Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:57 pm on 24 September 2019.
Thank you, Deputy Minister, for your statement. It's good to know that we are making solid progress on delivering the offer that was in the manifesto. Co-location is incredibly important because otherwise there's a danger that people have to keep their child in a nursery that doesn't offer the early education that all three and four-year-olds are entitled to as well. So I'm particularly interested to pursue with you, as you refine the offer and you're in discussions with local authorities, how closely you're looking at community-focused schools and that all schools should be community-focused schools, because they are public buildings funded by the taxpayer for the service of the community, and it's a pity if schools aren't used more than just from 9 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. It won't apply to all schools, because some schools simply don't have the capacity to take on more activities, but some of the primary schools in my constituency do have a generous supply of land attached to the school, and that's absolutely fantastic, but it would be perfectly possible to put in an early years centre on those sites, which is land that the public already owns, and that would support the integration of the childcare with the nursery education that I'm sure, in the long term, we all want to see being the entitlement for all our children. So I just wondered what discussions are being had as you conduct this review as to whether we're going to be able to take forward that agenda.