Thank you for releasing this statement today and for the advance notice. From what I'm seeing from this statement, the main new point is something that's not far up in the statement, which is support to cover free sanitary products at FE colleges, which is something we've discussed already, but I'm sure wasn't announced when you announced it for the schools, and I wholeheartedly welcome this new announcement. If there's anything new there apart from this, then I apologise if I've missed it, but I think that's what I saw as the new focus here.

And it is important in ensuring that financial status isn't a barrier to basic and necessary products, and this isn't something that's optional for women. I'd hope that it is universally supported, although on social media, I've seen some men not support it, and I'd like to have an explanation from those men as to how difficult a time of the month it is in terms of affordability when they have no experience of it whatsoever. So, I take that with a pinch of salt. The cost of such products can be really high, and it's not something that women don't need on an ongoing basis. I'd also like to thank the campaigners who kick-started this debate over the last few years, specifically Plaid councillor Elyn Stephens from the Rhondda, whose campaign in RCT council was very important in contributing to this wider debate and which is why, I think, we are here today.

In terms of the rest of the statement, it does read something like an election broadcast for the Liberal Democrats in the Assembly. Perhaps that's warranted—I'm sure the Minister will think it is. One aspect in terms of supporting college students is access. Distance is often far and there is no statutory responsibility to provide transport beyond the second academic year after 16. There's no consideration for adult learners either, and with sixth-form colleges increasingly under threat and councils conducting school mergers, the cost of providing transport is going to increase. So, I'd like to know what discussions you've had with the economic Minister to tell us what energies you've been putting in place in terms of the White Paper so that we can see more energy being put into supporting students to access transport.

Carrying on from the questions from my colleague Leanne Wood earlier in relation to the education maintenance allowance, these are also issues that have been raised with me via CollegesWales as well, in relation to the fact that it hasn't increased since 2004. Thirty pounds per week went a lot further then than it does now, and we've had this concern raised from the NUS also, whether that should be expanded upon so that we can ensure that they can use that EMA to its full extent. So, I'd be interested to hear from you here today.

And in relation to deprivation and vulnerable learners, I don't think enough focus has been put on adult education. I've heard from quite a lot of different providers in relation to retraining in later life that there is a decline in part-time pathways, which means options for those who need to work have been limited. It is forcing some people to decide whether they'll retrain or whether they enter employment. And if the employers don't support them through that process, then they will have to decide not to take up that additional skills training. So, I wonder whether you can give us some more information on that.

I'd just like to finish by saying that I would agree with Suzy Davies in relation to the support that's needed for young carers. If we're going to be talking about disadvantaged people, we need to talk about young carers. And I know that the previous Minister in this regard I met with following a debate that I led on, and I know that work has been done, but I still think that much more needs to be done to identify young carers in the classroom as one, but also to support them through that process so that they don't feel by the time they get to the end of their school careers that they are disadvantaged in the options available to them for their future careers.