Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 27 February 2018.
May I also welcome the fact that the agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Government on the budget secured these additional resources for Mudiad Meithrin? But I would disagree to a certain extent with the point that Suzy Davies made, because the evidence shows that if you do go to Welsh-medium preschool education, then you’re far more likely to go on to Welsh-medium education than if you don’t.
We are talking here of the Government’s strategy to secure a million Welsh speakers by 2050, but I would like to refer specifically to the childcare offer that the Government is now developing, and the crucial role that that has in ensuring that as many children as possible in that preschool age group are caught within the Welsh-medium continuum rather than starting their education journey outwith that continuum, because, once you’ve lost them in those early years, the great likelihood is that they won’t come into Welsh-medium education and that they won’t become bilingual.
So, may I ask how you are ensuring that all children will have access to Welsh-medium services in terms of the childcare offer and also the need to ensure that there is sufficient workforce in place to secure that provision?