Diolch, Llywydd. We are retaining amendment 34, as the Minister's responses on workforce planning throughout Stages 1 and 2 have simply not been satisfactory enough. This amendment ensures Ministers are under a duty to examine the capacity of the childcare workforce so enough childcare is available for parents to take up the offer.

It is essential that capacity is scrutinised as evidence has highlighted that, particularly during pinch-points, during academic years, especially during school holidays, there have been problems. Furthermore, Cwlwm—the umbrella body for five childcare providers in Wales—noted that there was a lack of qualified staff, difficulties in staff retention due to low wages and insufficient hours, a lack of registrable venues and availability of school and community buildings to hold childcare services.

Worryingly, there are deficits within certain areas of the childcare sector, including providers who can provide childcare through the medium of Welsh and staff who are trained to provide childcare for children with additional learning needs. National Deaf Children's Society Cymru has called on the Welsh Government to consider skill sets of the childcare workforce in relation to children with ALN.

Furthermore, the recent re-evaluation of the offer's pilot area showed low usage rates of the Welsh Government's special educational needs budget for early implementer local authorities. Local authorities highlight uncertainty among local authorities about how to allocate this budget and this could be used to train the childcare providers. Social Care Wales also estimates that 21,000 additional full-time equivalent places would be needed to meet demand, if the anticipated number of parents take up the offer, and 2,637 extra workers would be needed nationally by the full roll-out in 2020. As there is not present capacity to provide this, to meet a potential shortfall, a 700 per cent increase would be needed in the number of childcare apprenticeship recruitments and completions over two years. Additionally, the recent evaluation on the early implementers of the childcare offer has noted that, while few providers have concerns about capacity, to accommodate the current demand, many note that they were already operating at full or near full capacity. And others did not wish to expand as this would adversely affect the character of their childcare setting. It is also concerning to see that one third of childcare providers in the pilot areas now do not have the capacity to expand should demand increase.

So, there again, not only does this contradict the Minister's assertions at Stage 2 that early implementer authorities were not showing strains within the system, it makes a review of workforce capacity even more necessary. While the Minister is promising more robust reviews of workforce planning in years two and three of implementing the offer, this still leaves out the Assembly's functions to scrutinise whether the childcare workforce does have capacity to deliver this offer. Thank you.