Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I want to focus my comments on the need to ensure equal access for children to early-years education. I will start by sharing a statistic with you: over half of children from disadvantaged areas in Wales will start school with deficient communication skills. Indeed, children from the poorest 20 per cent of the population, by the time they are three years old, will be almost a year and a half behind the better-off children in terms of language development. Think about that; when you’re just three years old, you’re already 18 months behind. This is important, because this is one of the most certain measures of the outlooks for individuals later in life. Weak skills, in terms of communication and vocabulary, have a huge impact on lifelong outcomes in terms of behaviour, mental health, preparedness for school and employment too.

Bethan made reference earlier to the justice system and young people within the justice system. Sixty per cent of the young people on the youth justice estate have communication difficulties. Almost 90 per cent of young men who have been unemployed in the long term have communication and vocabulary problems. Without effective communication, a third of children will need treatment for mental health problems when they become adults. The evidence is clear that the provision of early-years education of a high quality, available to all, is the best way of bringing children out of poverty—and that’s what Plaid Cymru wants to see.