2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 29 January 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 2:40, 29 January 2019

Trefnydd, or leader of the house, last week, I'm sure you were as appalled as I was about the reports in the media about children being refused school dinners simply because the dinner payment card hadn't been topped up in time. In fact, there was a report about one child who had acquired their school dinner, gone to the till to find out that there was no money available for that individual child to have a dinner, and that dinner was removed from that child. Now, that is the most appalling treatment of any child in school, and I'm sure it will live with that individual for some time, should that be the case. 

Now, I've raised this before—cashless payment systems—and I have to be fair, in that Powys County Council have now taken some action to alert parents when their money is diminished or running extremely low. But we cannot repeatedly hear stories like this. So, I would ask, leader of the house, whether you could have further discussion with the Minister for Education, who I know has worked on this, to do some further work and provide some further education to both parents and also school staff so that these situations do not keep repeating themselves.