Jenny Rathbone: ...for a sustainable, joined-up transport system is built, so that, as you said, all citizens can live within one mile of a rail station or a rapid transport bus line and we can all get to work or school on public transport and not the polluting car. So, telling us that you're going to work with Network Rail, TfW and the Department of Transport doesn't tell us very much beyond reminding us of...
Jenny Rathbone: Excellent. I know that prior to the return of all pupils in the autumn term, Estyn published a document collating the good practice that had been developed by many schools, and I know that some schools in Cardiff embraced the outdoor learning experiences as part of the well-being recovery programme. But I was shocked to learn recently of the hostile reaction of members of the public to one...
Jenny Rathbone: ...'t been able to continue to deliver any support indoors during the pandemic, but we know about the rise in self-harm and suicidal thoughts amongst young people, and the fact that the closure of schools differentially impacts much more severely on disadvantaged families. How do you think we can maximise the use of this budget to ensure that both statutory youth services and the support from...
Jenny Rathbone: 5. What is the Welsh Government doing to help schools find more innovative ways of delivering education amidst the constraints of suppressing the pandemic? OQ56106
Jenny Rathbone: This is all very much welcome food for my ears, as I've been arguing the case for universal free school meals in one way or another for quite a while. So, I really do welcome the level of agreement across the three parties on the importance of this issue. There is some disagreement at the edges, which we could hammer out in due course. But I think, picking up on some of the points that have...
Jenny Rathbone: ...themselves or being abused, entering into abusive relationships. This is so important. Of course, all children must have mandatory RSE. So, I hope that the code will include mandatory menstrual education, because not just girls, but boys as well, need to understand that this is something to celebrate, not to be regarded as a curse, because if we don't have periods we won't have the human...
Jenny Rathbone: .... And we have similar illegal levels of air pollution in my constituency, and that is why we really do need to get on with providing serious alternatives to the motorcar for everyday commutes to school and to work. I absolutely am signed up to the Burns route. I have long suggested that one of the keys to alleviating this congestion that's currently going by road is the four train lines...
Jenny Rathbone: ...these are mainly imported from the EU, particularly in the winter. We won't starve, but choice is going to be limited, prices are almost certainly going to rise, and it is hospitals, care homes and schools, as well as the most vulnerable in our community, who've also been worst affected by the pandemic, who are likely to suffer most from the shortage of fresh food. The Welsh Government is...
Jenny Rathbone: ...why it has taken so long to achieve equal pay. Twice as many women have lost their jobs during the pandemic, as both men and employers assumed that women would take on most of the additional home schooling, housework and childcare during lockdown, and that's exactly what's happened. The latest pay battle is on the football pitch. The Welsh women's football squad is demanding pay parity...
Jenny Rathbone: ..., but in many of the communities I represent over half the households do not have a car, and therefore we are very grateful for the bus drivers who've kept going to enable people to get to work and school and to do their shopping. People with disabilities don't necessarily have a car at all. I can think of many of my constituents who have to struggle up the hill with their shopping despite...
Jenny Rathbone: ...as well, but we need small businesses involved to produce the sorts of things that are not easy to mechanise, like salads and fruit, in order for us to be able to be delivering fresh food in our schools to our children, who so desperately need it. So, baby steps have been taken by the Welsh Government with farm business grants of between £3,000 and £12,000 to enable increased...
Jenny Rathbone: ...them for sale by women in Uganda. I've since learned that another organisation that the Welsh Government is working with, Teams4U, is involved in distributing locally made reusable pads to schools in Uganda. So, I wondered if you can say a little bit more about how we could extend that work, as it's such incredibly important aspect of why girls drop out of school and one of the ways in...
Jenny Rathbone: ...an aspiration but, frankly, in this situation, it's really difficult to see how we're going to achieve equity, because it depends on the rigour with which senior management teams are running their schools to ensure that we are containing any outbreak that a student or a teacher brings in from the community to the minimum amount of teachers, and it also depends on our personal...
Jenny Rathbone: I think this is an exercise in how not to write a motion, because it's so full of grandiose statements and hyperbole, but nothing about the complexity of the current situation that schools are facing, and also, I think, pre-empting the work of our colleagues on the children and young people's committee. So, as a set of proposals, it covers at least four different subjects—it's hard to know...
Jenny Rathbone: ...was the first, but I invite you to go to my website to see that and other pictures of the EndoMarch by women and their families in Cardiff on the last Saturday in March last year, which helped educate the general public about what endo does to women. These public awareness campaigns are needed, because half the country has never even heard of endometriosis, even though it is more common in...
Jenny Rathbone: ...issue. Some years ago, I befriended a boy who was an asylum seeker who had witnessed the murder of his father by political opponents in the country he fled from, and his mother often asked in school for him to get counselling and to get help. But, as he progressed through school and through college, he never managed to get the counselling he needed in order to overcome the adverse...
Jenny Rathbone: ...statistic is the fact that one third of children in this country live in households that struggle to put sufficient food on the table without skimping on other essentials like heating and school trips, and this in the sixth richest economy in the world. We also have this punitive and wasteful benefits system, designed to punish people for being unable to find a job, even if none exists. As...
Jenny Rathbone: I just wondered if you could tell us a little bit more about the attendance rates at school, because I think that will give us an indication of how effective schools have been at reaching out to young people who may be feeling very anxious about returning to school and assuring them that they are going to be safe, and that they should be returning to school for their well-being.
Jenny Rathbone: ...final shape of the Bill is going to be. There was also a second amendment that was very important, which was around ensuring the ban on the use of pesticides near homes and public buildings like schools and hospitals. That seems to me an incredibly important public health measure. So, I really would like to hear from the Government what safeguards there are for us to resist chlorinated...
Jenny Rathbone: ...visited by the vice premier of China. On his very short visit, he decided to go there. That is typical of the type of work that Cardiff Met does. It's very practice-focused, professionally oriented education, which is vital for developing the sort of graduates that we need to regenerate our economy. I'm delighted that one of its 37 new degrees is going to be in early years education, which...
