I call for a single statement on the number of pupils being taken out of school to be taught at home who are on the autism spectrum or with other additional learning needs. You might be aware that, last Friday, BBC Wales reported research showing that the number of pupils being taken out of school to be taught at home had doubled in the previous four years, with many of those pupils believed to be on the autistic spectrum. This follows previous revelations that the number of pupils in the school action and school action plus categories being excluded from school on short-term exclusions had doubled, whilst falling for the general school population.

We've heard concern in this context from the Children's Commissioner for Wales, who expressed a concern that some parents had told her they'd been encouraged to home educate because their child might be affecting the school or local authority performance data. We heard from the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales that families with autistic children lodged more appeals about the lack of support their child was receiving in school than those with other learning needs. And we heard from the National Autistic Society Cymru that a lot of parents are finding themselves in positions where they have no option, and the only thing they can do to help their children is to educate them at home, even though they might not feel fully equipped to do that or want to.

Now, I know you're going to tell me, or you might have been going to tell me, that the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, to be debated later, will be addressing this and overhauling the system for supporting learners, but the National Autistic Society Cymru has called for mandatory training in autism awareness in schools, recognising that the very same people in schools who are currently getting it so wrong with these children are likely to be the people who will have a major influence on their individual development plans in the future. I do therefore hope that you will find time for the Welsh Government to provide a statement on this very important piece of work by BBC Wales.