Julie James: ...a completely separate set of amenities. So, where there is a suitable play area for a particular site nearby, we just want to ensure that there are safe access routes to that, safe access routes to schools and so on, so we're not making an isolated community either, unless there are no reasonable-to-reach play facilities. I've also had it emphasised to me that, sometimes, we have...
Julie James: ...was a little concerned about the tone of the recent UK consultation, but we have responded in that vein. I know the Member takes a very keen interest in that. We've also been very aware of the education arrangements. We're looking to make sure that local authorities, in considering their duties, do take issues of that sort into account, ultimately. School closure issues are a matter...
Julie James: ...community members and it was important that we reflect this in our plan. Despite these differences, groups often experience similar issues such as discrimination, marginalisation, poorer health or educational outcomes and a need for better advice and advocacy support. The late Czech President Václav Havel once famously described the treatment of Gypsies as the litmus test for a civil...
Julie James: ...for Economy and Transport will make oral statements today on the Swansea bay tidal lagoon and the recent Airbus Group announcement. As a result, the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education on initial teacher education will issue as a written statement. And, finally, Llywydd, the Business Committee agreed to schedule an additional debate tomorrow afternoon on a no named day motion...
Julie James: ...and Transport around making sure that the economic action plan picks up matters around discrimination of all sorts. We are also working on our anti-bullying guidance. The Cabinet Secretary for Education recently announced relationships and sexuality education being a statutory part of the new curriculum, which is around education and acceptance. We are also running the 'This Is Me'...
Julie James: Yes, the Welsh Government is fully committed to supporting the LGBT community in Wales. Related action includes work on relationships and sexuality education, updated anti-bullying guidance and improvements to gender identity services. We also provide funding for Stonewall Cymru to support LGBTQ+ people and improve our understanding of issues that affect them.
Julie James: ...with them, which we're reviewing this autumn, and I will undertake very much—in fact, I'm having constant conversations with my colleagues across Government, not just the Cabinet Secretary for Education, because there are a number of grants caught up in this—to make sure that we target the same people, but that the local authority has the flexibility to make sure that the service...
Julie James: The national strategy sets out our policies and action for tackling domestic abuse. These include awareness-raising, educating children and young people about healthy relationships, working with perpetrators, funding a helpline for victims, and training professionals to recognise, and act on, signs of abuse and violence.
Julie James: ...all victims and survivors of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. Our national strategy sets out the actions we are taking to achieve this, which include awareness-raising, education, and funding a helpline for victims.
Julie James: There is a wide range of activity across Welsh Government that contributes to the aims of the framework including in relation to housing, education and employment. We are actively working with disabled people and their representative organisations to finalise a new framework with clear actions.
Julie James: ...of that, because I support that project. I just want to say this: Refugee Week is an umbrella festival. The events have a wide range of arts, voluntary, faith and refugee community organisations, school student groups and more, and they include arts festivals, exhibitions, film screenings, theatre and dance performances, concerts, football tournaments and public talks, as well as creative...
Julie James: ...is much work still to be done to improve outcomes. We are continuing to consider improvements that we can make to support those seeking sanctuary, including looking at extending eligibility for education grants and concessionary transport to asylum seekers. These are complex and delicate areas, where a rush to extend eligibility could have unintended consequences for asylum applications....
Julie James: ...'s women in STEM—although it should be 'STEMC' because it should have computer science on the end—board, and we are working very hard to make sure that we can get good role models out into schools to make sure that all our young people, actually, not just women, take up engineering. We could certainly do across the board with more engineers, but particularly more women engineers. I...
Julie James: Yes, and I think the Member makes a very good point, and it's a point that all of us who walk the shoreline would want to reinforce. We've all been written to, I'm sure, by several schools in our own constituencies and regions asking us what on earth we're doing to reduce this and giving specific examples. Certainly, schools in my constituency have written to me asking what we're doing. We...
Julie James: ...have a good job around the corner from their house so that they can have a work-life balance and they can have their caring responsibilities taken into account and their children can attend local schools and so on. So, these pilots are very much designed to see whether they work and whether, as I said, we can then pick them up and put them down in other communities, perhaps as linked...
Julie James: Well, of course, a large number of children are covered by the foundation phase in Welsh schools, which takes away some of those difficulties. But if the Member has a specific problem with a particular child, I suggest he writes directly to the Cabinet Secretary with that specific problem because I don't see any reason why that child wouldn't be normally covered by the foundation phase...
Julie James: ...a range of other people as well. As you rightly said, I accepted all the recommendations from the report and did a written statement to the Assembly to that effect. The Cabinet Secretary for Education provided a progress update to the board at its last meeting on actions taken within the education sector to implement the recommendations. We recently wrote to all Welsh universities...
Julie James: Yes. Work to implement recommendations from the report is under way across the Government, business, education and academia, and good progress is being made in a number of areas.
Julie James: .... The software academy is looking at doing outreach for people who want to perhaps do level 3 skills as well—so A-level equivalent and higher national diploma, with a route to going on to higher education or indeed with a route to going into employment at that point. So, we are exploring that. There definitely is a need for everybody at every level of the range of abilities.
Julie James: ...then, we've supported over 117,300 individuals to engage with technology, and we've trained over 1,000 young digital heroes, which is the programme we're talking about, where young people from schools, colleges and youth organisations volunteer to support older people to engage in digital technology. Most of the funding activities in this regard are aimed at addressing the basic digital...
