Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:06 pm on 11 October 2016.
I thank the Member for his contribution. It will be no surprise that I don’t agree with him on all he said; I do think that the interventions of Communities First have worked in some areas and worked very well in some areas, and Lynne Neagle and her colleagues have alluded to that. I do agree with him that the issue around the school and space is something we need to concentrate more on. So, Kirsty and I are working very closely around the childcare pledge and other actions where we know that, if we can get the right interventions for young people, it will save us, longer term, in tackling the issues of disorganised families, and the ACE programme and the child zones will support that as well. So, we’re going to have some very high-intensity areas of doing some work there.
I declare an interest: my wife works in a school in north Wales and they’ve just received a school of excellence report from the inspectors. I visited there a couple of weeks back to take some paintings that I was doing over the weekend for them, but also to see how the school operates. I absolutely agree with the Member: if the school can change the way young people feel about themselves—confidence and encouragement—they can take that out as well. I think that, while Kirsty Williams doesn’t need any help looking for my finances in the budget, I’m delighted to be able to work with her to make sure that we get the best value for money with both our interventions. That also relates to not just Kirsty, but all Cabinet colleagues, too.