In the summer of 2017 a report was published, ‘Communities First—Lessons Learnt’, and that was by the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, of which I am a member. Recommendation 4 of the report stated:

'We strongly recommend that a clear tackling poverty strategy is published, which brings together the many strands of poverty reduction work to help provide clear direction and to help the Assembly scrutinise the Government’s approach. The strategy should include clear performance indicators to ensure effective performance management, as well as setting out a broader evidence base to help underpin effective evaluation of different approaches to tackling poverty.'

The Welsh Government rejected that recommendation. The committee’s response was this:

'We remain disappointed that this recommendation has been rejected. We feel that a framework provided by a Strategy or Action Plan is absolutely essential to enable us to scrutinise whether Government policies are working. The key is a clear action plan, with performance indicators, which are disaggregated by area and gender…An action plan would also help demonstrate how well integrated the Welsh Government’s approach is, and ensure that cross-portfolio work is all working to the same goal.'

It is a scandal that this Government doesn’t have a clear strategy for eradicating poverty. The Government’s stubbornness suggests one of two things. One, that eradicating poverty is not a priority, or that they don’t truly believe that it’s possible to eradicate poverty and that failing to reach targets would be a signal of failure, and therefore it’s better not to have any targets at all and not to have a plan. In terms of the child poverty strategy—yes, there is a strategy, but it appears that that has remained static since 2015.

I turn now to the issue of the school uniform grant, and the Government has announced that they intend to scrap this grant at a time when children and families are fighting against the increasing challenges of all kinds that they’re facing. In Gwynedd, thanks to the Plaid Cymru policy, the council will continue to provide this crucially important grant, despite the cut from Government. More than 800 children will continue to receive support from the council in order to assist parents who have difficulty in meeting the financial demands of school uniforms.

I am very proud that Gwynedd Council has been able to continue to provide this grant that so many families rely on. A total of 842 young people were supported in Gwynedd during 2016-17. At that time, they were supported through the Welsh Government too, but that support is to be scrapped. But the support will continue in Gwynedd, and more than 800 pupils will be able to benefit from that. The council is doing that because one of the founding principles of Plaid Cymru is to support disadvantaged children, young people and families. School uniforms are crucial items, not 'nice-to-haves'.

Gwynedd Council has also scrapped zero-hours contracts for all staff, apart from those who wish to have such contracts, and have introduced the living wage universally. That's what Plaid Cymru does when we hold the levers of power and where we are in government.

So, to conclude, we need action—we need urgent action. This afternoon, Plaid Cymru has proposed a number of practical ways that could be adopted. The first thing that needs to be done is to draw up a strategic plan to eradicate poverty. Elements of welfare could be devolved so that we could create a more humane system. A package of childcare could be created, which includes parents who are unemployed as well as those in work, in order to provide equal access to early years education. We should scrap zero-hours contracts in public services and introduce the living wage.

Those are just a few ideas that could be implemented immediately if there was the will here to do so. Thank you.