3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the education consortium covering the Swansea area? OAQ(5)0061(EDU)

Thank you, Mike. ERW are making positive progress, as confirmed by their Estyn inspection. I’m confident that, while there’s room for improvement, they continue to play an important role in delivering improved outcomes for learners. We will continue to work closely with them to make best use of resources and to maximise their effort and their impact.

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response? And can I ask the Cabinet Secretary why she believes that the ERW consortium area is more suitable for education improvement within the Swansea area than either the former West Glamorgan area or the Swansea city region?

Well, Mike, it will be important to review the national model for regional working in light of any announcements that my Cabinet colleague, Mark Drakeford, will make with regard to local government reform. It will be important to look at the current status of the regional educational consortia and how best we can continue to deliver school improvement services, and whether there are actually other aspects of education that could be more effectively and strategically delivered by local authorities working together. As I said, I will be working very closely with my local government colleague as this Government takes forward its reform programme for local government to ensure that the role of educational consortia is closely aligned with that work.

ERW’s purpose is to deliver a single, consistent and integrated professional school improvement service. What evidence has ERW given you that it has improved teaching and learning of modern foreign languages? And, if you’re able to take this question, what evidence has it given to you that it’s improved Welsh teaching in English-medium schools in Swansea, helping build a more positive attitude both in schools and in the local authority towards the Welsh language?

Suzy, there are two important ways that I as Minister view the performance of each of our regional consortia. The first is Estyn’s independent inspections of the consortia. With regard to ERW, Estyn’s outcomes were that their support for school improvement was good, their leadership was good, their partnerships were good, and their resource management was good. However, improving quality was judged to be adequate by Estyn. As a follow-up to the Estyn inspection, I met with all regional consortia as part of my challenge-and-review meeting, where we look to see what we could do together, as Welsh Government and the regional consortia, to address any shortcomings in consortia performance and to drive forward improvement. I admit that modern foreign languages and the quality of Welsh language education in English-medium schools was not discussed at those meetings, but I will write to the Member with the evidence that she wants to receive.

Following on from Sian Gwenllian’s question to Alun Davies a little earlier, I too have been looking at the WESPs in the ERW area, and particularly in the Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend areas. I have to say that the targets proposed as part of those plans are extremely disappointing. I don’t think we can overemphasise the undermining that’s happening here. If you’re expecting to achieve a million Welsh speakers by halfway through this century, then you truly have to reform these plans and strategies because, at the end of the day, there’s virtually no vision here in enhancing the capacity of Welsh-medium primary schools in these areas. I would urge you most urgently, Minister, to review and change that.

Thank you for that. As my colleague said earlier, we will be looking at the adequacy of the WESPS that have come forward. This Government has ambitious plans for expanding Welsh-medium education and ensuring the quality of that education is the best that it can be. It’s simply not just about being there, Dai; it’s about ensuring that it is good quality when it is there. We shouldn’t accept second best if we have decided to educate our children through the medium of Welsh. We also have to ensure that there is adequate provision for those parents who want to make that choice, and we have a job of work to do to encourage more parents to see the benefits of positively choosing a bilingual or a Welsh-medium education for their children. So, there is much to be done, both at local authority level and Welsh Government level, for the ambitious plans that we have for Welsh-medium education for our children.