Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:19 pm on 11 June 2019.
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Minister sets out four priorities, and I just wonder if she could clarify a little the differences between them. We have the workload and well-being charter and toolkit, and then the reducing workload resources and training pack, and then, separately, the training models, I think, coming from the consortium. I wonder if she could just help us understand a little better how those three initiatives will interact with each other.
On the sector-wide audit exercise, again, could I just clarify whether this has been done before, and if so, how long ago? Is there anything to build on here?
There's a middle tier, actually. Education Minister, you've said quite a lot in your answers to other statements about the local education authorities, but I was struck that there was no mention of them in your actual written statement. I just wonder, in this field, what is their role. What would you like them to be doing to help reduce bureaucracy? You put emphasis on alignment and consistency in how teachers and others deal with data requests, but do you also recognise that particular local authorities may have a particular approach that works for their schools and deals with their local democratic priorities and needs of schools in their areas? Are there such areas where it may be appropriate for LEAs to get the extra information that they need to feed those particular local priorities?
Finally, in terms of the school business managers, I was very struck with some of the Challenge Cymru schools, when looking around with the Children, Young People and Education Committee, how impressed we, I believe, were—and certainly I was—with those business managers and the roles they were doing. From what the Minister says, I think they should be able to replicate the cost savings. If they find cost savings, they should hopefully continue and compare salaries going forward. But I hadn't appreciated, when visiting those Challenge Cymru schools, how unusual the business managers were or the extent to which that was a pilot. We have 100 of these. About where are they spread? How realistic is it for a large secondary to hope to do all the things the business manager does if they don't have that business manager in place?