So we'll reconvene Plenary—virtual Plenary. And we'll now move on to the next statement on our agenda, which is a statement by the Business Minister—sorry, by the Minister for Education, on coronavirus. So over to the Minister, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to start today by thanking our teachers, teaching assistants, childcare workers, lecturers, and all the staff involved in education in Wales. I am enormously grateful for the way in which everyone has responded to the challenge of this pandemic. Diolch o galon. You have truly been national heroes.

This is a very challenging time for all of us, but I am proud of what our educational professionals have been able to achieve so far. Hwb, our online learning platform, provides unparalleled access to a wide range of bilingual digital tools and content. And this means that Wales has the perfect platform to keep children and young people safe, but also to keep them learning, during the lockdown. Throughout March 2020, usage of Hwb significantly increased, with more than 2.8 million logins recorded. And our most recent figures show, on average, 150,000 logins a day. We were one of the first countries in the world to secure a national licensing deal with Microsoft. And thanks to that deal, every single learner and teacher in our state schools have access to the latest Microsoft Office tools, including Minecraft Education Edition, on their personal devices at home.

And in another first for Wales, we have deployed Adobe Spark nationally—the first country in the world to do so—meaning that more than 500,000 teachers and learners will have access to Adobe Spark for Education. We have also been working with tech giants such as Google, ensuring that tools like Google Classroom and a range of G Suite for Education tools are available in Welsh. Now, we shouldn’t underestimate this achievement; Welsh is the second smallest language—in terms of speakers—in which G Suite is available.

Closer to home, we were the first UK nation to guarantee free school meal provision until schools reopen, or up until the end of August. With the support of the Welsh Local Government Association, this Government has made available £33 million to help local authorities to continue to provide free school meals, helping to ensure that no child goes hungry.

Last week, I published 'Stay Safe. Stay Learning: continuity of learning policy statement'. This guidance aims to support everyone involved with education to deal with the impact of coronavirus. An important element of this is working with local authorities to support digitally excluded learners, and I hope to be able to make further announcements later this week in this regard. I am confident that we will be able, then, to confirm further plans to recycle existing kit from schools and allocate it to learners who need it, using our EdTech funding.

Of course, one major question for all of us is: when will schools go back to normal? I must say that it has been hugely unhelpful to everyone to have numerous leaks from Westminster saying contradictory things in this regard. That is no way to instill confidence.

In contrast, earlier this week, we published the guiding principles that we will use to determine when and how schools will return to providing education for more pupils. I have made it clear that this will be a phased approach. And whilst doing this, I have given my assurance that we will communicate any directions and decisions well in advance of any required action, ensuring that schools and families are able to plan ahead. 

If I can now turn to further education, colleges across Wales have put in measures to deal with the pandemic within further education settings. In March, they began a phased approach towards remote and digital learning. Learners are being supported to continue their studies and work towards completing assignments and courses, where that is possible, with particular emphasis on vulnerable learners who will need additional support to do so. FE colleges are pivotal to their local economies, and I have provided assurances on funding to Colleges Wales to support the sector and maintain stability for institutions and their learners at this time. Through Universities Wales and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, we remain in close communication with our universities and I've already confirmed that the moratorium on unconditional offers remains in place in Wales until 1 May. 

Having recently provided HEFCW with a provisional indication of the levels of funding that may be available to the sector this year, I want to move forward at the right time with a package of measures that gives assurance to students, to universities and to the wider higher education community. In the meantime, we have developed resources for year 13 pupils, who are hoping to attend university at the start of the new academic year in the autumn. Those resources are there to help build skills and confidence and to help them connect to universities across Wales. 

I recognise, also, Universities UK's point that all four Governments should continue to work together on matters relating to the HE sector and that the scale of challenge faced by the sector goes way beyond the resources that are available within devolved Governments' budgets. We are working hard to ensure a consistent approach to issues such as visa requirements, assessment contingencies, professional body requirements and admissions for the next academic year. And we will continue to work at pace within the Welsh Government and with the wider sector in Wales on these issues. But we will also continue to work on a four-nation basis on matters such as research and Student Loans Company funding. And I hope to be able to move forward on those matters soon. 

