3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 17 September 2019.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 2:54, 17 September 2019

Minister, can I add my voice to the last question by Leanne Wood in relation to the Rhondda Tunnel Society and the Rhondda tunnel ownership? I won't go any further because you've already answered the question, but I do put my voice to that call.

Can I ask for three statements, if possible? The first one is on the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008. Now, earlier this year Neath Port Talbot council actually put proposals forward that would have increased charges upon post-16 education travel for those going to Welsh-medium education, going to faith schools, and also in the additional learning needs areas. There is an opportunity here now—and I welcome the decision of the council to actually defer any decision on this for the local people—to look at the learner travel Measure as to whether we can actually look to amend the learner travel Measure to ensure that post-16 education becomes part of the travel requirements, to ensure that these people can go to schools or places of education without the extra charges that are being considered by local authorities. Will you, therefore, ask for a statement from the Minister for Economy and Transport, who I believe has responsibility for that area, to look at whether we can review the learner travel Measure to see what updates could be put into place, what amendments could be put into place, to ensure that those children can get the free transport to school, as it happens in the future?

Can I also look at a question in education as well—the supply teacher frameworks? I understand new frameworks are now in place. Well, I have seen e-mails from one of the agencies that has benefited from those frameworks, indicating that they are slightly encouraging schools to go off-framework, to encourage them to take people out of the frameworks and therefore pay them lower rates than they would be entitled to. That’s from an agency that’s been given permission in the frameworks and actually has a position on all 22 across Wales. We need to look at the monitoring of the supply teacher frameworks to ensure that teachers are not being abused by this system and that agencies are not taking an option to try and encourage schools to avoid and circumvent the actual requirements, to ensure that teachers get a decent wage and the decent conditions that they deserve as a supply teacher. And, therefore, can we have a statement from the Minister for Education as to what is being done about that framework?

Finally, it’s been mentioned by Rhun ap Iorwerth in his question to the First Minister this afternoon on free swimming. We had a written statement, and I thank the Deputy Minister for the written statement last week, giving us some indication as to what’s happening. But we need to ask questions in relation to the free swimming concessions and the changes that are being applied, because, if you look at it, they are actually not huge figures we’re talking about, but this is actually crucial to many constituents of mine, and they have written to me in quite large numbers saying, 'Why are we doing this?' We need, therefore, to be able to ask the Deputy Minister questions about the concessions, as to how we can move forward. It’s not just a matter of free swimming for everybody; this gives them opportunities, it takes them out of their homes, it gives them social interaction, it improves their health, and every opportunity like that is crucial to ensure our people over 60 are able to be active participants in our society. And this decision actually is going to remove that from some. I would therefore like an oral statement so that we can ask the questions specifically on the free swimming concession changes.