Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement and for the briefing that you shared with me and other spokespeople prior to today. Can I say that I welcome your statement? I think that it's a balanced approach. I think it's one that, in my view, addresses many of the concerns that have been raised in this Chamber on a number of occasions about ensuring that there is adequate support available to parents and other guardians who home educate their children. I'm pleased also to hear you, on behalf of the Government, reaffirming your commitment to the right of parents to home educate their children, to take them out of the school system.

I have to say, though, that there are some issues that I just think I'd like you to clarify for me. You issued guidance just 12 months ago—non-statutory guidance—for local authorities to follow. I'm not aware of any assessment of the impact of that guidance and whether it was actually delivering any change in terms of levels of support for parents and for children who are educated other than in a school setting. Will you be able to share an evaluation with Assembly Members of your assessment of the effectiveness of that guidance? Because I do think that jumping into a statutory guidance position without showing us the evidence that the existing non-statutory guidance hasn't worked is perhaps a little premature.

We know also, Cabinet Secretary, that many parents choose to home educate their children because they're not satisfied with the schooling that they can get in their local authority schools. We've heard evidence that pupils and learners with additional learning needs are not getting adequate support from their local authorities and that that is causing many of them, even with the ALN support system that is there, to withdraw their children. We know also that some parents, because they are concerned about the standards in local schools, are withdrawing their children and choosing to educate them in a different way. I wonder whether this new system, this new database system, will incorporate any views from parents and perhaps from pupils on the reasons that they have withdrawn their children from the state system, because I think that would give us an insight, really, into whether this is a particular issue in terms of standards in our schools that's leading to this particular phenomenon, because we have seen a rise in the number of home-educated children in recent years.

I do think you're absolutely right to have an approach that looks at extending children's rights, if you like. I know that the children's commissioner has spoken about her concerns about the lack of going to a full compulsory registration system, but I disagree with the children's commissioner on that. One thing I do agree with the children's commissioner about is that we need to realise children's rights. Effectively, you're wanting to extend those rights, it seems to me, to ensure that there's access to additional learning needs support, access to learning the Welsh language, and access to some of the other technology and support that's available to learners that wouldn't otherwise be available to learners who were educated at home. It would be good to know that you've actually assessed your decision against the children's rights impact assessments that all ministerial decisions are supposed to be screened through, if you like. I'd be grateful if you could let us know and confirm that there has been a children's rights impact assessment in respect of the decision that you've announced to the Chamber today.

Is there a timetable for the implementation of all of this work? You didn't allude specifically to a timetable in terms of the announcements you've made. I'd be grateful to know precisely when you expect to have completed your consultation with the various stakeholders and when we can expect some further significant development in terms of an actually statutory set of guidelines to be made available and published, and from when you expect those to be implemented. I'd also be interested in the costs that might arise from this, both for the Welsh Government and indeed local authorities. Again, there's no financial information in your statement. I assume that there's been some sort of financial impact assessment, particularly if you're going to be issuing statutory guidance. It would be interesting to see the results of that.

But, as I say, on balance, I think you've gotten it about right. I think both sides of the argument here, those who don't want compulsory registration and those who do, will feel dissatisfied, frankly, from the statement that you've made today. But, you're right to focus on the obligations that local authorities already have to make sure that people are receiving an appropriate education where they are of compulsory school age. I believe, frankly, that the best local authorities have already adopted this sort of approach that you are hoping to roll out and make consistent across the country. So, I welcome your statement, but I look forward to your answers to my questions.