As colleagues will be more than aware, situations can change rapidly during a pandemic. I can assure you, however, that we will continue to work within and across Government and with our partners to provide guidance and advice and to ensure the safety of all of our staff and our children and young people. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. 

Thank you. Suzy Davies.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you, Minister, for that update and the evidence you gave us in the Children, Young People and Education Committee the other day. Can I just associate myself with your opening remarks about all the people that need thanking, and just to add some of those council officials, as it strikes me that every time there's an announcement from Welsh Government, the heavy lifting seems to me to be done by council officials and employees? I hope you're encouraging all parties involved to record data on their activities, as we're going to need that, not just to scrutinise you and the performance of some of these bodies, but also to spot and take advantage of those good ideas for more agile, efficient and effective ways of working that emerge from this. 

I understand, of course, there's been a strong focus on schools, but occasional learners' lives have been disrupted, like everybody else's, and I was pleased to hear you just say about the financial contribution to further education institutions being maintained. But that's what I'd like to ask you some questions on, if I may. 

We've had your update on the UK qualifications taken in Wales, which will be assessed across the UK—those that have a strong practical element—and I look forward to further updates on that. But, for now, could you tell us how the assessment of apprenticeships and other work-based learning is unfolding, and what the role of employers is in that, bearing in mind they're pretty distracted at the moment? Are Hwb and some of those other online platforms you mentioned now available to college students or apprentices? What feedback have you had from colleges on the use of the £2 million that you've given them for mental health support, and any information on barriers to student engagement that they're experiencing?

If you can give us anything on what's happening with other Welsh Government work-based learning, often based, of course, around essential skills and involving individuals who maybe don't have access to a lot of IT kit—you know, what's happening there. And, if we have time, just your further thoughts on the PCET Bill proceeding in the fifth Assembly. 

Thank you. Minister. 

Thank you, Suzy, for those questions. You're absolutely right: the efforts of local government staff should not go unmentioned. I meet on a weekly basis with the leadership of the WLGA, both the leader and the education lead, and we keep in close contact to ensure that we are working in close harmony together. So, I have assurance about the performance of local authorities and they have an opportunity to be able to feed back from the ground the challenges and the opportunities that present themselves at this difficult time. And I have been overwhelmed by the speed and the agility with which they have been able to respond to this crisis. 

If you can imagine, they were told on a Wednesday afternoon that schools would close for a statutory purpose two days later. But they were all able to ensure that the children of critical workers and vulnerable children could be cared for in re-purposed schools by the Monday. And that just demonstrates the tremendous efforts that have gone on on the ground to respond to the crisis. 

With regard to further education, it's right: we have been in a position to be able to provide some assurance on funding. Although, of course, some of the elements and the requirements of that funding are very difficult to fulfil at this time. But, again, further education colleges have moved swiftly to be able to continue to provide support for students online where that is appropriate. And they have been particularly keen to look at the pastoral care elements of their work, keeping in close contact with those students for whom perhaps studying remotely is a real challenge, and I'm grateful for their efforts in that regard. 

With regard to mental health support, you will be aware that, in the budget allocation for this year, we were able to award £2 million to support further education colleges and mental health initiatives. That money is still available to colleges and they are looking to deploy support for mental health in a variety of ways, although, of course, traditional in-person counselling sessions at colleges are no longer suitable, but they are looking at innovative ways of utilising that resource that is available to them. 

With regard to vocational qualifications, I acknowledge that it has taken some time to be able to provide clarity to vocational learners not in the way that we were able to do so for perhaps our GCSE and A2 level students. This is partly because the awarding bodies are not simply within Wales; we are dealing with awarding bodies that work on a UK-wide basis and we need to work collaboratively with them not to disadvantage any Welsh students.

As I told the committee yesterday, those students who, as part of their apprenticeship or their work-based learning, are undertaking essential skills qualifications, which forms part of the vast, vast majority of apprenticeship programmes, those students will be awarded a grade. For those students who are taking the vocational qualifications with regard to childcare, which are Wales-only qualifications, they too will be awarded a grade.

