Aled’s report provides 18 recommendations for the future development of the WESPs. I will be accepting all of the recommendations. This process has given me an independent overview of what needs to change, and how we can implement those changes in the most inclusive way. Aled provided us with a review of each local authority’s WESP. In early August, I wrote to each local authority to share these comments. My officials have worked closely with local authorities during the past month in order to amend, support and challenge these plans. We are expecting to receive the revised WESPs during the coming weeks.

Aled’s report also offers recommendations for developing the future planning of Welsh-medium education. These include reviewing the timetable of the WESPs to coincide with the Welsh Government’s capital schemes, specifically the twenty-first century schools programme, and capital investment should be targeted to ensure a correlation between pre-school and schools programmes. Secondly, a panel should be established, or a board, to discuss and evaluate the changes needed in terms of the legislation and regulations prior to their introduction to the Assembly. Thirdly, strengthening the strategic relationship between local authorities and Mudiad Meithrin in order to ensure growth at local authority level that will contribute towards the Welsh Government’s targets on the journey to 2050. Also, simplifying the process of linguistic categorisation for schools; and urgent planning and action in order to increase the number of teachers trained to teach through the medium of Welsh.

Llywydd, one of the recommendations was to establish a board and I want to move ahead to ensure that representatives from all sectors of education are part of this board. I have said many times that the Welsh Government can’t do this in isolation, and everybody who has a role in educating our young people must be a part of this journey.

Plans for capital investment for Welsh-medium schools will be central to the growth of Welsh-medium education. Aligning the information provided within the WESPs with local authority business cases for capital funding will ensure consistency. We have already ensured that the next band of capital investment takes into account the Welsh Government’s vision for 1 million Welsh speakers, and early drafts of the local authorities’ plans look promising. But let me be clear: I will not agree to any plan that does not show ambition. I will continue the dialogue with local authorities until we have plans that reflect the ambitions set out in ‘Cymraeg 2050’.

It is important to note that the school population projections suggest that numbers will be fairly static over the next 10 to 20 years, and so these amended plans will need to consider innovative solutions to expand provision. This is not just about opening new schools. The Government, with the support and guidance of the board, will also be exploring options for the linguistic categorisation of schools in order to provide greater clarity regarding the level of Welsh-medium provision available within a given school.

Another obvious challenge will be to ensure that we have sufficient numbers in the education workforce to achieve the expansion that we’re aiming for. The Cabinet Secretary for Education announced some weeks ago her intention to invest £4.2 million from the education budget to develop the workforce able to teach through the medium of Welsh. This will include extending the sabbatical scheme—£1.2 million—and extending the role of the education consortia with £2 million.  

Therefore, although we have begun our journey to implement the changes necessary to grow Welsh-medium education, I am in no doubt that more needs to be done. We must legislate to strengthen and we must look in greater detail at the existing structures, the role of the consortia and how we develop a clear and effective way of identifying the demand for Welsh-medium education.

Llywydd, in line with our commitment to respond to the ambitious challenges we face in the long term to achieve 1 million Welsh speakers, I, as Minister, will continue to work in partnership with local authorities and other key stakeholders to ensure that the Welsh in education strategic plans work for the whole of Wales. Thank you very much.