I'd like to thank Llyr Gruffydd, my predecessor on this committee, for his thorough work. I also look forward to contributing with great energy to the work of this committee and as the spokesperson for Plaid Cymru on education. Improving the attainment of pupils from deprived backgrounds is vitally important to Plaid Cymru and, according to the Cabinet Secretary, it's also a priority for the Welsh Government. The commitment to maintain the pupil development grant throughout the fifth Assembly was one of the 10 education priorities agreed with the First Minister when she was appointed to the Cabinet in June of 2016.

But, unfortunately, a number of the recommendations that the committee has made have been rejected by the Cabinet Secretary with regard to extending pupils' eligibility for the pupil development grant, as has been seen, and the Welsh Government proposals to change the criteria for free school meals will have a detrimental effect on pupils from deprived backgrounds. At present, families who are eligible for universal credit are eligible for free school meals. Under the Government's proposals, only families with net earnings under £7,400 a year will be eligible for free school meals from January 2019. The Children's Society is calling on the Welsh Government to ensure that families receiving universal credit will continue to receive free school meals, and that will cost £35 million in addition per year. Increasing the cap on net earnings to £14,000 a year, as happens in Northern Ireland, would cost £20 million in addition.

Now, £15 million a year was lost from the education budget when Schools Challenge Cymru came to an end, and £12 million of that funding was a Barnett consequential. Scotland also provides free school meals for all pupils in infants units, which means that the Labour Welsh Government and the Cabinet Secretary from the Liberal Democrats will have the most miserly policy in the United Kingdom nations. I would suggest that the £15 million lost from the education budget could contribute to the cost of overturning that decision. The consultation on amending the eligibility criteria for free school meals was announced after the committee concluded its work on the evidence, and it's disappointing that the Government's timing has meant that the committee didn't have an opportunity to scrutinise this as part of this report.

I want to turn to a second aspect of the report that draws my attention and has drawn the attention of a number of committee members over a number of years now, namely the funding for schools in general. Some £94 million pounds, or 6 per cent of the education budget, is spent on the pupil development grant, with £400 million being invested to date. It's disappointing, therefore, that Estyn, in its evidence, says that only two thirds of schools are using this grant in an effective manner. Unfortunately, we do therefore have to come to the conclusion that consistent cuts to council budgets have led to cuts to schools budgets, and so it's no surprise, therefore, that schools have been using funding from the grant—the pupil development grant, that is—to fill gaps in their core budgets. I know that's not the purpose, but that's the reality of the situation in an increasing number of schools.

According to a focus group held by the committee, the grant hides the fact that school budgets are insufficient. It is not an additional resource, but core funding under a new guise. That's not what I'm saying—that's what experts in the field say. The committee came to the conclusion, therefore, that it supports the principle of targeted funding, but that it's of the opinion that this principle can't succeed unless core budgets for schools are funded sufficiently.

Recommendation 30 calls on the Welsh Government to continue to review how appropriate school funds are, and to consider how this affects schools' use of targeted funding, such as the pupil development grant and the use made of it.

We genuinely need to get to grips with these problems and the Welsh Government has to ensure that sufficient funding is available to provide a quality education for every child in Wales. Lifting the attainment of pupils from deprived backgrounds should be one of the main priorities, but this won't happen under austerity, where schools are losing teachers and teaching assistants, leading to a vicious circle of lowering standards.