3. Will the Minister make a statement on access to education? OAQ(5)0004(EDU)

Certainly. In Wales, we are committed to a comprehensive education for all.

Thank you very much. I know that the issue of safe routes to school is of particular interest to you, Cabinet Secretary, having raised questions on behalf of your constituents before now. It’s something of an issue for my constituents, too. Even now, the walk route to the new Bae Baglan school is a case in point for the former pupils of Cwrt Sart school, which is closing shortly. Even though the new school isn’t open yet, the walk route to that school was assessed before new Welsh Government guidance was introduced just over two years ago. I don’t think that the new walk would satisfy the new criteria. Will you work with your Government colleagues to insist on local authorities reassessing routes to school that were signed off under the old criteria and to ensure that they comply with the 2014 guidelines?

Can I thank the Member? I know that she has worked very hard over a number of years on this issue. Indeed, the Welsh Government in the last Assembly reviewed the guidance very much as a result of the campaigning work that she did in this area. I take a common-sense view that travel arrangements are not suitable if they are not safe. The legislation, as I referred to earlier, that is in place, the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008, sets out the statutory requirements for home-to-school transport. Should a route not be deemed safe, then a child cannot be expected to walk to school. This applies even if the distance between home and school is less than the statutory mileage criteria for free transport. I am aware that the Welsh Government did make some £150,000 available to Neath Port Talbot county council to develop routes to the new school, so it is very disappointing to hear, despite that expenditure, that parents are still concerned. I will ask my officials, in conjunction with those of the Cabinet Secretary for economic development, whose responsibility the learner travel Measure is, to look again at this.

Of course, when pupils get to school, they have to make their way around the school. A number of children have mobility difficulty, some are in wheelchairs, but some also have difficulties in making their way round the schools. How many schools are not fully Disability Discrimination Act compliant? What is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that they are?

My goodness, Mike, I have tried very hard to make sure that I’m well prepared for those questions, but those details I do not have to hand. If it’s acceptable to the Member, I will write to him with the exact details of DDA-compliant or non-compliant schools and the plans that we have. I’m sure much of the investment in the twenty-first century schools programme is aligned with making sure that our schools are accessible for all our children.

Access to early education of a high standard is an effective way of closing the attainment gap for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and ensuring the linguistic development of young children. At the moment, children living in permanent poverty in Wales are twice as likely to score lower than the average for their linguistic development at five years old as compared to their better-off peers. Now, during the election, Plaid Cymru proposed radical policies that would assist in closing that attainment gap, including offering a place in school for all children from three years old onwards. Research shows that starting school earlier actually tackles that link between poverty and poor attainment and lifts families out of poverty. Do you agree that we do need to work towards securing equal access to early education for all three-year-olds? If so, in order to achieve this, would you be willing to start planning for accepting children into schools at three years old?

Can I thank the Member for the point, which is a particularly pertinent one? We do know that, even at the earliest stage, when children go into school, our children from the most deprived backgrounds are already behind. That’s why, this week, the Welsh Government have launched their Ready to Learn project to try and give information to parents and carers about the small things that they can do at home to prepare children to go into school and to make that transition a success. The Government also recognises this in the development of the pupil deprivation grant for our foundation phase pupils, and I will be looking to see what else we can do in those criteria. The Welsh Government has also embarked on an implementation plan to make good on the Labour Party manifesto commitment for 30 hours of education and childcare. It’s very important that that provision is of high quality and can be available to those poorest children so that they, too, can take advantage of that. I look forward to working with her to look at how we can make sure that that education and care package overcomes some of the challenges that our children from our most deprived backgrounds have before they start their school journey.