Angela Burns: Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government's plans to improve the education of those with special educational needs in Wales?
Angela Burns: ...to get on with, whether it is the workforce sustainability, whether it is winter pressures, new hospital builds, which I know you’re going to discuss later, because I know, from my experience in education, that when the Government announced various large scoping inquiries, it was used by some, in some quarters, to stop all other work and I would not like to see that happening in the NHS...
Angela Burns: Leader of the house, may I ask for a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health and social services into how the Welsh Government can support Wales’s biggest medical school in light of its recent 20-place fall in ‘The Complete University Guide’, and the impact that this could have on Welsh Government’s manifesto commitment to deliver more doctors training in Wales? And I would...
Angela Burns: I do appreciate you taking the intervention. I would like to make the point that a person with additional learning needs may well improve throughout their life, and end up leaving school without having that need. A person with autism has a condition that is highly unlikely to change, which is why they need an Act that will look at them from zero to end.
Angela Burns: ...that one in three will only have one episode, and yet, once in the system, it can be very difficult for them to break the cycle, move forward, learn to cope with their illness and get back into education or the workplace. Stigma, and fear of stigma, is shown to play a large role in this inability to reintegrate. Another third will manage with medications, and, again, the same stands true...
Angela Burns: ...10 per cent as a result of next year’s rvaluation. In fact, David Melding touched upon another area—housing—where one statement appears to mean something entirely different. When I went to school, I have to say that the word ‘additional’ in the context you use it in your document meant ‘extra’. Obviously not here in Wales. Leader of the house, you, your colleagues and your...
Angela Burns: ...it would have on Donaldson. I think the Donaldson element is very important, because I’d like to finish by making one comment: how many times do we take students—schoolchildren—out of their schools and take them into a hospital or into a general practice to try to encourage them into these medical professions? Not actually that often. Those are the kinds of things that we could do: a...
Angela Burns: Just very quickly, do you have the evidence that says that Welsh students are being turned away from being able to train in Welsh medical schools because they’re already full with other people? If you have that evidence, I’d like to hear it.
Angela Burns: ...the last 12 months; and, 64 per cent said their workload was either unmanageable a lot of the time or all of the time. Many of these issues could be tackled with better workforce planning, greater education and signposting. We really need to understand the picture we have before us. Cabinet Secretary, will you undertake to review the collation and sharing of data within the primary care...
Angela Burns: ...Wales—and you’re right that it’s a great place to live and work—want to bring their families; they want to bring their spouses, their partners, their children, they want them to have good schools to go to, and they want to have good jobs that their partners, their spouses, can also undertake. So, it’s not just one person we’re recruiting, but an entire family, and if we can get...
Angela Burns: ...across as real, decent, grounded human beings, and a real example to our young people. So, I come to the heart of my question, which is: will you have discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for Education to talk about how we can up the hours and minutes that young people in primary school spend in sport? It’s actually been cut consistently, year on year. If we want to identify not just...
Angela Burns: ...apologies. Minister, could you just confirm for us, in terms of the consultation that was undertaken by the previous Welsh Government on the additional learning needs Bill—? I know the previous education Minister did say he’d go back out consultation again. There was no element asking parents and carers what they thought about the transportation of their wards, their children, to...
Angela Burns: ...a lot to talk about such an important subject. CAMHS in-patients and waiting times; I think perhaps I will just say on this issue that I can see that the Chair of the new Children, Young People and Education Committee is present, and I’m absolutely sure that she will look forward to examining what is happening with CAMHS waiting times for young people and children, because although your...
Angela Burns: ...the people here in Wales—and we have so many young people, just under a quarter of young people, with learning difficulties who will struggle to get that attainment, will you talk with the education Secretary, and actually review during the Donaldson Review two things—one about how you can look at that very much tick-box exercise we have, to measure the academic achievement of...
Angela Burns: ...and more advice and support, as opposed to type 1. Also here on the correlation with young people being obese, I raised this on your statement last week about the declining amount of hours in school sports available. We need to recognise that, again, within this survey, it says that, actually, between 2004, when the survey started, and last year, 2015, the amount of exercise young people...
Angela Burns: ...early age, we have a much better chance of being able to increase sport participation. I think that Russell George touched on the fact that, actually, the amount of time given to sport in primary schools is dropping and dropping quite significantly. If we look at France, which is where the Welsh rugby team—football team; forgive me please, all those football people who love the beautiful...
Angela Burns: ...that I speak on my own behalf because, of course, the Welsh Conservatives had a free vote on this matter. Minister, have you had any additional thought as to promoting this with your colleague, the education Secretary, in terms of getting the message through to young people in particular? I conducted a very unscientific piece of research at the weekend when I saw this was coming up, when I...
Angela Burns: I’d like to thank the education Secretary for that and welcome her to her role. The loss of support for part-time postgraduate study means that some Welsh universities will face significant percentage cuts in their total HEFCW funding. So, for example: Cardiff Metropolitan University will lose 25 per cent of its grant; Glyndŵr some 20 per cent; and a university such as Cardiff is going to...