I know that there has been particular stress around some of our access courses. So, these are usually more mature students, often parents themselves, that are undertaking access to healthcare courses as a precursor to going on to study at a degree level, usually for courses around nursing and midwifery. And I know that that has been a particular challenge, and it has now been agreed that those students do not have to complete all their assignments—they too will be treated the same way, and will be given a grade, allowing them to move on, hopefully, to the courses that they'd hoped to do in September, without any further stress.

Apprenticeships are a challenge, especially where those students have not been able to complete the work-based element of their course, because maybe they have been furloughed or maybe because their company or their employer is no longer operating, and we continue to work through the practicalities of how we can support those students. And you'll be aware that yesterday we talked about those specific students for whom technical competence is a really important part of their course. So, if we think about plumbing and gas fitting—clearly, to be registered as a competent practitioner in that regard, there are practical examinations and assessments that need to be carried out. Again, we're working with CollegesWales to understand—if at any point we are able to relax some of the lockdown measures and some students are able to return to learning, those particular students would probably be one of the first set of students in the further education sector we would want to try and accommodate so that they could complete their qualification, otherwise we may be in a position where they will have to pause that element of that qualification, and we're in early discussions with colleges about how they could attend to those students if their students weren't able to do that until later on, and perhaps into the next academic year.

[Inaudible.]—those replies. In response to the second part of my questions, perhaps you can pick up the points about PCET and access to Hwb that you didn't manage to get to just then.

But turning to HE institutions, universities, of course, are private institutions—it's a position they guard fiercely—but they are significant players in improving our constituents' futures and our economy, so Governments, both of them, have a role to play in preserving that resilience. I wonder if you could tell us whether you believe that universities in Wales are disproportionately exposed to some of the serious financial difficulties that Universities UK have spoken of as a result of the effects of the virus—you'll remember that the question of some of our universities over commitments on finances has come to this Chamber previously, so it is an issue of serious concern—and, on the back of that, whether you've had any detail from them about the steps that they are taking to make sure that they're taking advantage of all the financial support schemes that both Governments are offering, such as furlough, but there may be other examples as well.

Protecting our research basis—that's supremely important during this period, particularly retaining those best brains from around the world and to help capitalise on the agility and innovative ideas that have fallen out of this crisis, if you like. So, what can you tell us about the protection being offered to quality research, and again whether we are disproportionately exposed on the question of visas?

And then, finally, because of the likely loss of thousands of overseas students and deferment by domestic students, there's going to be fierce competition for those who want to begin courses in the autumn, as student income, of course, is critical to the viability of courses, departments and even institutions. I heard what you said on the control of unconditional offers that expires in a couple of days, but what other steps are necessary to ensure fair play for all institutions, and are they, like the banks, too important to fail?  

Sorry, forgive me, Suzy. With regard to Hwb, that is being rolled out to FE learners. I think that process is near complete, and so those resources are available for those learners.

With regard to the PCET Bill, as you've just outlined, Suzy, the contribution of both FE and HE and work-based learning to the future of the Welsh economy as we emerge from this—not just a public health emergency but an economic emergency—is going to be more important then ever and, therefore, reforms in that sector, I think, are more important than ever. You'll be aware that the Bill was submitted to the Presiding Office prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, and it was my intention for that to come to the committee at the start of this term. Those processes, of course, are ongoing. That Bill is ready to be scrutinised, and I will continue to discuss with the Commission about the opportunities that may be available as the Assembly finds new and innovative ways of carrying on its work in this crisis to be able to bring that Bill forward. I certainly am ready to do so. There may be practical considerations that, perhaps, we will have to contend with.

