Questions now from party spokespeople. The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Llyr Gruffydd. 

Thank you, Llywydd. I’m sure the Minister will be aware that Carmarthenshire County Council has launched its strategic plan for Welsh in education this week, which is an ambitious plan and one that has been approved by the Welsh Government and it’s put the county on the road to increasing the number of Welsh speakers significantly. Of course, it will provide an opportunity for every pupil to be bilingual by the end of key stage 2, by the time that they leave primary school. Will you confirm to us, therefore, that you, as Minister, and the Welsh Government will give full support to Carmarthenshire council as they start this journey to implement the WESP, because it’s possible it won’t be comfortable at times, but, as they are working to achieve your ambition as a Government in terms of the number of Welsh speakers, would you please confirm that you will give all possible support under all circumstances for this strategy?

Well, may I say that I am supportive of what Carmarthenshire is doing, of course? Their report and their plans are set out clearly in the WESP that they’ve submitted to the Government and, of course, we support that. I opened a school in Llanelli, in Carmarthenshire, last week, which is a school that is transferring from being a non-Welsh school to being a bilingual school and going along that path. That’s exactly what we want to see, in a relatively deprived area. So, they’re actually taking the steps we wish to see. But it’s not just in Carmarthenshire, of course, we wish to see this happening; we’d like to see that replicated throughout the whole of Wales. There are still six WESPs that have not been approved, but we are actually pushing those counties to go along this path. So, everybody knows our objective, and, in order to attain that aim, everybody will have to move in the same direction. I do think that local government is much more aware now.

I didn’t quite hear an unequivocal confirmation that you will support the council. Maybe you can actually make that clear in answer to my next question, if you wish to do so.

At another extreme, in terms of your ambition in Wales to see growth in Welsh-medium education, many of us were shocked to see that Flintshire County Council last week had considered a possible option—and I’m pleased to say that they didn’t proceed with that ultimately—to scrap free school transport for pupils to Welsh-medium schools. It’s not a statutory requirement and we all know what the financial climate is at the moment, so this is a question that will arise year on year across 22 local authorities in Wales. Ultimately, that could mean that an authority will take that decision. So, my question to you is: rather than waiting for someone to make that possible decision and then trying to grapple with that, what is the Government currently doing, and what work are you doing with your fellow members of Government, to ensure that councils don’t take such steps, because that would not only undermine the provision of Welsh-medium education, but be entirely detrimental to Welsh-medium education in many counties in Wales?

May I say that I’m very pleased that Flintshire council didn’t go through with that proposal? The proposal didn't come from the council, but I’m very pleased that they have dismissed it. Of course, I do think it would have a detrimental effect on the numbers of children attending bilingual schools, if this transport wasn’t available. Of course, I would urge local councils to ensure that they do take this into consideration. It will be something that they will need to consider, and it may be something that we may ask the WESPs to set out clearly, and for those who are aware of what we wish to see in future, to ensure that they are aware that this is a consideration when they are submitting the new WESP for the next session. Of course, people have the right to Welsh-medium education, but we must ensure that it is easy for them to access that education.

Well, yes, and it’s important therefore, in terms of the WESPs, that, if you are talking about creating greater expectation, the regulation surrounding those WESPs reflects that aspiration and I would be very eager to see that happening. We know that Aled Roberts has been looking at this area and continues to work for Government in this area, and your predecessor—. And I’m sure you would wish to commend one of the recommendations that has been made, namely that we need to simplify the process of categorising schools in terms of language, which is something you referred to in the context of your visit to Carmarthenshire last week.

Now, I also read an article by Laura McAllister in the Western Mail over the weekend that discussed not only simplifying, but taking it further so that every primary school in Wales is bilingual and that every child starting secondary school at 11 is able to understand and communicate through the medium of both Welsh and English. That would accord with Plaid Cymru’s policy, but it would also reflect the recommendations made by Professor Sioned Davies’s report back in 2013—and I have raised this with you previously—namely that every child should learn the Welsh language as part of an educational continuum. So, can you give us an update on any progress that’s been made on that front by the Government? You’ve talked in the past about introducing some of this as part of the reforms happening around the curriculum, but I truly feel that we shouldn’t have to wait until the middle of the next decade until we see some of this being delivered, and that we should be doing more, as Carmarthenshire is currently doing, in beginning that journey now. So, can you tell us what progress the Government has made in that area?

