The next item on our agenda is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education on the initial teacher education change programme. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Today, I would like to set out my priorities for the initial teacher education change programme in Wales.

Every parent, Presiding Officer, should be confident that their child goes to a school that helps them grow as capable, healthy and well-rounded citizens. Teachers must be supported to be the best that they can be, raising the standard of the profession as a whole. Teachers share an individual, professional and national mission to help our children succeed.

I believe Professor John Furlong’s report, ‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers’, is critical in reforming our teacher education courses and developing the skills that teachers want and need. The teaching profession can only make its proper contribution to raising standards of education in our schools, as set out in Successful Futures, if our ITE offers our future teachers the skills, the knowledge and the appetite to lead the change required. ‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers’ recommended the development of a very different approach for accrediting programmes of ITE in Wales, and it recommended the establishment of a teacher education accreditation board within the Education Workforce Council for Wales.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

On Monday, 26 September, I will be launching a public consultation on draft criteria for the accreditation of initial teacher education programmes in Wales, and proposals for giving the role of accrediting initial teacher education courses to the Education Workforce Council, through a committee it will be required to establish. This is a pivotal step, and I expect progress to be made at pace. I recognise the value and the difference that a truly collaborative ITE system can make when universities and schools work in genuine partnership.

The best in Wales has a tradition of self-improvement through collaboration. It should not rest only with our schools and teachers to deepen and extend collaboration and mutual improvement—our universities must also deliver. This is the road to success. Not a single academic from any teacher education centre in Wales was returned for the most recent research excellence framework, and I want this to change.

Revised accreditation criteria make clear our expectations, indeed our requirements, for fundamental change. One, an increased role for schools. Two, a clearer role for universities. Three, joint ownership of the ITE programme. Four, structured opportunities to link schools and university learning. And, finally, the centrality of research.

Over the coming months, I will be visiting all universities in Wales, with either Professor Furlong, or my director for education. We want to explore what progress has been made, and how they are developing their vision for the future of their provision. I am resolute that change cannot and must not wait. Whilst new programmes of ITE will be accredited and marketed to prospective students from the summer of to prospective students from summer 2018, I expect to see substantial progress now. I want to see partnership arrangements between schools and universities maturing. I want to see universities in Wales working collaboratively with each other, as well as more widely. I also want to see a system that is self-improving, with the profession working for its own improvement and for that of others. Early in the new year we expect the partnerships to signal their intent to seek accreditation with revised programmes. All teachers need to develop the right teaching and assessment skills to enable them to use the new curriculum to support learning and teaching successfully. Combined with collaboration, innovation and leadership skills, we will develop reflective and highly effective teachers and leaders who have a commitment to their own professional growth and that of their colleagues.

New professional teaching standards will set out rigorous expectations for entry to the profession so that we can attract the very best and we will also seek to inspire career-long development by describing what highly effective practice looks like. To support ITE reform, there has been a regular programme of engagement with the profession and we welcome the continued support of the universities to further develop the new professional teaching standards for the qualified teacher status.

As we move forward with this exciting ITE change programme, it’s also important that we consider both alternative and traditional routes into teaching. There are so many individuals with the expertise and knowledge who we know will enrich our education system. I want to ensure that we have high-quality employment-based routes into teaching, involving effective professional support and development, that are flexible and responsive and are developed through working closely with the sector and education consortia. My central purpose of ITE reform is to improve the quality of provision delivered and better prepare our future teachers to develop skills to teach so that learners can learn. I want teaching to be a first-choice profession and I want to attract the best into teaching and make it a lifelong career. And this will only be a reality if our initial teacher education offer is the right one. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thank you very much. Llyr Gruffydd.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement this afternoon. There is a great deal that I’d be happy to support. Of course, Plaid Cymru has welcomed the Furlong report and the recommendations therein, and the Plaid Cymru manifesto for the recent elections did outline some of the specific aspects of what we believe is needed to strengthen initial teacher education and continuous professional development. I assume that you are not veering from the views taken by the previous Government, which accepted all of the recommendations of the Furlong report.

Your predecessor also said, of course, that we needed to move at a pace in terms of changes to initial teacher training, and the consultation that you referred to, which is to start next week, is one, as I understand it, the sector has been expecting since January. So, I don’t know if that actually reflects the progress at pace that you mentioned in your statement. And of course you said that

‘na allwn, ac na chawn, aros am newid’.

Can you, therefore, expand on your own operational timetable as Cabinet Secretary? You’ve mentioned 2018 as a key milestone, but I would like to hear what the milestones towards that are in terms of the consultation programme that you referred to. That would be most beneficial.