With regard to the HE sector, you will be aware of the work of Universities UK that has tried to quantify the effects of the crisis on the HE sector. Some of those are immediate in terms of loss of income in the here and now, whether that be from conferences, catering, accommodation, but, of course, as we look to the start of the new academic year, those impacts could be even greater. I think it is fair to say that we are looking at a significant drop in overseas students as well as potentially disruption to the UK market if some students decide to defer for a year and not choose to go to university at this point, although we have to say there's no evidence of that at this point. In fact, quite to the contrary: anecdotal evidence suggests that there are a lot of 18-year-olds who are desperate to get away in September at the start of the academic year, and perhaps are even more determined to fly the nest having experienced this period of lockdown than they were previously. But they are real questions that we're grappling with.

I'm very pleased that universities have abided by the moratorium on converting conditional offers to offers that do not have any conditions. I'm grateful for their co-operation in that regard. But that moratorium, as you know, will come to an end, and we're discussing, on a UK-wide basis, the introduction—certainly, on an England and Wales basis—of temporary student number controls. This is not something that usually happens in the Welsh or the English systems. They do have controls on numbers in Scotland because of the different ways in which they finance their system, but in England and Wales we don't have number controls. But as you'll have known from the Universities UK paper, this is a suggestion by the sector itself that we introduce student number controls for the new academic year, which would allow institutions to recruit their projected numbers plus 5 per cent, and I hope that we're able to make an announcement in Wales shortly on student number controls, which will add additional stability for the start of the new academic year.

Research funding is absolutely critical and is particularly at risk because this is often match funded by the fees brought to the sector by international students, and the future and the scale of research funding continues to be a subject that is discussed on a four-nation basis because the scales—. First of all, many elements of research and innovation funding for the sector is not a devolved matter and the scale of some of the interventions that we're looking at really needs to be done on a four-nation basis. I had further discussions with my Westminster counterpart in that regard today and we—myself, the Northern Irish Minister and the Scottish Minister—keep urging the Westminster Government to be able to find new moneys from the Treasury to be able to support the HE sector at this time. But just like the finance Minister in Wales is being asked by all parties for additional resources, I suspect the same is true of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and we are supporting Gavin Williamson and Michelle Donelan in their calls for the Treasury and their case to the Treasury to support the sector. 

Thank you. If we were in the Chamber, I would have been staring very hard at the Minister then. We are trying to have shorter answers to questions, and I was staring hard at you, but, of course, you can't see me doing that. So, can we just think about shorter answers, please? Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff in our educational establishments, to parents, pupils and students for responding so responsibly to this crisis and for being so flexible in dealing with a new way of learning and teaching.

One of the greatest challenges is to try and ensure that no child suffers as a result of this crisis, and it is a cause of concern for me how few children in the vulnerable category are attending schools: only some 600 across Wales. So, I would like to know, therefore, more about the national guidance in place in order to ensure that there is regular contact with this particular cohort of children.

I would also like to know what arrangements you are putting in place, or what arrangements do you expect to be out in place, in order to ensure that every child maintains contact with his or her school, and what arrangements are in place to ensure that every child can continue to learn? Without clear guidance, my concern is that the attainment gap is widening quickly, leaving thousands of children at a huge disadvantage.

The digital divide is also leaving children behind, for reasons of poverty or geography, or a combination of both. Many thousands of children have no way of accessing online learning. They don't have an appropriate device, and they have no connection to broadband, or, again, it can be a combination of both of those things. Isn't it scandalous that it has taken a crisis for this to be given due attention, and haven't the efforts of your Government to ensure that every child has an appropriate device been very paltry to date? May I ask one more thing in this section? Has holding a live video-conference between pupils and teachers now been banned?

The number of vulnerable children who are eligible to attend our hubs has been low, but I am pleased to report that since the end of what would have been the traditional Easter recess, we have seen an increase in those numbers, and we will continue to work across Government and with our local authorities to ensure that all parents are aware of the support that is available to them. We have received assurances from local authorities that those children who have a social worker have been risk-assessed, and contact is being kept with those children, either by their social worker or indeed by their teachers. We do know that some children are vulnerable but they don't have a social worker, or they don't have a statement for special educational needs, and we know that schools in many areas have been very diligent in doing welfare checks on children whom they have concerns about, and we will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that the right children are receiving a service in the right way. But let's be clear: we have told parents consistently that the safest place for their child is at home, and it should not be, then, a surprise to us when parents have taken that advice to heart and have kept their children at home.

