Questions now from the party spokespeople. The UKIP spokesperson, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Presiding Officer, and good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary. The report into the future of the sex and relationships education curriculum in Wales says that, at the moment, the success of SRE too often rests on the interests and enthusiasm of individual teachers or school leaders with SRE/personal and social education responsibilities. In this area, knowledge itself isn't an indicator of success. An unplanned teen pregnancy isn't necessarily caused by a lack of information or understanding, and a child or young person may be fully aware that abuse is being inflicted upon them but not able to do anything to stop it. How are you measuring the success of current SRE, and how will you measure success in the future?

Thank you for that question. On coming into office, I was concerned that current SRE provision is not as good as it should be, and listening to children and young people, as I travel around schools in Wales, they have been very clear with me that the current SRE provision often doesn't meet their individual needs. That's why I commissioned Professor Emma Renold of Cardiff University, who is an international expert in these matters, to compile an independent report. That report has now been given to me. We are considering the recommendations of how we can improve current provision of SRE and how we can ensure that our new curriculum meets the needs of children and young people. 

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. In the same report, it says that, even before school, children receive messages about gender, sexuality and relationships from a wide variety of sources, for example advertising, books, social media, television and family members, et cetera. I'd say that a majority of these are either under the control of parents or can be under the control of parents, particularly those parents of preschool children. Surely, it's the parents' right to bring up their child in accordance with their values and beliefs? So, I'd just like to ask the Cabinet Secretary whether parents will continue to have the right to opt their child out of SRE if they feel that that SRE curriculum isn't appropriate for their child? 

Well, of course, parents have rights and responsibilities, but, sometimes, the issues that you're talking about are beyond a parent's control. I remember only too well, when my own children were very small, going into a very well-known high street retailer to find in that shop the dressing up costumes for doctors were in the boys' toy section and the dressing up section for girls had a nurse's costume. These, sometimes, are beyond parental control. 

With regard to the role and the compulsory nature of sex and relationship education going forward, I have received a very clear recommendation from Emma Renold. The report that's she's developed for me is under consideration, and I hope it won't be too long before I come to this Chamber with my full response to that report, outlining how we intend to improve relationship and sexuality education for all our children and young people in Wales. 

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. 

Parents, particularly of preschool children, are understandably going to be concerned about what the content of the SRE curriculum is going to be. There are going to be parents who, for religious reasons and various other reasons, may find the content of the curriculum unpalatable. So, I suppose my final question has two parts to it really. How much input are parents going to have into the new curriculum and if a parent—. Sorry, that's my question: how much input are parents going to have into that curriculum?

I'm still uncomfortable with this thing—that you don't want to say whether parents are going to have the right to opt their child out, because the ultimate ability for a parent to opt their child out of a part of the curriculum that they don't like is to withdraw their child from the school and home school the child. That's going to have a detrimental effect, particularly on women, who are going to be left looking after the child when, otherwise, they could have been in schools. So, how are you going to get round that? 

I don't want to pre-empt the final discussions and decisions that I will make with regard to that report. And I have given a commitment here this afternoon, Michelle, that, having done that, I will come back to the Chamber with a full statement on how we intend to develop policy in this area.

I have to say, we don't allow parents to take their children out of maths lessons, or English language lessons, and what I hear from children and young people is that they feel this is a really important aspect of their education, which we need to get right for them. Of course, that has to be delivered in an age-appropriate way and in a way that is accessible even to our youngest children. And I don't believe there's a child too young to start to talk about relationships, being safe, consent and what that means.  

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Llyr Gruffydd. 

Diolch, Llywydd. 

Plaid Cymru opposes University UK's proposed pension reforms and we support the University and College Union lecturers' strikes. Do you support the UCU action against pension cuts? 

Well, Llyr, I have met with both UK-wide officials of UCU as well as Welsh representation, and I continue to be in correspondence with them. Unfortunately, because of the bad weather in Cardiff on Saturday, I was unable to attend the UCU conference, because the conference was cancelled. Officials keep in close touch with both the employers and the employees, and I have, at every opportunity, urged the employers to get back around the table to discuss these concerns because it is of huge concern to me that any student should be disrupted, and I do have sympathy with those members who are seeing potentially significant changes to their pensions, and I understand why they are duly concerned. Unfortunately, the employers are individual organisations, but whatever Welsh Government can do to get those parties around the table to find a solution to this problem, then we will do that.

I'm glad to hear that you've made representations to the UK Government. Clearly, UCU has said that their colleagues in many other European countries in post-1992 universities, schools, FE colleges, the NHS and Government all have their pensions underwritten and guaranteed by the state of course, and they're asking why UK pre-1992 universities should have a pension scheme with no Government guarantee. So, I'd be interested in knowing what representations you've made to the UK Government and, indeed, what interventions you called for from them in this respect.