Now, the proposed consultation makes reference to developing one specific aspect of the Education Workforce Council in Wales. Plaid Cymru, of course, has called for broader reform of that council in our manifesto so that it becomes a self-regulatory professional body that’s responsible for teaching standards and continuous professional development. You state that you would expect partnerships between schools and universities to mature. You expect early in the new year for them to state their intention to be accredited in new programmes, therefore could you tell us what you will do if that isn’t the case? I know that your predecessor had been a little impatient, perhaps, in terms of moving in that direction, and I would like to know what steps you would take as a Government if that weren’t to happen.

We all, of course, want teaching to be a first-choice profession. I think everyone would agree on that. But I have to ask myself these days—who, in reality, is promoting teaching as a career? We know that the number of registered teachers is falling by some hundreds per annum. We are training around half of the teachers every year that we did, in comparison, in 2006. Would you agree with me that there’s a job of work to be done, which isn’t happening effectively enough now, in terms of promoting a career in teaching—not just in terms of numbers, of course, but in terms of attracting the highest quality candidates? That is certainly something that Furlong referred to, and the OECD, Estyn and others have expressed their concern on that issue.

Plaid Cymru, of course, in our manifesto, did propose a 10 per cent premium on the salaries of those teachers who had reached a particular level of professional development. Certainly, that would contribute towards raising standards, in my view, but would also be a tool to attract and retain the highest quality candidates to enter teaching. Would you be willing to consider such a premium, because I do note that, in the programme for government published today, the Government does want to recognise, promote and encourage excellence in education? If you’re going to do that, perhaps you could do that through the use of such a premium. I’d be grateful if you could consider that.

A reduction in bureaucracy, of course, is also very important in my view, because that’s one of the most negative aspects when it comes to trying to attract people to the teaching profession. With all that in mind, of course, in terms of attracting the highest quality candidates, perhaps you could tell us what role you see for Teach First and the graduate teacher programme, because they have a role in the current training landscape, and are funded through Government. Is that going to continue in the longer term? Where is the matching ambition, from the point of view of Government, in relation to teaching support staff, because we do have to strengthen the quality across the profession, in all aspects of education?

You’ve also previously mentioned—and I will finish with this point—the development of a workforce and leadership strategy. You made a statement prior to the summer to that end. You said then that that would strengthen the focus on areas such as developing new professional learning standards and the move towards a Master’s teaching profession and so on. So, how will your announcement today and that strategy actually intertwine? I can hear some people now saying, perhaps, that you are asking questions of the sector in your statement here, and in the forthcoming consultation, without us actually seeing the vision and the broader strategy, which are yet to be outlined.

Thank you very much, Llyr, for those points. I think what’s really important for education reform as we move forward is if we can continue to try and develop this consensus across the Chamber about a broad direction of travel. I think that’s what the education system needs more than anything at the moment. So, your ongoing commitment to the Furlong reforms is very much one that I welcome, and I appreciate that.

I think it is only fair for you to raise the question around the pace of the introduction of some of these recommendations from Furlong. I think that’s a very fair point, which is why I stressed the point about pace in my statement this afternoon. I think we can move more quickly than we have, and we will need to do that.

You asked for a timetable: the consultation, as I said, will start on Monday of next week, and it will run for seven weeks. It’s quite a short consultation period, because you will be aware that draft accreditation actually went out for pre-consultation consultation in the spring of this year. So, a lot of work has already been done. This is not going to be a surprise to people, because some of that pre-legislative scrutiny-type work was carried out in the summer. So, it’s a seven-week consultation. We expect the institutions to give an indication to us early in the new year of their intention to look for accreditation. Maybe there will be new people who will express an interest in looking for accreditation. So, we expect that in the new year. We want courses to be accredited and marketed in the summer of 2018, for initial adoption and training in 2019. So, that’s the timetable we’re working to, and it’s a really tight timetable, which is one of the reasons why we need the consultation to be done quickly this autumn term.

You asked about what we can do to recruit and retain teachers. I think you’re right; I think we need to stress much more clearly the importance of teaching as a profession of first choice, and we want our best and our brightest graduates to come in to that profession. I think there are a number of reasons why, perhaps, that’s not happening at the moment and that’s why we need to engage in this reform of our initial teacher education because it’s not as good as it could be. It’s not providing people consistently with the skills they need for a successful move into the classroom. So, this is part of that programme to raise the status. I’ll be making further announcements this autumn on different ways in which we hope to be able to focus on good practice, to celebrate that in Welsh schools, to hold up those that are doing a great job and I hope to make announcements about that in the future. You will be aware that we are carrying out a bureaucracy project at the moment. We will be going out with the first-ever questionnaire of all teachers and teaching staff, so I can hear directly from the profession how they feel about their jobs and their status at the moment: whether they’re getting the support and the training that they need and whether there are things that they are being asked to do that don’t add value to the children in their classrooms. So, this is all part of a programme to try and ensure that we’re better at listening to teachers and responding to them, whilst at the same time expecting very high standards from the profession. That’s why we’re working on our professional standards that will go out to consultation in the new year for adoption shortly after that.

