Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary.

Recent Estyn reports have noted that, in terms of quality leadership in schools, there has been a lack of succession planning, a limited number of well-tailored professional development opportunities for senior and middle-level leaders and teachers and that school leadership is not being considered an attractive profession. Estyn inspections identified only a small number of schools as having excellent practice in leadership and planning for improvement. I'm sure that these statements are not news to you; you've acted on them to create the academy, and I welcome the creation of that academy, because its focus on developing and supporting leadership is a good step. However, this broad welcome must come with some caveats. Any initiatives must be cost-effective and also effective in terms of the results that they deliver. In terms of ensuring effectiveness, I very much welcome the appointment of former chief inspector of schools, Ann Keane, to, amongst other things, oversee the instigation of the academy. Ann has a great breadth of experience acquired from working as a teacher herself, including in schools in England. She's also delivered extremely detailed and helpful material during her time with Estyn.

In terms of funding and costs, Estyn's roadshow report in October 2017 stated that there was uncertainty around whether the academy can have sufficient leverage without managing all leadership development funding. So, that's one thing that I would like to ask you: how is that funding going to be managed and how is it going to be controlled? The attendees were concerned about sufficient funding for leadership development and suitable management of it. However, on the other hand, there's also a concern about taxpayers receiving value for money and the costs of the academy being proportionate. We don't want funding of this programme to take significant funding away from front-line teaching services, and I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary would agree with me on that.

The Cabinet Secretary discusses the need for the academy to have a big online presence. What are the forecast costs associated with achieving the online presence the Cabinet Secretary has in mind? I'd also like to ask the Cabinet Secretary what mechanisms of scrutiny and review does she have in place to ensure that the costs associated with the National Academy for Educational Leadership remain proportionate and deliver value for money. A concern that's also been raised is the relatively small number of women in senior leadership roles in the education system, which is surprising, given the number of women who actually go into teaching. Will the academy address this and how do you see the academy addressing it?

It's also intended that the academy endorses provision from providers. I'm assuming that you mean there that it's going to be training, professional development, et cetera. I think that is a good idea; it makes sense. But how is she going to ensure that leaders and teachers wishing to take advantage of that provision have the time to make the most of them? And how are you going to ensure that leaders and teachers have the time out of their working day to develop their leadership skills? Or is this something that they're going to be expected to do in their personal hours, as is so often the case with CPD? Thank you.