Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement. I know of your commitment to rural schools. I know you used to fight passionately when you were an opposition member on behalf of schools in Powys that were threatened with closure by that particular local authority, and, of course, you were matched by many other Assembly Members representing rural constituencies in this Chamber. Like your constituency, my constituency has also seen a number of rural schools close in recent years, and there are some, unfortunately, which are still threatened with closure. So, I do very much welcome the fact that you have said that there will now be, in the future, a presumption against closure and that local authorities will be required to look at every alternative and leave no stone unturned when looking at the way their schools are organised. It’s all too often been the case in some parts of Wales that local authorities have stubbornly dug their heels in as a result of the poor guidance, frankly, from the Welsh Government that has allowed them to do that, and, as a result, some very good schools have closed. So, there’s been a pretty rough ride for rural schools in recent years, and I’m very much hoping that that will change.

Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t some questions that I hope you will be able to answer today in respect of this additional resource that you are making available. I’ve seen the list of things that you hope to achieve with that resource. With every respect, £2.5 million is not a huge sum of money to be able to meet all of the aspirations on that particular list. I wonder whether you’ll be able to give us some clarity as to whether that is £2.5 million extra on top of your budget that is going to be available next year, or whether this is from within the education budget as a whole and it will mean that you are robbing Peter, effectively, to pay Paul, and also, just precisely what your definition of a rural or small school actually is. Because, obviously, that will determine very much where this money flows to. You’re giving it to the regional consortia rather than the local education authorities to distribute. If you can clarify precisely why that is the case, that would also be helpful.

Whilst I accept that federation can be a very effective model, and, in fact, it’s something that is working in respect of a school that was threatened and is still threatened with closure in my own constituency—Ysgol Llanbedr—which is now working with another school, against the local authority’s wishes, in order to survive, and is making a jolly good show of it, with increasing pupil numbers. But, if you could just tell us exactly how this cash will support federations, given that federations actually generally result in saving significant sums of money—is it just to prime the pump, are these long-term arrangements, or is this a short-term fund with these one-off grants having a period in which they are available to schools and then that period eventually coming to an end? So, I do welcome the extra cash, I welcome the statement and I welcome the direction of travel, but I think a lot depends on these definitions as to precisely what a rural or small school is. I think a lot depends on how the money is going to be used and how thinly that jam is going to be spread across the many hundreds of rural schools that we have here in Wales. So, perhaps you can give us some clarity on those things.