2. How is the Welsh Government ensuring that schools are able to provide a suitable education for all? OAQ54178

Thank you, Leanne. Equity and inclusion are at the heart of our national mission for education. Our education reforms will ensure that all learners can access a high standard of education and, crucially, reach their full potential.

In recent weeks and months, I've been contacted by many people in the Rhondda, who are concerned about the support, or lack of support, for their child on the autism spectrum. I've discovered that parents are being told, when they've requested a statutory assessment for a statement of special educational needs, that the local authority no longer does statements. This is wrong, and, until September 2020, when changes come in under the new additional learning needs system, it is, in my view, a failure to discharge their duties as a local authority. Would you agree with that? And I would also like to know what you're doing to ensure that every teacher in Wales receives neurodiversity training. This was a recommendation that your Government accepted from the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee during scrutiny of the autism Bill. Can you please tell us what you've done to realise this pledge?

I have to say I'm very concerned to hear from you those reports that children are being refused the opportunity to undertake a statutory assessment for their additional learning needs. As you are quite right to say, the new legislation, which was passed by this Assembly in 2018, has not come into effect. We are currently consulting on the code and the subordinate legislation that will underpin that Act. And if you would be kind enough to write to me with some specifics on these cases, I will ensure that I and my officials follow it up. You will be aware that, to support the implementation of the new legislation, in anticipation of its full introduction in 2020, we have identified £20 million-worth of resource, and that is primarily to support the professional learning needs of teachers, to ensure that they have the skills and the knowledge to make the best of the opportunities that that new legislation offers us, which will put the child at the centre of our additional learning needs planning, whatever those additional learning needs will be. But I am concerned to think that children are not receiving the statutory assessments that they are entitled to under the current law, and I would be very happy to follow that up for you.