6. Statement by the Minister for Education: Support for Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Learners

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:47 pm on 30 April 2019.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 5:47, 30 April 2019

Can I thank Suzy Davies for the comments and questions she has raised this afternoon? The Government has a cross-Government approach and a cross-portfolio approach to the issues of adverse childhood experiences. We are very aware of the consequences of such experiences on a child's ability to learn. Myself and my colleague Julie Morgan support a number of initiatives, such as the ACEs hub, which is designed to develop best practice and to engage with educators so that they themselves understand what they need to do in nurseries and in classrooms to overcome the challenges that children who have suffered ACEs experience.

Only yesterday, I was with Suzy at Clase Primary School in her region, at her invitation, looking at how they use the PDG to provide a nurturing environment and specific support for those children who need that support. It's really interesting to see the development of that service. Initially, it was there for the very youngest children, but the teachers have responded to the needs of their entire population and now children in years 4, 5 and 6 have the ability to come in at break time and lunch time, sit down with trained professionals to talk about anything that might be worrying them at home or outside the school that has impacted upon their study. We will continue to monitor the ability to respond positively to ACEs, given, as I said, what we know about the impact that has on a child's ability to learn.

Suzy Davies asked about issues around accountability. We are moving to a more intelligence-based accountability system, which really drives the principles of transparency. This is particularly important to me with regard to the achievement of children on free school meals and children who might be care experienced. What we've had in the past is a system, actually, that has masked the true levels of performance of those children and has not made it easy for us to identify, and for schools to identify, how they are performing to similar schools. It is a source of frustration for me, for instance, to have schools within the same local authority area, in the same city, with the same level or proportion of free school meal children and some of those schools do exceptionally well by those children and others are falling behind. We need to have much more intelligent data to be able to make those comparisons so that we can benchmark, but also to recognise, actually, that every single child in the cohort matters. And just because somebody has managed to get a C, if they had the potential to get an A, that's simply not good enough. Sometimes, for some of our children, especially children from a more deprived background, we have put a cap on their ambitions. Earlier on, we talked about an inverse care law and the consequences for people from a poorer socioeconomic background and their ability to access services. If we're honest, sometimes we've put the cap on the ambition that we have for our children from our poorer backgrounds, and we have to lay that bare and really challenge ourselves and the system to do better for those children.

In terms of accountability, the first stage of accountability comes with the professionals themselves. The education system in Wales can only be as good as the people who stand in front of our children and work with our children and young people day in, day out. It is their professional accountability and their willingness to work to the teaching standards that we have developed that's the first stage of our accountability regime. Of course, after that, we have the issue of governance and school governors, our regional school improvement services, and, of course, Estyn, and you'll be aware that we've already published details of how we expect, actually, Estyn to be in schools more often as a result of our educational reform journey.

With regard to SHEP, the summer programme, I have to say, Suzy, you are right, it is primarily the parents' responsibility to feed their children, but I don't know where you have been if you have not come across families in your region that, despite their best endeavours, sometimes working multiple jobs, they simply do not have the money that they need to pay all of their bills. I meet mothers who go without themselves, go without food themselves, so that they can ensure their children eat. Families—. We've only seen the Trussell Trust statistics over the Easter holidays: there are more people in my constituency relying on food banks than ever before and that's not because they are feckless in any way; it is because they are the innocent victims of a benefits system that simply does not work and their inability to find paid employment that allows them to cover their rent, their bills, and all the other things that they want to do for their children. And, in those circumstances, we can either sit back and sit on our hands, or we can, as a Government, take action to assist these families. Now, in 2016, when we first developed the SHEP programme, five local authorities took part. In 2017, that was up to 12 local authorities. This summer, 21 local authorities will take part in the SHEP programme as we've been able to increase the amount of money that we've been able to work with with the WLGA to deliver that programme.

In terms of evaluation, of course, it's really important. SHEP originated out of work that happened in the Cardiff area. That programme was evaluated, and that's what has given us the confidence to know that we can roll this programme out to more areas. But an evaluation programme is part of the work, and we will continue to look at what more we can do to address the issue of holiday hunger. I know, again, Julie Morgan and I are looking at whether we can extend this programme above and beyond schools and look at other settings where we may be able to address the fact that, during term time, many families, many children, get their breakfast and their lunch, and during the six-week holiday period it is a significant financial strain on families to be able to cover the extra costs of those foods. Gosh, you know that, you've got boys at home. I've just been through the Easter holidays and my three girls have eaten me out of house and home. I seem to have spent the entire Easter holidays in the supermarket buying more food because every time I go home they've eaten—. You know—we all know, that have got children—the additional costs of feeding children during the school holidays. It is significant and we can't get away from that, and I'm proud that we are able to deliver SHEP in 21 local authorities this year thanks to our partnership working with colleagues in local government.

PDG: you heard from Mrs Hope yesterday in Clase Primary School what an important programme the PDG is and the difference that it is making to schools. That money is passported straight to schools and there's no suggestion at all that anybody else is hanging on to PDG money. With regard to the various other funding streams you talked about, each of those schemes is funded in a slightly different way but I, at this stage, am not concerned and have no evidence to suggest that the money for SHEP or the money for period poverty is not getting to where it needs to get to.