7. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education: Digital Skills and Coding

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:20 pm on 1 May 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 6:20, 1 May 2018

The reason I looked at Lee Waters was because Lee and I continue to have these discussions because he doesn't just let it drop—he doesn't do his five minutes of glory in the Chamber and then forget about an issue. I'm sure nobody does that, actually; I'm sure no Member ever gets up and says something in the Chamber and then forgets all about it once they've left and they've had their two minutes for their press release. Lee, actually, continues to bother me on a regular basis about this issue outside the limelight of the Chamber, and I'm grateful for his insights.

It's clear to me that we have a way to go in ensuring the true spirit of the DCF is embedded throughout our curriculum. There are a number of things we need to do about that. We need to ensure that schools know where they are at the moment, and that's why I would urge all schools to use the DCF mapping tool that is available on Hwb, and the professional learning needs tool, which will help schools plan their provision and develop a digital vision.

I continue to liaise with the National Digital Learning Council to give me advice on what more we can do to ensure that schools are using these resources and that schools are really thinking about, and planning, for the needs of the DCF. But crucially, professional learning is a key part of that, and that's why, for instance, we continue at the moment to use our LiDW continuing professional development grant, which is in phase 2. That money continues to be available via the regional consortia. It provides a focus on a range of activities, including support for practitioners in school to develop their confidence and competence in using a range of digital resources and tools through the LiDW programme. It's providing capacity for expert digital leader support, which co-ordinates work in schools with the regional consortia. It's actively promoting digital citizenship in relation to safe and responsible use of technology—that's something that hasn't been discussed so far in the Chamber, but it's actually an important part of the digital competence framework: it's not only giving young people the skills but knowing how to use those responsibly and to keep themselves safe while they're online. So, that grant is available to consortia, and its primary focus is to develop skills, competence and confidence.

With regard to Hwb+, this decision has been welcomed by those outside of Government who are knowledgeable in this field, who provide advice in this field, and it's based on an ever-developing understanding of what resources work best in schools, and it reflects feedback. That's not to say that everything in Hwb+ was bad—I'm not saying that—but the contract has come to an end, and that's when the contract was due to come to an end. It gives Government and Ministers an opportunity to reflect on the best way forward. We have taken a decision that that platform is not the optimum platform that we need, going forward, to support teachers. We've been very clear about what schools need to do to migrate their data, and we have provided support for that to schools.

I have to say, Llyr, the feedback that my officials have had is that schools themselves have not raised any questions with us, or complained to us, about the removal of Hwb+. What we're giving them is a greater choice, and hopefully a greater level of easy interaction with the platform that will help them embed these facilities into their everyday practice. As I said, we've provided remote support to help schools transfer their data, and where schools have requested it, we have provided individual on-site support for those schools that have needed that level of support.

The issue of the schools—as with all of these things, you think you've cracked it, and everything is done. There is one school—and I have the name somewhere, but I will write to the Member with it—where an order has not been placed, so for all the other schools, orders have been placed with the suppliers, and that work is programmed to be done. But there is one outlying school, and we are working to look to see how we can address those needs.

Increasingly what is coming to the fore with schools is not the infrastructure outside the school, it is now infrastructure inside the school. And we do continue to receive complaints from schools who are struggling, but often on examination of that, it's problems within the school. That's why we're working with 180 schools at the moment to get a feel for what the constraints are and what the issues are that we need to tackle, so that we can look, once we've addressed speeds outside, at what we can do then to address infrastructure within schools to ensure that it is what it needs to be.