Thank you very much for raising the importance of holding the best needs of young people very much at the front of our minds during all of our budget discussions, and that was certainly a message that the children's commissioner was keen to reinforce with me when we had that opportunity to meet very recently.

Education maintenance allowance is certainly one of those areas where we have been able to support young people, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds in order to help them stay in school. Because obviously we know that having that support to stay in school is the most important thing in terms of helping them onto a positive path in life where they'll be able to reach their fullest potential. We've invested more than £360 million in the EMA scheme since 2004-05 when we first introduced it. I think that's really positive, so we've been able to help over 20,000 young people in that.

We've also allocated £6.3 million via the financial contingency fund scheme to further education institutions in Wales. I think that's really important as well, because it does allow those further education institutions to be able to target support at the young people whom they understand need it most.