Pontyberem school, which has had substantial investment from the twenty-first century schools fund and is going to be reopened on Monday. I know that you've received an invitation and,...
Helen Mary Jones: 8. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government’s 21st Century Schools Programme in Carmarthenshire? OAQ54172
Helen Mary Jones: ...'s views today about how we can ensure that the broader public services, not just social services, take their responsibility to looked-after children seriously. I'm thinking of the health service, education services—we know there are still some real issues with looked-after children being discriminated against in schools—and housing. Does the Minister feel that it may be a time to look...
Helen Mary Jones: Completely acknowledging the scale of that public investment, does the Member agree with me that there are real challenges facing the governance in higher education?
Helen Mary Jones: ...down the line, if I believed it nine months ago, I don't believe it now, and I remain far from convinced. The general point is that something like this could potentially happen in any of our higher education institutions, because, while it is vital that they are independent and that their academic freedom is protected and we don't want them to be totally answerable to Government—nobody...
Helen Mary Jones: ...they’re based, to us a nation, to the economy. They are forums of debate, they are forums where independent thought is brought forward, they produce world-class research, and of course they are educators, and not only for young people, but primarily for young people. Our higher education sector has much that it can be proud of. But I think we can also all agree that the sector is under...
Helen Mary Jones: I'd like to ask the Trefnydd for three Government statements, please. I'd first like to ask her to make representations to the Minister for Education for a statement about the financial sustainability of the higher education sector in Wales. I ask this in the light of concerns that have come to light about the possible job losses at the Lampeter campus of University of Wales Trinity Saint...
Helen Mary Jones: .... To conclude my comments, acting Presiding Officer—I can see that you're looking at me, and probably quite rightly—the intention behind this legislation is clearly good, but as one of my school teachers used to say to me when I was young, 'The road to hell can be paved with good intentions.' We will need to scrutinise this in great detail. And the Minister has already said, and I'm...
Helen Mary Jones: ...6 and then recommendation 8. So, recommendation 6 speaks about asking the Government to consider introducing a programme of investment to improve physical activity facilities in existing schools. Now, all of us will have visited schools in our own constituencies and regions where, for example, the space that is used for physical activity indoors is also the space that's used for meals, is...
Helen Mary Jones: I wholly endorse what the Minister has said about exclusions needing to be an absolute last resort. Sadly they are sometimes necessary, and as well as children then perhaps being educated at home, in academic terms, for a short time, those children lose out on a whole range of social opportunities that are associated with being in school, and all kinds of other learning and access to sport....
Helen Mary Jones: ...of courses through the medium of Welsh, particularly perhaps in non-traditional subjects, as something that's for them. What further steps can the Minister take, working with the Minister for Education and obviously with the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol but also with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales to help challenge the remains of this negative and, I think, now very much a...
Helen Mary Jones: ...me that one of the biggest challenges is to encourage women and girls to carry on participating in physical activity, particularly, as he's just said in his response to David Melding, after leaving school age. Amongst that group, women from minority ethnic communities are particularly vulnerable and often particularly excluded. Will the Minister undertake today to have some further...
