1. Beth y mae Llywodraeth Cymru'n ei wneud i hybu sgiliau iaith a chyfathrebu ymhlith disgyblion? OAQ51657

Thank you, Joyce. Making sure that all learners develop excellent language and communication skills is a key part of our national mission for education in Wales. Our national literacy and numeracy programme, and its key policies, including the national literacy and numeracy framework, are targeting literacy interventions, supporting us to achieve this aim.

I particularly want to welcome the Time to Talk, Listen and Play campaign that was launched last week by Welsh Government. We all know that helping children have an early grasp of language is hugely important not only as they progress through school, but through life and into the workplace. I really am a huge supporter of this programme, because I think that initiatives like this, which help children to learn through what they regard as fun rather than an educational setting, really will give them the very best start in education. And I'd be interested, Cabinet Secretary, if you would give us an outturn and an update in 12 months' time to see how this programme has been effective.

Thank you, Joyce. I'm glad that you like the Time to Talk campaign. I'm sure Members across the Chamber—well, hopefully, Members across the Chamber—will have seen the adverts on television and the materials that are available on social media. I think they're really engaging and fun, and they stress the importance to parents of the huge impact they can have by taking the time to talk to your children. To further strengthen early language and communication provision across Wales, we are investing £890,000 in foundation phase oracy programmes in 2017-18. That includes funding for the Time to Talk campaign, but also to fund the four regional educational consortia to work with schools to improve language development in the foundation phase.

Cabinet Secretary, I have for many years been a member of the governing body of Meadowbank Special School, which is a school that delivers educational services for children with speech and language learning difficulties. It's been at its site in Gabalfa for over 40 years and was foremost in developing best practice in this area, not least with its parents and teachers doing so much to establish Afasic in the 1970s. I am gravely worried about Afasic's closure in Wales and what's going to happen to those skills, information and support that's been made available to parents, to teachers. I do hope that your officials will be monitoring this very, very carefully, and perhaps talking to your colleagues in the Welsh Government to ensure that a way is found that essential infrastructure, like charities such as Afasic, are kept going, because it's a great service they provide.

First of all, can I thank you, David, for your service as a governor of this school? Like you, I am disappointed that Afasic Cymru trustees have decided to end their charitable status within Wales, although I understand they will continue to work at a UK level. I can give you an absolute assurance that I will be asking my officials to monitor very carefully the impact the closure of the charity will have, and to look to ways in which we can work across Government and across the voluntary sector,= to support those families whose children need additional help and support developing their language and communication skills.

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?

Llyr, I do recognise that these issues can be particularly acute in those communities and for families where there are high levels of social deprivation, which is why, as I said, we will be spending over £800,000 this year to develop our Time to Talk programme, so that we can work with families. Of course, the free childcare offer to working parents is just one of the schemes that the Welsh Government runs, and you'll be aware of the work of Families First and Flying Start, which are particularly targeted interventions at those families and communities that need the help the most, which include a childcare element of that, as well as working alongside parents to help parents do the best job that they can do in encouraging these skills in their youngsters before they start formal education.