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.