Rebecca Evans: ...roads by becoming an alternative route during periods of congestion, maintenance or major incidents. And obviously, new learning environments will also be built through the twenty-first century schools programme, and they must achieve the EPC rating of A and the Building Research Establishment environmental assessment method 'excellent'. So these things are very much at the front of our...
Rebecca Evans: ...ecological surveys and site clearance will start almost immediately, with construction due to begin in earnest next spring. Construction is due to be completed by mid 2025. Turning now to our education programme: at the end of September, the Welsh Government established the Welsh Education Partnership Company, known as WEPCo. WEPCo is a joint venture between Meridiam, our private sector...
Rebecca Evans: As you said, the education Minister has been here to hear your requests for a statement on the regulation and registration of teachers in independent schools and the teachers' induction issues that you've described as well. And the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs will be watching on Zoom, but I'll make a point of also speaking to her and seeking that update for you on...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you to Mike Hedges for raising both of these important issues this afternoon. As he says, he has been a long-time advocate for the provision of free school meals outside of term time. I'm really pleased that the Welsh Government didn't need to have to respond to a campaign by Marcus Rashford to do the right thing. We did the right thing a long time ago, right at the start of this...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising that issue. The first related specifically to the support and the advice that is being provided to schools, and there were a series of quite detailed questions there, so I will ask the education Minister to write to you with more information about the guidance that is being provided to schools in relation to PPE and other efforts to keep children and their families safe,...
Rebecca Evans: ...additional costs incurred by local authorities as a result of the pandemic, and within that we've set out what local authorities are able to claim for: work to support people off the streets, free school meals work, adult social care, temporary mortuaries, cleaning, and then a general fund that covers all sorts of other costs, such as IT staff, overtime, absences, PPE and cleaning costs....
Rebecca Evans: ...'s been the hardship fund, and that's a fund of £310 million, which includes additional funding to tackle homelessness—to get rough-sleepers off the street, for example—the funding for free school meals, adult social care, school cleaning and so on, and some general funding to help local authorities to address the issues that they're facing. But, alongside that, we've put in place a...
Rebecca Evans: ...spending review and instead we'll have a one-year spending round—a one-year spending review. The UK Government has said it will look to give greater certainty to health in England, to schools in England and also to large infrastructure projects. But that is of no use to the Welsh Government at all, because we need to know the total quantum of our funding to understand where, if...
Rebecca Evans: ...improve our lives at this very difficult time. I'd be happy to seek an update from the Welsh Government on all of those issues in terms of how we're seeking to update our operational guidance for schools and also the guidance for a phased return of performance at culture and heritage venues and destinations, and also the concerns that I know Rhianon Passmore has about music services and...
Rebecca Evans: ...loss of income; £62 million to support the provision of social care services, because we know the additional pressure that they're facing as a result, again, of the pandemic; £38 million for free school meals; and £10 million additional funding to support homeless people with a particular aim of ensuring that nobody is sleeping rough during the pandemic. So, we've made a substantial...
Rebecca Evans: ...set out further details in the coming days and weeks, but I can confirm that the action we will take to support children and young people will include £15 million to help more learners in further education with the digital tools they need, at the same time as boosting enrolment capacity to support young people through the economic shock. A further £9.5 million will help those in years...
Rebecca Evans: ...Wales, the single cancer pathway, the childcare offer, the doubling of the capital limit that people can keep before paying for social care and the ongoing development of twenty-first century schools and colleges across Wales. During this crisis, we have moved quickly to establish a fighting fund, held in a central reserve dedicated to our COVID response. As well as using new...
Rebecca Evans: ...Action Plan to raise awareness of the air-quality impacts of bonfires and fireworks on Clean Air Day as well. On the first issue, I know Mike Hedges absolutely recognises the vital role that free school meals play in terms of ensuring that children get that healthy meal and don't go hungry during unprecedented times, and particularly so over the course of the summer holidays. Since then,...
Rebecca Evans: ...at the start of the crisis, I convened a team that looked at every single bid that was coming forward from colleagues across Welsh Government—so, additional funding for the NHS, funding for free school meals, funding to support local authorities with their loss of income. Every single bid that related to our response to COVID has come through that particular group, where we provide that...
Rebecca Evans: ...Laura Anne to the Senedd—or, back to the Senedd, I should say—and look forward to your contributions in the business statement. I know that the Minister has been working really hard with the education sector, local authorities, trade unions and so forth to plot out the way forward in terms of returning to schools. Of course, Wales is the only part of the UK that has ensured that...
Rebecca Evans: ...affect many people's mental and emotional well-being. That's why we have announced a number of specific measures targeted at supporting mental health, including £5 million for mental health in schools and £3.5 million to enable health boards to respond to increased demand.
Rebecca Evans: .... A piece of work has gone on across Welsh Government exploring what different departments can bring to the table in terms a new and reinvigorated approach to skills and employability—so, from education to health, and obviously I have a role in that in finance. But what we do want to see next week from the Chancellor is the UK Government's approach to skills, because, again, we want to...
Rebecca Evans: ...investment plan, which contains billions of pounds of potential investment as well, so that will be really important. And finally, I should mention, of course, our plans for twenty-first century schools continue. Our plans in Wales would spend £2 billion over the next five years, and I think that that level of ambition just dwarfs what the Prime Minister announced yesterday for England.
Rebecca Evans: ...terms of providing additional accommodation to help people who are rough-sleeping off the streets, and also to help them in their desire to support low-income families who are now eligible for free school meals. Alongside that, we recognise that local authorities have also experienced a significant amount of lost income. In normal times, local authorities would be getting income from the...
Rebecca Evans: ...infrastructure across all parts of Wales. Investments in South Wales West include £9.7 million to improve the neonatal care unit in Singleton Hospital and the £29 million twenty-first century schools development at Cefn Saeson in Neath Port Talbot.
