1. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide a statement on the progression of the childcare offer for Wales? OAQ(5)0148(CC)

I thank the Member for his question. Our childcare offer will provide working parents of three and four-year-olds with 30 hours of Government-funded education and childcare for up to 48 weeks of the year. We will begin to test the offer in specific areas of seven local authorities in September.

Thank you for that response. As you know, a pilot scheme of the programme is being introduced in parts of Swansea, and local parents are obviously very pleased to see that happening. However, many of the pilot areas, including Pontarddulais and Gorseinon, are specific growth areas within the county. Can you ensure that you are taking the population increase into account as you introduce the programme, and how this impacts on the ability of the sector to deliver locally?

Of course, and we’re engaged with the sector. I am delighted that, in Swansea, there are many areas that are covered by this pilot and this will be a good spread of areas to test across schools sites and private day nursery settings. We will learn from this as we move forward, and I’m looking forward to the test areas starting in September in the new term.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Cabinet Secretary, one of the concerns that have been raised is around the capacity of the workforce to meet this challenge of providing the additional childcare. It’s an ambition that you and I both share in terms of increasing the availability of childcare, but particularly Welsh-medium childcare provision in traditionally non-Welsh speaking areas. What actions, specifically, are you taking to ensure that the childcare offer is available through both of our official languages in Wales?

There is a plethora of offers that we are currently considering. There is a test pilot—a joint scheme between Gwynedd and Anglesey—exploring opportunities both in English and Welsh-medium settings. There is an issue with the workforce and making sure we’ve got capacity as we move forward, and that’s the benefit of a roll-out, as we’re doing here in Wales. In England—we’ve learnt lessons from some of the issues that they’ve experienced there with the quick introduction of a system where there wasn’t capacity in the system to deliver. We’ve taken note of that, and that’s why we’re having a phased approach.

A good childcare offer is, of course, crucial to supporting women into work, and perhaps the Cabinet Secretary would join me in welcoming Neath Soroptimist International to the Senedd today, which does so much to support girls and women in my area and beyond. Childcare is only one part of the key offer that we need to make to young families. The other, as programmes like Flying Start acknowledge, is support with parenting. Countries such as Australia have pioneered evidence-based, broadly accessible parenting support programmes like Triple P, which can be delivered by care assistants, teachers or other disciplines. What steps is the Government taking to ensure that an evidence-based parenting support programme is widely available to young parents in Wales?

Of course, and I place on record my welcome to Neath Soroptimists, as well, in the Chamber today. I think the Member raises a really important point about the joined-up approach of delivery of services. The childcare pledge is not just about thinking of somewhere safe for a child to be for a certain amount of hours per day. This is about the ability to enhance their opportunities in life. Our Families First and Flying Start programmes, childcare pledges and our educational programmes such as the foundation phase all link in to a better opportunity for people as they move forward, and these are some of the conundrums that the pilot will start to tease out in terms of delivery mechanisms.