Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:42 pm on 25 January 2017.
Can I thank Mark Isherwood for those questions? As far as I’m aware, we didn’t receive any evidence from the John Summers school because our inquiry was specifically around the decision of the Welsh Government to amalgamate the funds that were given to support Gypsy/Traveller learning and minority ethnic learning into one big grant, called the education improvement grant. It’s been a fairly short inquiry and we’re due to report soon. I will check with the committee service whether we may have received something in writing, but I don’t believe that we did. It was a very focused inquiry.
Thank you for your points about the ALN Bill. My statement did in fact refer to consultation with parents. We’ve got events with parents in north and south Wales and there is a written consultation as well, which will also be an opportunity for parents. Of course, parents are very actively involved in some of the organisations that are giving evidence.
You’ve made the point, I know, previously about the possible dilution of support by moving to a system where everybody has an individual learning plan and that is something that we are examining. In every meeting, really, in this scrutiny so far, it’s come up, and I think I can say that everybody wants this Bill to work. There’s really unprecedented cross-party support for getting something that works for children and young people and their families. And I’m sure that the Government is very, very keen to get something that works. I can certainly give the commitment that we will all be scrutinising that very closely. This is about improving things for children and young people and not by any means rationing or making things in any way worse.