The continuity of learning plan will continue to adapt. We published the policy statement last week. The next stage of that work is to be able to develop and get agreement across Wales on what a reasonable expectation should be of individual headteachers and teachers in this new form of education in Wales, and we will indeed want to be able to track that those expectations that we have are actually happening on the ground.

With regard to the digital divide, I do not regard it as paltry to be the only part of the United Kingdom that has made available Microsoft Office to all its pupils and students. We are the first in the world, as I said, to make available Adobe software to all students. I am acutely aware, however, that there will be some students who do not have the hardware or the connectivity at home to avail themselves of our Hwb platform, but, as I said, over 150,000 children a day are logging into that platform. That's why, as we discussed earlier this week, Siân, and as I referenced in my statement, I'll be making a statement tomorrow on how we will use Welsh Government investment to provide additional hardware to students who do not have it at the moment, and MiFi connections to allow them to have the data connections that they will need to be able to utilise other platforms going forward. And that will be to all children—not to a selected group of children, which appears to be the case across the border, where the emphasis is on those children just taking exam classes. But we'll need to work with our local authorities and our teachers to identify those families that are in need of that assistance. It's no mean feat, but we are doing that work.

With regard to online live streaming of classes, at this stage, we are recommending that schools do not do that, and we have recommended at this stage they do not do that for very good child protection and safeguarding issues—both for the children themselves and for the staff. Hwb allows teachers to record their lessons and for students to be able to download them at a time that is convenient to those children. That is because, as you can imagine, we have potentially some very young children, and teachers working from their home environments, where perhaps it would be inappropriate for children to be seeing teachers in their home environments. I have to say I have seen more of some of my colleagues' bedrooms than I would have hoped to during this process of endless Zoom and Skype meetings—that's not really appropriate in an educational setting.

So, we are taking a very risk-averse stance at this moment, while we evaluate what is safe and what is the appropriate thing to do in these new, challenging circumstances. So, we may well change that advice, but, at the moment, live streaming of lessons from teachers in their homes into children's homes is not recommended—also recognising that teachers may see something on that screen that could be misunderstood, but would have a professional duty to report what they had seen. So, these are not easy things as simply saying we can allow teachers to stream live lessons in real time. We will reflect on this, we will continue to have discussions with educational practitioners and the unions, and that policy may well evolve over time, but, at this moment, we do not recommend it.

Thank you very much for providing clarity on that final point. May I ask you about the health condition arising in some children as a rare response, but a very dangerous response, that is suspected to be related to coronavirus? Can you confirm whether there have been any cases in Wales, and, if there have been, or if any do emerge, what would the implications of that be on your plans to reopen schools? Just a few questions to close about testing educational workers: yesterday, it emerged that only 15 teachers across Wales have been tested for COVID. Now, education workers are supposed to have been included in the 'critical employment' category and should be prioritised for testing, therefore. But do you agree with me that the public has lost faith in the Government's testing strategy? And, as you plan for this next phase, how will you ensure that teachers and educational professionals will be tested, and will you guarantee that every education worker and worker in childcare who shows symptoms of COVID will be able to access a test?

Certainly. The information I have from the chief medical officer is that we have one case of Kawasaki disease in a child in Wales. It is important to recognise that this significant inflammatory but very serious condition is incredibly rare, but we do need to take that into consideration. That's why advice has been given to all 111 call handlers that, if a parent is telephoning about a child—. The information that they have is that they should consider whether a child is showing symptoms of Kawasaki disease.

The truth is we are still learning a lot about this virus, and we still don't have a full picture as to the extent to which the virus affects children and young people. So, this week, we have seen the worrying development of Kawasaki disease in a very small number of children. At the same, Members will have seen the advice from Switzerland today that children under 10 can now visit their grandparents, because, in the eyes of the Swiss Government, children under 10 do not present an epidemiological risk. Cases, papers, out of France suggest that high school children are vectors for the disease, but some papers out of China say something different. We still have a lot to learn about how the disease affects children and the role of children in transmitting the disease, and, of course, that will have to be at the forefront of our thinking as we think about what the next stage of education will look like.