As I've said, Llyr, we have urged all parties involved to get around the table, and I was encouraged by the decision for parties to get back around the negotiation table and to have that work assisted by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. I think that gives us the best chance of finding a solution here to this significant problem. As I said, the direct role that Welsh Government can play in this is somewhat limited, but we will use any of our ability to influence to make sure that these talks are successful, and I continue to talk with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales to ensure that any disruption to individual students are kept to an absolute minimum.

Clearly, there's an economic aspect to this action, but I believe there's a moral issue at stake here as well, because all of this is happening to a backdrop of vice-chancellors, of course, enjoying astronomical salaries that put the salaries of the First Minister and even the Prime Minister at Westminster in the shade. Indeed, it was recently revealed that around £8 million was paid in expenses to top university executives just in the last two years. You've previously said that there should be restraint in senior pay and there should also be a focus on the lower end of the pay scale. So, how does all of that tally with these pension proposals, which are actually seen as a direct attack on the working conditions of those staff?

Well, Llyr, I would reiterate that stance here today. I do expect restraint from my vice-chancellors in Welsh universities, and you will be aware that HEFCW, working with the sector, have published a report regarding pay levels in Welsh universities, and our vice-chancellors are not out of kilter with those across the UK. But in terms of social justice, what's really important to me is that the lowest paid workers in this sector are treated fairly and that's why I'm delighted that Wales's higher education institutions and our sector will become the first part of the sector in the United Kingdom to pay the real living wage to all of their workers. We continue to negotiate that across all aspects of those people working in Welsh higher education, including those working in the Llandudno office of the student loans company.

The Conservative spokesperson, Darren Millar.

Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, research shows that the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller community have the lowest attainment rates of any ethnic group in Wales when it comes to their education. Tell us, why did you scrap the education improvement grant, which was designed to support and increase the attainment rates amongst this particular group?

Presiding Officer, I have not scrapped the education improvement grant.

As you know, you have redistributed the education improvement grant—the minority ethnic achievement grant element of that—into the revenue support grant for local authorities, and they claim that they can find no trace of it within the lines within the budgets that they have been given by the Welsh Government. They reckon that around £13 million has gone missing from the education allocation that they have received from the Welsh Government and that it's having a significant impact on their ability to meet the education needs of the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller community, and, indeed, other ethnic minority communities that need specific and additional support. What are you doing to put their concerns to rest?

The Member will be aware that a number of grants were rolled into the education improvement grant four years ago. Part of that was called 'MEAG', which is there to support the education of minority ethnic groups, and there was a separate grant scheme to support Gypsies and Travellers. The Member is not wrong to say that we need to redouble our efforts with regard to outcomes for Gypsy/Traveller children. Where we have seen significant improvement in the educational attainment of all but one minority ethnic group, Gypsy/Traveller attainment is still a cause of concern to me.

The Member is correct to say that as a contribution to moneys made available to the local education authority via the revenue support grant, the education improvement grant was added as a contribution. I've recognised that for some local authorities that has meant, because of different ways of distribution, they may have been put at a disadvantage. Therefore, I have made available £5 million to right that disadvantage for Cardiff, for Newport and for Swansea, and we will make an additional £2.5 million available over this new financial year to the regional consortia to work with lead local authorities, including Wrexham in north Wales, so that we can ensure that we can get better outcomes for these children.  

So, that £7.5 million, which you've suggested, you're going to make available primarily to three local authorities that happen to be Labour authorities in south Wales, with very little left for the rest of the nation. The reality is that every single local authority in Wales has young people who need this sort of support. So, I ask you again: when will you ensure that there are adequate resources available to each of the local authorities across Wales, whether they be in north Wales, mid Wales, west Wales or south Wales, to ensure that they can meet the needs of not only the Gypsy/Traveller community, but also those other ethnic minority communities that may need additional support with their learning? 

Well, Darren, as I've said, all local authorities will have benefited from the contribution of EIG going into RSG. I have recognised that, for some local authorities, changes in the distribution formula have had a negative effect. The reality is, Darren, that those three local authorities are affected because that is where the density of the population is, and therefore it is unsurprising that those authorities would be Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, because that's where we find the majority of those students living. On top of that, as I've said, we will give resources in this financial year to regional consortia across the piece to be able to develop policy and support in this area. It is true to say, for instance, that some of the most successful interventions are actually already run at a consortia level or by an individual local authority for the entire region, but I recognise that for this group of children, there is more to be done. But let me say: it's not fair to roll all children from a minority ethnic background into one particular case. Welsh Chinese children, Welsh Indian children, Welsh Pakistani children, Welsh Bangladeshi children all perform at or above the Welsh average.