Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 13 December 2017.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:51, 13 December 2017

The Member will be aware that, this summer, the Welsh Government funded the school holiday enrichment programme, or the lunch and fun programme, predominantly aimed at disadvantaged children so that they could access educational provision and a hot meal during the school holidays. That programme has been very successful, and we hope to be able to fund even more local authorities next summer to be able to offer those opportunities. We continue to support those families that are foster caring with additional advice on how they can make an impact.

But what's really important to remember—if you listen to children who are looked after, what they tell you time and time again is that they don't want to be stigmatised and they don't want to be seen to be treated any differently from their cohorts, and that's really important to those children. We are supporting them within mainstream education—not singling them out, but giving those schools additional resources to help those children's education. Importantly, we're seeing results, because results are improving for that group of learners.