As I told the committee yesterday, the figures that I have from Public Health Wales are that 15 teachers have been tested, two of which were positive. But I would repeat again—as I did yesterday and as I have done on my social media channels—any teacher showing symptoms of the disease, or indeed a member of their family showing symptoms of the disease, is entitled to be tested, should be tested, and should ask for a test. 

Thank you, Minister, for all the work that you and your officials are doing at this time. Headteachers, teaching staff and of course parents and young people have been able to adapt amazingly during this time. I know that many teachers and staff are going above and beyond to make sure their pupils continue to learn and are staying safe, and this can't be underestimated. 

When we're finally able to ease pupils back safely to school, clear and reassuring communication will be crucial. Parents and staff must be reassured of their safety, and everyone must understand the reasoning behind why some children may return before others. You've mentioned in your statement that communication is key to transition as smoothly as possible. What procedures will be put in place to ensure that those young people who find school a refuge, and the teaching workforce who have been through so much, will be supported in the weeks and months ahead, following their return to school?

Thank you, Jayne. You'll be aware that yesterday I published the five principles that would aid my thinking with regard to what the next phase of education in Wales will look like during this pandemic, recognising that over 500 schools and settings are open every day already. 

The first of those principles is the safety, the mental, emotional and physical well-being of the staff in those schools, and the children and young people who attend them, and that is the overriding priority. But you're right: principle No. 3 talked about having the confidence of parents and staff and students, and that's about sharing with them the evidence on which we are taking these decisions, giving them information, and also allowing time for them to plan so that they can make the necessary arrangements and adjustments.

And, of course, going back into school, we will have to recognise, for staff and students alike, that there will have to be a period of readjustment, where we really focus on the mental health and well-being of those children before we can begin to get them back into learning. What we know about good pedagogy is that getting the well-being right is the first step to ensuring that children can learn, and we will need to reflect that when students begin to return to school.

Thank you. Mohammad Asghar. Sorry, we're not hearing Mohammad Asghar. Just a moment. Could somebody assist, please? No. Can I—? I'll return—. Can somebody assist with Mr Asghar's mike, and I will come back to him? Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I have a question on supply teachers, who do crucial work in schools the length and breadth of Wales, but many of them have found themselves falling between many stools at the moment, as the Minister is aware, and can't access support, having lost their employment during this period.

So, may I ask the Minister to publish clear guidance, so that there is no ambiguity in this area, so that we know exactly whose responsibility it is to provide support to supply teachers, and that schools and supply teacher agencies and local authorities know exactly what responsibilities they have and what scope exists for them to ensure that these valuable supply teachers are supported through this period?

Thank you. I published an open letter to the supply teaching workforce on 1 April, and the content of that letter is available on the Welsh Government website. Rhun is absolutely right: our supply teaching workforce is an important part of the education family, and our advice to local authorities and individual schools is clear—if they are struggling to staff their hubs at this time, I know that supply teachers stand ready, willing and able to help in that effort to care for our critical workers' children and our vulnerable children. But, whilst education policy is devolved to Wales, employment law is not.

With regard to—. We have provided advice to local authorities: where a teacher is in a long-term supply contract, then the local authorities are not required to stick to that, but our advice is that they should. With regard to the supply agencies that are on our national framework, the National Procurement Service for Wales, at my request, has contacted all the agencies on that framework to provide advice to them on the ability of that agency to furlough those workers. If workers are being paid on a pay-as-you-earn scheme, they are entitled to be part of the UK Government furloughing scheme. We have told those agencies that they should do that, and the vast majority of those agencies have agreed to do so.

We have also—. NPS has also issued Cabinet Office procurement advice to both agencies and to local authorities, which sets out the expectations of all of those organisations as to what they should do and how they should do it. I am aware that there have been ongoing concerns, and, because of the very complex nature of some of the supply employment issues, where somebody is not employed by a local authority or somebody is not working for one of our approved framework agencies, there may be gaps. But, again, I would say that, in the first instance, all supply teachers should get in contact with their employer to discuss the situation as they find it.

