Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government will undertake a 12-week public consultation this autumn on school uniform and appearance policies. New updated and strengthened statutory guidance will come into force from September 2019.
Kirsty Williams: The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales monitors to ensure that information on the professional accreditation of degree courses at Welsh HEIs is consistent with regulatory requirements, is up to date and readily available for students. I will work with HEFCW to consider if these arrangements can be strengthened.
Kirsty Williams: By 2019 the first wave of the 21st Century Schools Programme will have provided over £164 million of investment in schools in Cardiff. The second wave starting in 2019 will then see a further £284 million of investment to build and further modernise Cardiff Schools.
Kirsty Williams: The School Organisation Code imposes requirements on relevant bodies, including the Welsh Ministers, local authorities and governing bodies in respect of school organisation and provides guidance to which they must have regard.
Kirsty Williams: The revised School Organisation Code establishes a presumption against closure of rural schools. This requires proposers to follow a more detailed set of procedures and requirements in formulating a rural school proposal and in consulting on and reaching a decision as to whether to implement a rural school closure proposal.
Kirsty Williams: Local authorities are responsible for planning school places. They are responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient schools providing primary and secondary education in their area. Schools are regarded as sufficient if they are sufficient in number, character and equipment to provide all pupils the opportunity of an appropriate education.
Kirsty Williams: I refer the Assembly Member to my response in April that schools funding is a responsibility for Local Authorities as is set out in law in Wales. There are no current proposals to review the way in which schools are funded.
Kirsty Williams: Let's be absolutely clear: local authorities, via ADEW, were consulted throughout the month of May. I made my statement in this Chamber on 7 June. Individual directors of education were provided with an update on 8 June. By 29 June, all local authorities had received their indicative allocations and the criteria for the grant, and that was formally confirmed on 9 July.
Kirsty Williams: Darren, I can confirm that we will be using, as I said, a variety of media channels over the summer to alert parents to the availability of this grant. Indeed, the most successful Facebook post on the Welsh education Facebook page in the last month has been the post that alerted people to the existence of this grant. That was shared more than any other post, and we will continue, as I said,...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you. We have been working very closely with local authorities, principally through the Association of Directors of Education in Wales, to make them aware of their indicative allocations—they're only indicative because, of course, this is a demand-led grant—and to confirm with them the formal terms and conditions of that grant. We are also working with them to ensure that bureaucracy...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Lynne. This support is available for parents to apply for via their local authority. I'm very pleased that we've been able to introduce a new, more generous, and more flexible scheme ready for the start of the new school year.
Kirsty Williams: Of course. Apologies, Deputy Presiding Officer. Therefore, can I finally thank the committee and the Chair again for their extensive engagement and their raising awareness of these issues? I also welcome the health committee's work that they're currently doing on suicide prevention, which is an important element to sit alongside this work. Deputy Presiding Officer, we can't allow any child...
Kirsty Williams: Well, Lee, what I would say is that I would much rather, as a Cabinet Secretary, be in a position to be able to accept or reject, but sometimes—and I acknowledge the extra time that the committee has given my officials and myself to work on this—we need more time to truly understand what the implications of saying 'accept' are. Because if we say, 'accept', then we mean that that has to...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Firstly, can I thank the committee for their comprehensive report detailing the step change that they feel is needed in this area? I will join with David Melding in paying tribute to the committee's Chair, Lynne Neagle, for her dedication to these issues, not just in this report, but over her time here as an Assembly Member. Could I also join...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I believe that the Welsh bac plays a key part in our national mission to raise standards by improving both the skills and the knowledge of our young people. It has been designed to give younger people a broader experience than they usually have through their traditional academic education. It prepares learners for life in the real world,...
Kirsty Williams: 'Normal' people?
Kirsty Williams: Mick, thank you so much for raising this, and I completely agree with you that in the drive to encourage overall attendance, children with a disability should not feel penalised or discouraged or inadequate in any way. I do recognise that rewards can incentivise other pupils to attend, but it cannot be beyond the wit of individual schools to be able to understand that for some children...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Mick. We already consider absence due to disability when compiling our statistics on absenteeism from school. For both primary and secondary schools, we collect a range of statistics on absenteeism by pupil characteristic, which includes data related to special educational needs.
Kirsty Williams: Mark, I'm very glad that schools have been able to apply for additional resources that the Welsh Government has made available this year to support the educational needs of armed forces children following the cuts made to that funding by the department of defence under your Government in London. Let me be clear: we continue to look to see whether there is evidence to suggests that those...
Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government does not fund schools directly. Local authorities are responsible for the funding of schools in their counties.
