Mark Drakeford: ...for those young people as we came out of the coronavirus impact. The fact that the guarantee is there already, that it operates across the spectrum, it has things in there for people in higher education, it has a significant new investment for those young people who decide that they'd rather go directly into work and the world of apprenticeships, and there's a real offer in there for those...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Huw Irranca-Davies, Llywydd. The youth guarantee scheme is already up and running in Wales, with the Working Wales service providing a gateway to the extended opportunities available across education, training, apprenticeships, employment and self-employment for our young people.
Mark Drakeford: Our national guidance has been updated and schools have been asked to operate at the very high risk level. Two planning days at the start of the term have enabled all schools to plan for the term ahead and ensure robust arrangements are in place to maximise in-person learning.
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for those questions. In relation to schools, Members will know that the education Minister wrote to all headteachers before the end of term setting the first two days of the new school term as planning and preparation days. In that letter to headteachers, he asked schools to prepare for two sorts of futures. One is a future in which children are largely still in the...
Mark Drakeford: ...we've asked the health service to do: the track and trace system, the vaccination programme, the extra measures we've had to take in the care home sector, the £24 million that my colleague the education Minister announced over and above all the extra money we've put into schools and colleges to support those young people who are facing examinations next year, and the huge effort that has...
Mark Drakeford: ...teachers. We know that the autumn term has been a challenging term in many parts of Wales, with the efforts of people at the front line—teaching staff, teaching assistants, other people who make schools what they are. We've relied on them hugely, and I thank them and all those other people. I mentioned refuse collection workers earlier—without them, we know that the civilised life we...
Mark Drakeford: ...20,200 students were supported by the EMA scheme, at a cost of nearly £18 million. And, on top of that, the Welsh Government provides £6 million in the financial contingency fund, which further education colleges are able to use, precisely in order to give some additional flexibility over and above the means-tested nature of the EMA itself. I've seen the Bevan Foundation report, of...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, our commitment to the continuation of the education maintenance allowance is set out in our programme for government. Feedback from learners emphasises the importance of this support in helping them to continue their studies. EMA scheme rules are reviewed each year prior to opening the scheme to applications.
Mark Drakeford: ...the way in which we have invested in childcare facilities for working families in places like Nantyffyllon. I know it was my predecessor, Carwyn Jones, as First Minister, who opened Caerau Primary School a new building for the young people of that area. And our investment in dealing with structural inequalities, Llywydd, has gone beyond what you might think of as the standard mainstream...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank Adam Price for that important point. Of course, we have carbon dioxide monitors now available here in Wales and being deployed in schools, but there is more that can be done on ventilation. It is a very important part of the way in which we can keep one another safe. The chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer wrote out to the health service in Wales only in the last...
Mark Drakeford: ...—otherwise, I would have made even more of the investment that Jeremy Miles announced in music services. I'm sure I'm very far from the only Member of the Senedd who was given an instrument in school to try out, to see whether I would go on—as I then did, to learn to play the clarinet. And if it hadn't been for the fact that there was an instrument there for me to try out, that would...
Mark Drakeford: ...to begin a national system of help for young people so that they didn’t go hungry during the holidays. More than just a meal, it was that whole experience of young people being able to come into school, focus on nutrition, parents involved, cooking meals together, learning through fun, physical activity—that basket of issues that our SHEP programme, the school holiday enrichment...
Mark Drakeford: ...to look forward to working with other parts of the Chamber who have a shared interest in that. We have a fundamentally different view on the issue of means testing and universal services. I think school meals is in some ways the paradigm case for the impact that means testing has, because it casts a stigma over those people for whom the system is meant to be a beneficiary. I remember a...
Mark Drakeford: ...commitment forward. Practical efforts to deliver the remainder of our radical programme continue every day. We promised we would invest in our health and care workforce and create a new medical school in north Wales. This weekend, as the leader of the opposition said earlier, the health Minister announced extra funding for the health and medical workforce of the future for the eighth year...
Mark Drakeford: Learning digital skills is a mandatory requirement across the new Curriculum for Wales, and schools in Ynys Môn have access and resources that are bilingual and incomparable, which are provided through the Hwb programme. The Welsh Government is also funding digital literacy programmes that are free for all adult learners on the island and across the country.
Mark Drakeford: ...those young people for their commitment to this agenda and their interest in it. I think that they are typical of young people in all parts of Wales. I've had the privilege of visiting a number of schools to talk directly to young people about these matters. I took part, with a number of ministerial colleagues, in discussions with young people on Universal Children's Day only a week ago....
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government funds a number of initiatives in Wales in this area, including Keep Wales Tidy’s eco-schools programme, empowering young people to make positive environmental changes to their school and community, and to take action on climate change.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Jenny Rathbone for those really important points, and for her very strong support for school meals per se, but also the quality and the nature of those meals. The Member, I know, will be aware of Carmarthenshire council’s challenge fund project, which we funded through the foundational economy fund—a really excellent project led by the local authority in partnership with the local...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Jenny Rathbone for that, Llywydd. We are committed to increasing the amount of locally grown food in school meals, benefiting local economies through sustainable and responsible procurement and supply chains. An extension to the successful Big Bocs Bwyd project, for example, was included in this month's announcement of our new household support fund.
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much for that question, of course, and I thank the Member for what she said about the agreement. We now have opportunities to take further steps, by extending free school meals and childcare provision. The Government will focus on what is contained in the agreement, because that is challenging and ambitious, but now we're able to co-operate in order to do what the agreement...