[Inaudible.]—schools in Wales should close in response to COVID-19, with the exception of making provision for children who are vulnerable or whose parents are critical to the COVID-19 response. You said that vulnerable children include those with care and support plans and statements of special educational needs, and I commend all the staff on the rotas for this, including my youngest son.

How do you respond, therefore, to the probation officer living in Wrexham who contacted me this morning, whose autistic son meets the criteria but has not been allowed any educational provision since the start of the crisis because, quote, 'The headteacher's refusing to open special provision for disabled children'? Or the Flintshire mother who contacted me last night, whose daughter has severe autism, severe learning disability and ADHD and also meets the criteria, who told me that 'even though we're in our sixth week of lockdown, there's still been no news on when a hub is opening'?

We are urging all local authorities to ensure that they have specialist provision available, and the vast, vast majority of them do. We are very clear that there should be specialist provision in place to meet the needs of parents, and that has been successfully done in many areas. But also, let us be clear that, even where a child has a statement of special educational needs and a care and support plan, it may be parental choice for their children not to attend a setting. And, because we're working out of hubs, sometimes that hub model is not appropriate for a child, because they would be faced with, perhaps, a rota of teachers in an unfamiliar setting, which, actually, could be detrimental to their well-being. But the expectation is for all local authorities to provide specialist provision. What I would say, Mark, is, if you have those cases, then you should pass them on to me and I will raise them with the county councils and the LEAs involved.

Minister, I was delighted to hear that Wales was the first nation in the UK to announce that we will be providing free school meals to eligible pupils throughout the summer, by providing that £33 million to our local authorities, and that local authorities will have the flexibility to deliver the roughly £20 per child per week in the way that works best locally. And you've laid out three possibilities, namely vouchers paid to the families, a transfer of funds to the bank accounts through BACS accounts, or the actual, physical delivery of food to the families of eligible pupils. Could I ask, Minister, whether you recognise the additional value of schools keeping in touch with some pupils through the physical delivery of food, not only for the nutritional value, of course, but because some pupils and some families in particular will benefit from the continued contact, albeit in a very different context, with the very people who are now delivering to some of our most vulnerable families and children, namely the headteachers, the teaching staff, and the school staff of some of our schools who have now taken on this role? And would she join me in thanking those members of school staff who've agreed to do this? These see it as an extension of their normal pastoral role. This crisis has brought out the very best in many of us, and some of the hidden heroes are the school staff and the headteachers who are striving to help those families who need it most right now most of all. They deserve our praise and our thanks.

Thank you, Huw, and I would associate myself with those comments. We were able to make an additional £7 million available to local authorities to ensure that free school meal children were supported over the Easter holidays, and we have made a further £33 million available to take us through either to when schools open or to the start of the new academic year. It is £19.50, which is above the amount that is available in the jurisdiction right next to us.

You're right: local authorities are taking a number of approaches. In some local authorities, they have more than one approach, because they are trying to meet the needs of individual families, so we want to provide flexibility to local authorities to do what's best for the population that they are serving. For some, that is a supermarket voucher, but as I was reminded and as I am very familiar with where I live, that might not be applicable and, therefore, a BACS payment to families is much more helpful and useful. But it is a legitimate choice for local authorities to provide food parcels or a food delivery, and that does provide an important point of contact where they can check in with that child and with that family to see how things are going.

What is very interesting, and what we have already learnt, is that over half the local authorities currently report that take-up of FSM is either equal to or is actually greater than they would usually do during school time, because, of course, during school time, you physically have to be in the school to obtain the food. The fact that we are moving to a different system means that, actually, as I said, half of local authorities have seen take-up either at the expected level or are actually providing more support to more children.

Minister, I wanted to ask about the higher education sector, please. The main emphasis has been on ensuring continuation of education in our school sector, particularly the need to prioritise what year 12 students will do for A-levels, but can I ask you what consideration has been given in forward planning for the future to ensuring that we reduce as much as possible the interruption to work-based learning, apprenticeships and colleges?

