Can I declare an interest at the start of this debate as a school governor at St Brigid’s School in Denbighshire? I want to thank the Minister for his opening speech. I think it is reassuring to know that he is listening to the concerns not just of the committees, but to the many other stakeholders who have been in touch with him in recent months. And I want to extend my thanks to him for the engagement that he’s had with me as an opposition spokesperson also.

This has been a very difficult job for the children and young people’s committee in terms of looking at all of the evidence. We’ve received, obviously, a very large volume of evidence, but we were hindered, in part as a result of a lack of timely information from the Welsh Government on a number of fronts—first of all, the late publication of the draft code and that not being available at the very start of the scrutiny process. Some of the poor quality of some of the financial information, which has already been referred to by the chair of the Finance Committee—it was corrected once during the process. We’ve since had further representations from SNAP Cymru about the cost of dispute resolution. We had information, as well, late in the day, about the role of the designated educational clinical leads and how many other people might need to support them in their role, particularly in very large health boards. And I think that that did make our job more difficult in terms of trying to understand where the Welsh Government was coming from in many respects.

There was also, of course, this lack of information on the pilots. We heard some good evidence from Carmarthenshire that things had improved there under the new arrangements that were being trialled, but we didn’t see any independent evaluations of that at all. We know that there have been other pilots that still are yet to take place, and I think the lack of information on that was a concern. So, I hope very much that you’ll be accepting recommendation 25, and that we’ll be getting more information on those in the future.

But I just wanted to touch on some of the things that I want to see improved upon in the Bill going forward, and I know, as I said earlier on, that the Minister is hoping to move forward with these. First of all, on medical needs, I think an amendment to the definition in the Bill could and should be made, and I’m pleased that the Minister has open ears to being able to do that, because we do know that, even though the Minister’s issued some draft statutory guidance for medical needs and meeting those in schools, that guidance doesn’t extend to the early years, and it doesn’t extend from beyond compulsory school age right up to 25, which, of course, the ALN Bill quite rightly does. So, I am concerned about that. I’m also concerned, as well, that home to school transport arrangements haven’t fully featured enough in either the draft code—and they certainly don’t feature on the Bill, and perhaps the Minister can tell us how he expects those to be considered in the future. But we did hear lots of evidence on those medical needs, particularly from Diabetes UK, from epilepsy organisations, and others, about the particular needs of people in the classroom—learners who may need support.

The second thing that clearly needs to be addressed is redress. The redress system needs to be extended to cover NHS provision that might need to be in place. I was pleased to hear about the conversations that have been going on within Government about how that can best be achieved. I think the committee was clearly persuaded that the tribunal ought to have powers to direct NHS bodies in the future in order to make sure that adequate support was put in place for learners who needed support from the NHS—again, to have this single system of redress, rather than having to go through the ‘Putting Things Right’ process, which can be very long and protracted as far as patients are concerned, and then a separate system in terms of the educational tribunal for other disputes.

In respect of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it’s very clear that a precedent has been set in the National Assembly in the past, and by the Welsh Government, in accepting amendments to legislation, including the social services and well-being Act, that have put on the face of that Act references to UN conventions, including the convention on the rights of the child and, indeed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. So, I cannot accept, Minister, your rejection of our suggestion that they ought to be on the face of the Bill and that there ought to be due regard from all of those organisations that will have duties in the future under this new additional learning needs legislation. I very much hope that we will be able to persuade you, either at Stage 2 or at Stage 3, to shift your position in order to move on that, because this business of having a rights-based approach to legislation must run through all of our legislation, and, I think, why not repeat these things now and again on important pieces of legislation, particularly those that pertain directly to children and young people?

Just finally, if I may, on the Welsh language, we’ve made some key recommendations on the Welsh language, and I know that you want to improve the provisions for the Welsh language. We’ve got to emphasise the choice of learners and the choice of parents more in the legislation. That balance isn’t there at the moment. It simply means that decisions will be made, at the moment, by NHS bodies, schools and FEIs, and I don’t think that’s good enough. So, I look forward hearing the contribution at the end of the debate.