You raised the issue of pay. Of course, I’m engaged in ongoing discussions with the Westminster Government on the devolution of pay and conditions for teachers because I do believe there is an opportunity, should those powers be devolved to Wales, that we can align pay and conditions with some of this agenda. Those discussions are ongoing because I do not want those powers devolved to us in a way that financially disadvantages the Welsh Government, which is already facing some significant financial challenges because of settlements from Westminster.

You mentioned the issue of Teach First. As I said in my statement, I’m looking at a variety of ways in which we could have alternative entries into the profession. Earlier on, your leader said that we needed to evaluate, do what worked and ditch what doesn’t work. So, I am looking very carefully at all the current programmes we have and whether Welsh Government expenditure in those areas is resulting in high-quality teachers teaching in Wales. That’s what I’m engaged in at the moment, so we can make sure that the money that we are spending does result in high-quality teachers in front of our children in classrooms. I’ll be making announcements on how best we can take that forward shortly.

On leadership, the leadership academy is on course for a launch later on in this year. I’m hoping to have provision up and running by this time next year, so, actually, people being able to access courses, support and development opportunities by this time next year.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement. You’ve responded to a number of questions that Llyr Gruffydd has already put down in terms of the timetable. But, can I just ask you this? One of the things that you mentioned in the statement was the importance of alternative routes into teaching. I’ve heard what you’ve just heard in response to Llyr Gruffydd about the opportunities that might be afforded to people who are out there, who are potential teachers, but can you tell us what you’re actually doing as a Government to explore opportunities that might be there with people who currently have careers in the public sector, private sector, business and industry who might make great teachers and could be a fantastic asset to the teaching profession here in Wales, in order to ensure that they can have access to come into the classroom if a career change might be appropriate for them? We know that there has been some pressure in some parts of Wales on having sufficient numbers of teachers, particularly in the STEM subjects and in terms of having teachers who can teach through the medium of Welsh. I wonder what specific action you are taking in order to try and recruit into those specific subjects.

One of the things that you haven’t mentioned either are the opportunities that there may be for overseas-trained teachers to come into the Welsh system. At present, as I understand it, anybody in the European Economic Area who’s a qualified teacher in any of those countries that form part of the EEA can come here and make a relatively swift transition to qualified teacher status. But, of course, there are many other education systems, many of which are more similar perhaps to ours than those in some parts of the EEA—Australia, Canada and some of the other systems around the world with similar standards to ours—who do not automatically receive qualified teacher status, even though many of those teachers have had many years dedicated to the teaching profession. I wonder, Minister, what consideration you and the Welsh Government are giving to those particular individuals, in order to remove what may be unnecessary barriers to them being able to come and work here in Wales in our schools.

I also note that there was no specific reference to continuing professional development for teachers. You’ve made some references to this in previous statements that you’ve made, particularly in terms of the passport scheme that is out there and that people are able to take advantage of. But, in terms of mandating training for our teachers to ensure that they do continue to develop their skills so that we’ve got a highly skilled workforce out there, I just wonder whether you could tell us what further progress is being made in terms of CPD for our teaching staff.

Again, I heard your response in terms of the leadership academy. I’m pleased that things are progressing with that. We know that the quality of leadership in our schools very often determines how good a school is and how well a school and children in those schools, and, indeed, the staff in those schools, actually perform. Again, I just wonder if you could point to some practical examples of where you think that best practice that you’ve said you’ve identified actually is, and how you expect the consortia to assist in rolling out that best practice to the schools in the areas for which they are responsible. Thank you.

Thank you, Darren, for your points. If I start with the issue of continuing professional development, obviously the focus of the statement today is on initial teacher education, but you’re absolutely right that we can never forget or take our focus off the need to support teachers who are already in the classroom, and you’ll be aware that the learning passports were launched last year. We’re looking to see whether they have been effective in this first year of operation and what we can learn from that. We’re working with new deal pioneer schools to look at what kind of continuing professional development makes the biggest difference. Speaking to teachers, as I have done since taking up this role, what seems to be the most effective way is teacher-to-teacher collaboration, especially if that can be fostered within a network of local schools. Some of the old barriers around professional distrust of not wanting to share weaknesses and strengths with one another are breaking down, I’m pleased to see, and teachers see the value in working together. Those networks are being developed and supported by the consortia. Of course, one of the key aspects of our new professional teaching standards will be a commitment to ongoing professional development from teachers themselves, with an emphasis on keeping up with current research such as the latest thinking on pedagogical issues. So, that’s very much part of our teaching standards approach.