And, in turning to mental health support, can you please ensure that further education will have the same access to mental health support services in order to deal with the impact of the current crisis, just as schools have?

Finally, what is your assessment of the broader impact of coronavirus on the number of HE students, and what will the implications of that be in the context of the vulnerable financial position of Welsh universities in the year to come?

As I said earlier, we've made £2 million available to the FE sector to support mental health initiatives for students. Clearly, they're having to deliver those in different ways than they had originally planned, but that money is safe and secure, and is available for them to use.

With regard to planning for what the next phase of education looks like, then I can assure you that we have a representative of ColegauCymru that is part of the Welsh Government's working group and we have a college principal that is a part of that group also, because, clearly, what we advise schools to do will be directly applicable to FE colleges and, in some ways, applicable to HE as well. So, we're keeping in close touch with HE with regard to that work.

Can I state that, for vulnerable students in the FE sector, we are maintaining all education maintenance allowance payments at this time? Even though there is an attendance element to receiving that money, clearly that is not appropriate, but we do not want to denude students of those precious financial resources and those payments, as well as Assembly learning grants, which will continue to be paid. For HE students, I know that they are concerned that, having left university, perhaps, and returned to their home address, that may affect their summer student loan payment, because there is a reduced rate for those students that live at home. That will not happen. They will retain access to their full entitlement regardless of whether they have stayed at their university or they have returned.

As I said earlier to Suzy Davies, the potential impact on the HE sector is enormous. Our immediate priority is to be able to help with immediate cash-flow difficulties, and we are doing that by keeping in close connection with HEFCW and the sector. We're looking then to bring as much stability as possible for the new start to the new academic year, and clearly there will need to be ongoing support over the next couple of academic years, potentially, because of the impact—primarily because of a loss of income from overseas students, but that is not the only challenge facing the sector at present.

I will now try and call again Mohammad Asghar. Mohammad, if you can hear us.

Deputy Presiding Officer, can you hear me?

Yes, that's fine, thank you. If you'd like to ask your question to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you, Minister, for your statement. I would like to ask about the effect of lockdown on the provision of skills training in the further education sector. Qualifications Wales has announced that steps will be taken to award vocational qualifications this summer for learners impacted by the virus emergency. Could the Minister give me more details about the process and timescales in delivering these calculated results in the best interests of apprentices and those undertaking traineeships in Wales?

Following on from this point, could you provide some indications of when face-to-face instruction could be phased in, and when we can expect the reintroduction of assessments of vocational competence, especially in key skill sectors? Some further education staff have seen an increased workload due to learners needing extra mental health support and guidance during this difficult time. Minister, maintaining the same number of staff is essential to supporting learners to continue their studies and keep them engaged, though staff availability and staff safety are also very crucial at this crucial time.

Can I ask you to wind up, please? I know you've had difficulty getting in. Wind up, please.

Will you please, Minister, agree to address the next funding round, as failure to do so would mean a waste of funded activity that has already taken place with a consequential damaging effect on the skills gap in Wales?

Deputy Presiding Officer, I think I have, in previous answers to colleagues this afternoon, addressed some of the points that Mr Asghar has raised. I would just repeat: with regard to qualifications, Qualifications Wales are very clear on their website about how they will award vocational qualifications. Where a calculated grade is possible, that will happen. Where calculation is not possible, consideration should be given to adapting existing assessments, and that too will happen. But for some—and Mr Asghar talked about professional competencies—that may have to be delayed, but we are working with the sector very closely to ascertain ways around this. It is true to say that it may not be possible for some of those technical assessments to be carried out in the current conditions, but we will keep that under review.

As I said earlier, we have given assurance to colleges around the nature of their funding going forward, and we have made £2 million available to support mental health initiatives in FE. I would like to commend the sector for the excellent work that they have been doing keeping in touch with their learners, especially their most vulnerable learners. They have been very good at doing so.

Thank you very much, Minister.