6. Will the Minister make a statement on the future of Flying Start provision in the Cynon Valley? OAQ(5)0010(CC)

I thank the Member for Cynon Valley for her question. We know Flying Start improves outcomes for children and families in some of our most disadvantaged communities in Rhondda Cynon Taf. This year, we have committed over £6.8 million, enabling the local authority to support an estimated 3,270 children and their families.

Thank you. Flying Start has had a transformational impact on the lives of tens of thousands of children across Wales, including in my constituency of Cynon Valley, during the last Assembly term. However, I know concerns have been raised about the geographical basis upon which support is allocated. How is the Welsh Government working with local authorities to ensure that help reaches those children who really need it the most?

I think the Member raises a question that I’m familiar with from other parts of targeted services. I know your colleague Mike Hedges used to allude to that around Communities First, again, about boundaries, but there are always some that are in and some that are out. Flying Start is an excellent programme, but it’s targeted using income data provided by the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs, and the data allow local authorities to focus on the geographical area with the highest proportion of children under four years of age living in income-benefit households as an indicator of poverty. It is something that I’ve asked my team to look at—the whole strategy about our poverty intervention around communities, so Communities First, Families First, Flying Start: what do they do and how can we get into those communities best? So, your question isn’t lost on me; it is something that we are looking at, but, at the moment, it is statistically based and there will be some young people who miss out on this. It’s something that I’m very interested in in trying to resolve those issues.

Minister, obviously, the Government has a commitment around childcare—to have a universal childcare policy of up to 30 hours—and it’s something that we do welcome and it’s similar to what we had in our own manifesto. Has an impact assessment been made—I appreciate it’s early days for the Government—over the ability to commission that provision and that there is no risk of jeopardising existing provision, such as in Flying Start areas, such as Cynon Valley and other areas in my electoral region? There is an issue around capacity, obviously, to deliver that universal commitment, and we don’t want to be jeopardising existing schemes if that capacity needs to grow in the first instance.

I thank the Member for raising one of our groundbreaking commitments in terms of childcare. I can assure the Member that it was nothing like the Conservative childcare offer; it was a very specific one that Welsh Labour delivered on. I am working with my team and Cabinet colleagues on the best way to deliver this programme. Capacity: the Member is right—capacity is an issue about how we deliver that, but it’s something that, working with the private sector and the public sector to deliver, will be of benefit to families, but, more importantly, it will be of benefit to children.