Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 31 January 2018.
We know from figures provided by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists that over 50 per cent of children from socially deprived backgrounds may be starting school with impoverished communication, language and speech skills. Now, do you therefore share the Children's Commissioner for Wales's concerns that limiting the Government's childcare offer to only children of working parents, and not extending it to all children, actually risks widening that school-readiness gap amongst the socially deprived group that I referred to earlier?