On the leadership college, we know that there are school leaders out there that have effected huge change in the performance of their schools. I was recently visiting a school where, quite controversially, a couple of years ago, a federation had been introduced. In the space of three years, the GCSE performance level 2 plus indicators had grown by over 25 per cent. In the space of three years, a successful school leader had been able to bring programmes and methods to that new school and, as a result, had seen a massive, massive change. Indeed, the people who were at the forefront of objecting to that governance change were now saying, ‘Look at us; look at how well our school has done this summer. And, actually, our grades are better than the private school just across the road.’ They were really, really proud of their achievement. So, it’s looking at those kinds of models, because we can drive achievement forward.

What are we doing with regard to STEM and Welsh? Well, I’m sure you’re aware that there are already premiums available for graduates in STEM subjects or graduates who have skills in Welsh to go to train as teachers. We need to look to see whether we’re getting good value for money for those schemes and whether it has resulted in those teachers then ending up in our classrooms. We are evaluating that, but that’s one way of doing it.

With regard to international teachers, I have to say, Darren, rather than considering what barriers we’ve put in the way for teachers qualifying to teach in Wales, one has to wonder what barriers the Home Office and the immigration service have put in Wales. We are hamstrung by the system that has been put in place by the Home Office and the immigration system in Westminster, which actually constrains the ability for people from overseas to come and work in this country, and not just in teaching. Last year, we had the debacle of nurses, where this country was crying out for nurses and we had to get a special dispensation just for the winter to allow nurses from overseas to come here. So, actually, the barriers are not here in Wales, the barriers are ones that have been created—[Interruption.]—have been created by Westminster to allowing people from overseas to come and live and work in this country.

But, as I said, we do need to keep a balance between the continual professional development of teachers who are already in the system, but we have to get our initial teacher education offer right, because, if we don’t, we will not be able to see the improvements in school standards that you and I both want to see.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement. Teaching was a first-choice career for me and I spent 16 very rewarding years in the classroom. I know, from my own experience of working with ITE programmes as a student mentor myself, just how important they are in ensuring that teaching remains as a first-choice career, and also how beneficial it is for practicing teachers to have student teachers in the classroom with them, sharing new ideas.

My question is this: how will the Welsh Government ensure that the new programme will provide trainee teachers with full and detailed training of additional learning needs? And, also, how will the new ALN Bill be built into this when it passes into law?

Thank you, Vikki, very much indeed. In some ways, whilst I’m very glad that you’re here, it’s sad that you’ve decided that politics would be your second career, rather than staying in the classroom. I think you’re right. The relationship that a student teacher has with their host school is absolutely crucial, and that’s why we do need to see a reform in how universities and schools work and the balance between the time student teachers spend in universities and how much time they spend actually at the chalkface, so to speak, working alongside qualified teachers in the classrooms. We need to have a much closer relationship between universities and the schools, which has been part of the problem in the past. We need a much closer relationship, which is very important.

Forgive me, what was the final question? I’m sorry, I should’ve—

With regard to ALN.

ALN—of course, ALN. You will be aware that the principle behind the ALN Bill is that all teaching professions should have an understanding and an ability to respond to low-impact, high-incidence rates of additional learning needs, and that has to be incorporated into the initial teacher training of our teachers. There will be the need, alongside the introduction of the legislation, for continual professional development programmes to support that. Because what we do know is that many people feel that there is scant regard paid to additional learning needs in existing ITE and that will be part of the accreditation programme: to look to see how individual courses are truly addressing that if they’re to be accredited by the new body.

Thank you. And, finally, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. It’s encouraging to hear in your statement that you believe it’s important to look at alternative routes into teaching. Many gifted and talented people from many different walks of life who could inspire children and support their fellow teachers using their different work experience are discouraged from entering the profession by the requirement for formal qualification via a postgraduate certificate in education. I personally know of a number of people who would love to go into teaching, but they can’t afford to go through the PGCE—they’ve got bills, they’ve got mortgages to pay. I’m not saying that teachers shouldn’t be qualified, but there has to be an alternative route into teaching and into qualification. So, what alternative routes have you been looking at?

Could I thank Michelle for her question? I think it’s absolutely clear that we do need to have people entering the profession with the right level of skills and qualifications. This is part of the previous Government’s drive to drive up standards and I’m committed to doing that. We do have a range of graduate programmes that currently exist. We have been piloting a Teach First approach in Wales. As I said earlier, those are currently being evaluated.

With regard to barriers for people returning to university to acquire the qualifications that they need to go on to be teachers, then I’m hoping that, with the publication of the Diamond review, we might have something to say about a broader range of student support measures and, of course, I’ll be making a statement to the Chamber to that effect next week.

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.