I am most eager to ensure that we don’t wait until the new curriculum is introduced, because I don’t wish to lose another generation of children who won’t have the opportunity to receive a good education in Welsh as a second language. And so we must improve on the status quo, because you can have 13 years of Welsh lessons and come out at the other end speaking very little Welsh. So, we need to look at that, and that is why, last Friday, we held a symposium in Swansea by bringing experts together. We asked for a report from Swansea University and the University of Reading. They presented their ideas on how we can improve the methods of teaching a second language and what is the best practice throughout the world. Lots of people from all over Wales came together—those who are training through the medium of Welsh—and they were very pleased because this progressed Professor Sioned Davies’s report. She attended the meeting, and what she was saying was, 'Now there is evidence behind what I was recommending years ago'. 

So, today, I have requested a follow-up to know exactly what will now happen as a result of that symposium. We know exactly what needs to be done. We do know that we need to improve the teaching of Welsh as a second language. One of our greatest problems, of course, is to ensure that we have sufficient good Welsh teachers and tutors. So, although you would wish to see Laura McAllister’s ideas coming to fruition, the fact is we don’t have a sufficient number of teachers, and so we need to take this incrementally and ensure that we have a sufficient number of Welsh teachers and tutors. We are making a substantial effort in that regard, and we’re giving additional funding of £5,000 to people who are training through the medium of Welsh. 

Conservative spokesperson, Darren Millar.

Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, what action are you taking to improve public satisfaction in Welsh schools?

Darren, I'm sure that you are aware of 'Education in Wales: Our national mission', a mission that is to raise standards, close the attainment gap and ensure that we have an education system in Wales that is a source of national pride and enjoys public confidence. That's why we've embarked on this radical programme of education reform in this nation.

You'll be aware that the national survey for Wales was published last week, and it showed a significant deterioration in satisfaction levels amongst the public in our secondary schools in particular. So, it's quite clear that the public are rapidly losing confidence in your ability to deliver against the national mission that you have set. And it shouldn't come as a surprise, because we all know that last year we had our worst GCSE results in a decade, the last set of international tests that we participated in put us in the bottom half of the world rankings, and we're at the bottom of the UK league table in those PISA scores as well. And the number of Welsh students, of course, attending the UK's top universities has also plummeted by 10 per cent over the past three years. So, I'm sure that you would agree with me, Cabinet Secretary, that whatever you're doing at the moment simply isn't working and isn't building the confidence that you say you're trying to build. Why is it that Welsh learners are being left behind, and what on earth are you going to do about it?

Well, Darren, of course, when one in four parents expresses less than perfect satisfaction with their children's secondary education, then I want to see that figure improve. I want all parents in Wales to feel that their secondary schools are doing a good job by their pupils. That's why we are reforming our GCSEs; that's why we are reforming the way in which we train our teachers; that's why, in September, we will launch a national approach to professional learning for existing teachers; that's why we're investing record amounts of money in the pupil development grant to ensure that our poorest learners get what they need in our schools; that's why we have created the national leadership academy; and that's why, this summer, we will see the full first cohort of the Seren network taking their A-levels and going on to those top universities. We are embarked upon a radical set of education reforms, one that I am confident—and, more importantly, I believe the profession, and, I believe, the public can have confidence in—will deliver the step change in Welsh education that I agree that we need.

It's clearly a set of reforms that the public don't have confidence in, which is why satisfaction rates are plummeting under your watch as Cabinet Secretary. I noticed, Cabinet Secretary, that you didn't mention funding in your response, because we all know that school budgets are under significant pressure. Now, according to the NASWUT—they have said that the funding gap per pupil, per year, between England and Wales now stands at £678 per pupil. This is in spite of the fact that for every £1 spent on a school in England, the Welsh Government receives £1.20 to spend on schools here. Estyn, your own inspectorate, has warned you that funding is jeopardising schools' ability to deliver the new curriculum once it's going to be introduced. Now, do you accept that there's a lack of investment, that you need to do better in terms of getting money into the front line in our schools, and what are you going to do to make sure that schools have the resources to deliver the first-class education that our children deserve? 

Well, of course, Darren, I absolutely accept that there are funding pressures within the education system, because I have the unenviable task of having to make those tough choices, but I'm afraid this is what a Tory austerity agenda looks like. You cannot say on the one hand that you want austerity and on the other hand say you want further investment in our public services, when your colleagues in London are doing exactly the opposite. Presiding Officer, let me explain: over the term of this Assembly, we will invest £100 million to raise school standards. We will invest £2.4 billion in band B of our twenty-first century schools programme. We will invest, only this year, over £90 million in the pupil development grant, affecting the life chances of our most disadvantaged students. But I'm afraid I'm not going to be lectured by a Conservative politician whose mantra in another place is to cut public expenditure and not to invest.

