David Melding: What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with cabinet colleagues on the impact that cuts to Literature Wales may have on educational attainment levels in English language and literature?
David Melding: ...don't do it, we'll be dragged along to do it as the fiftieth or sixtieth city or whatever to do it, whereas we could be the leaders. We also think that monitoring's important, particularly around schools and nurseries, and how we move people around—we heard about the school run just now from Gareth. Again, anyone of my age, born in 1962—I still am flabbergasted when I see evidence all...
David Melding: ...ownership that is mentioned towards the end of your statement is key, but I do think that more needs to be done with it. Several Members, including Gareth Bennett, have mentioned the need for education, and it is, after all, pet owners who are going to be able to deliver the maximum level of animal welfare. No matter how good our laws and regulations are, it is human behaviour here that is...
David Melding: ...to cycle around and between their communities, not just between a community and the centre of a large urban city, so that we do have good access via cycle routes to key community assets such as schools, shops and amenities, and then we will normalise—in a city like Cardiff, which couldn't be better designed, really, for cycling—this as a preferential way of getting about.
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, we in the Welsh Conservatives launched our urban strategy last week, and we put in place some measures to improve air quality, such as the requirement on all schools and nurseries to have air quality monitoring on their premises. I wonder what sort of conversations you're having with your Cabinet colleagues, particularly the Cabinet Secretary for the environment, to start...
David Melding: ...made representations in writing and by meeting the senior figures in the Vale of Glamorgan Council. I think there's been some confusion locally as to the presumption against the closure of rural schools, which you outlined in the consultation on the revised school organisation code, and I stressed to the council that I thought the proposed revision is likely to become a live document. I...
David Melding: ...can involve the public and ensure that you get that wider participation? One area Welsh Conservatives have been very concerned about is in the collection of data in the immediate vicinities of our schools and nurseries in Wales. This is an area perhaps we could now look at. If I jump to the air quality monitoring centre for Wales, it seems to me that this can be linked very much to the...
David Melding: ..., and I understand this was the largest of any grant given to a police commissioner. I do think there's some great practice out there now, but it's a huge task, and a lot of it does relate to educating people, stopping behaviour before it accelerates, and just having a no-tolerance approach to abuse.
David Melding: ...division seems to me a very logical one. I'm very concerned that we don't always realise how bad the situation is in Welsh prisons for which we have responsibility to provide health services and education services. Swansea and Cardiff prisons are badly overcrowded. Both of them are in, I believe, the top-10 most overcrowded prisons; that means over 150 per cent capacity. This, I think, is...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, students from overseas are worth more than £151 million to the economy of Cardiff alone. You may have seen a new study by the Higher Education Policy Institute that shows the benefits of international students are up to 10 times greater than the cost. So, for places like Cardiff, and other university cities and towns around Wales, this is a really, really important source...
David Melding: I agree with what you just said in terms of promoting positive behaviour is absolutely key, and that we do that in schools—amongst other places, but schools are really important. But I think most public agencies are in a very good place to detect poor behaviour and attitudes, and then also signs of actual violence, because there's such under-reporting in this area. And that's got to be part...
David Melding: ...in Wales. Can I just finally, in conclusion, say that I do welcome the Plaid Cymru amendment? I think it does add to the motion, and just to say, in terms of some recent meta-analysis of school-based programmes for mental health and well-being, the efficacy is shown to be quite remarkable. And this meta-analysis found that there was a significant increase in educational performance, with...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, I have for many years been a member of the governing body of Meadowbank Special School, which is a school that delivers educational services for children with speech and language learning difficulties. It's been at its site in Gabalfa for over 40 years and was foremost in developing best practice in this area, not least with its parents and teachers doing so much to...
David Melding: ...into the Assembly, so I do hope the Cabinet Secretary is in listening mode. And, myself, I think extending the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds will allow us to spend more time on discussing education, particularly for the under-18s. I don't think we do discuss education enough. I have always thought it crazy that Britain remains, I think, the only modern, industrialised state that has the...
David Melding: ...nature of lottery funding, we are losing key skills and vital support networks, and these charities are faced with obtaining the equivalent of administrative support from a great many bodies—education authorities and health boards—across Wales. We really do need a strategy to ensure that this expertise is maintained because it's of such great public benefit, particularly when we are...
David Melding: ...were quite constructive; amendment 1 just reiterating those points around the public health aspects. I particularly thought amendment 4 was helpful, in terms of air quality management around schools. If you look at the exposure of children to severe air pollution and the effects that has, it really is quite concerning. I know that a recent freedom of information request submitted by the...
David Melding: ...dropped by nearly 19 per cent. Do you believe the Welsh Government has got a role to play in highlighting what a rewarding profession teaching is and how much best practice there is in some of our schools?
David Melding: ...of this issue, and has been vigilant in ensuring that the role of poverty and inequality is emphasised in any approach to developing policy in these areas. I'd also like to say that work on educational attainment has progressed quite significantly. The attainment gap is still wide, and we need that ambition to close it. It needs to be connected up, clearly, to things like where foster...
David Melding: First Minister, I was very pleased to hear that the health Cabinet Secretary and the education Secretary announced additional investment for child and adolescent mental health services in schools. I do hope that we'll be seeing some of this benefit in places like Aberdare.
David Melding: ...that the report he referred to comes to, that there are very serious problems in the UK construction industry, does face us. But I think that requires a comprehensive approach through the further education sector in particular to ensure that the new skills that the construction industry needs are going to be supplied, and he made several references to modular construction, which will...
