I'll keep my remarks brief, Deputy Presiding Officer, because many people have made the points that I wanted to make. But I would just say to the Cabinet Secretary: this is another fine mess you have gotten yourself into. We had hoped, I think, many of us in this Chamber, that you would have learned your lesson in terms of the lack of consultation over the way in which you scrapped the MEAG grant, and this, I'm afraid, is another example, because there has been absolutely no engagement with stakeholders prior to you making this decision to scrap this grant. You've scrambled around looking for an alternative in terms of some provision to hide the embarrassment of the fact that you failed to have this consultation. It may well be that the successor scheme is a better scheme, but you could have announced that at the same time. We all know the reality is you didn't have it up your sleeve to announce because you had to scramble around trying to sort this out after you'd already made the previous decision.

As has already been said, we're in a situation now where many parents are struggling to pay for uniforms. We know that the current guidance that is going out to local authorities and to schools is not being upheld. Nobody's holding schools accountable for the way in which they expect parents to buy their uniforms, and frankly as well we might well encourage people to buy generic products, shirts, trousers, skirts, whatever it might be, from local supermarkets, but the quality of some of those goods is really very, very poor, and it means that they have to be replaced on a more frequent basis. So, those people who were in receipt of this sort of support in the past are even more reliant on it now with those rising costs, and that's why we're supporting the Plaid Cymru motion today.

So I think what I'm looking for is some certainty about this successor scheme from you today. We need to draw a line in the sand in terms of the mess that you've made and try to make sure that the successor scheme is one that works, is one that people aren't embarrassed to access, and is one that is generous enough to make a real difference to the families that might need to access that support. Lynne Neagle is quite right—it's not just about the cost of uniforms these days. Many schools are introducing charges for textbooks, which they've not previously been charging for. Many schools have got curriculum enrichment activities outside of school hours that previously were free, which now people are having to pay for as well. So, we know the pressures that there are in terms of funding, but this is a matter of priority, I think, and the way in which the decision was clearly made on a unilateral basis has not been acceptable at all. I do hope that, with this successor scheme, there will be a wide-ranging consultation with everybody, so that we can get it right, so that we can help to shape it in a way that will make a big difference, which will support those families and those parents who need the support.