UKIP spokesperson, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, I realise that you'll be reluctant to speak about a specific case, so I'm just using this as an illustration. I have a constituent who was told by the local council that her 11-year-old daughter would be expected to get on a school bus, then change onto a connecting public bus. to go to school some 15 to 20 miles away. It's probably not an uncommon story across Wales. A while ago, as well, I took a trip on public transport with a group of young people travelling from their high school back to their home. Although it was a great joy to meet with very sensible and bright young people, it was concerning, because an 11-year-old could have been asked to do that journey on their own. It involved coming into contact with busy roads and complete strangers, and decent and honest though the vast majority of fellow passengers will be on public transport, we do have a duty to safeguard children and young people, and I'm sure you'll agree with me there. So, what checks do you require local authorities and schools to undertake before subcontracting school transport, or deciding that children must travel on public transport to school?

Firstly, can I say that a great many children travel to school on public transport and they do that successfully and safely every day? School transport actually comes under the portfolio of my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for the economy, and the rules regarding school transport are set out in the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008, which was passed by the Assembly a number of years ago. Under that legislation, parents have the right to ask their local authority for a safe routes assessment to be carried out by the local authority to assure them that the routes that local authorities are asking young people to travel on are properly risk assessed and are properly looked at in terms of learner safety. I would say to your constituent, via yourself, that they need to pursue that first option with their local education authority to carry out a safe routes to school analysis and to have that open for discussion.

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I totally empathise with the principle that provision should be decided locally and that, given the geography in Wales, planning transport routes can be a challenge, but there's a distinct lack of consistency and it's all a bit of a hodgepodge. Depending on what school you go to, you might travel by school bus or public transport. You might travel in a completely different way from your neighbour who is attending a school maybe just down the road. Now, I know what you said about the transport Secretary having primary responsibility for this, but at the end of the day you are Cabinet Secretary for Education, so you surely have an interest in how that school transport is provided. I also understand that there are financial pressures on local authorities and also on you as Cabinet Secretary. So, have you considered and have you spoken to the Cabinet Secretary for transport with a view to conducting a review of the way school transport is delivered and whether it could be simplified, provision pooled across schools and perhaps county boundaries, to deliver a more effective service for children and people while saving money that could be diverted onto other things?

Well, I have to say, with regard to compulsory school education, all local authorities have to abide by the learner travel Measure, which states very clearly who is and who is not entitled to free school transport. It also sets out that expectation with regards to access to Welsh-medium education. It also says that any route undertaken by a child, especially if that route is a walking route, has to be subject to a safe routes to school assessment. Now, for the Member to suggest that local authorities are not working across boundary or looking at innovative solutions to deliver school transport—that simply isn't the case. I know from my own constituency that some of my constituents travel out of county for their education because that nearest suitable school happens to be one across a border, and the county facilitates that. If the Member has specific concerns, she really does need, in the first instance, to take it up with the local education authority and the local county council.

Well, actually, Cabinet Secretary, my question was about whether you personally, as Cabinet Secretary for Education, have considered reviewing the way transport is arranged, at a high level, but I'll go on to my final question.

Parents are reporting to me that cuts in local authority funding are resulting in children and young people with disabilities who were previously taken to school by taxi being asked to travel to school on the school bus. Now, that's a really good thing for the child or young person, and it's better for the environment and it's cheaper as well, but if they're prone to aggressive behaviour or challenging behaviour, it's not really fair on the other children not to ensure that an appropriate adult is on hand on the bus to provide support to that child or young person. So, what resources are you going to be putting in place to ensure that children and young people with additional learning needs and other disabilities, and those around them, are safe and supported while travelling to and from school? And please don't give me a lecture about the Measure again.

The Member does raise an important point. Where a child with additional learning needs is able to travel safely with their peers on school transport, then that is something to be considered, but we also need to consider the entire safety of the cohort on school transport. That's why we have behaviour codes that parents and children have to sign up to if they're travelling on school transport. With regard to additional learning needs, again, it will be an important part of the development of a child's individual development plan that their transport needs and transport requirements are duly considered alongside their educational requirements. But I have to say, Presiding Officer, that whilst we have legislation in this regard via our new ALN Bill, it really is a matter for individual local authorities to make provision for their learners. It is impossible, from the centre, to make individual transport decisions for individual children.