As we made clear in the framework for recovery document, published on 24 April, addressing inequality will be a key factor in our plans for coming out of lockdown. In the meantime, we have already taken a series of actions to mitigate where we can the impacts of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in Wales. 

As Members will know, research has established that minority ethnic groups are experiencing greater harm from the virus than the majority of the population and that there is a differential impact within BAME communities. Through our stakeholder groups, we are working to understand these impacts and how they are affecting our communities in Wales. A BAME COVID-19 advisory group has been established to examine the evidence and to identify measures that could be taken further to protect the most vulnerable, and I will attend a meeting of that group immediately after concluding my statement this afternoon. 

Llywydd, we have continued to prioritise the welfare of families who need help the most. The Minister for Education has announced funding of up to £40 million to enable local authorities to continue free school meal provision until schools reopen, or to the end of August. Wales is the first country in the United Kingdom to provide this continued assurance of support during the school holidays, just as we are funding free childcare for pre-school children of critical workers, and we are the only country in the UK providing free childcare for vulnerable people. And the digital exclusion grant of £3 million, announced since the Senedd last met, will enable all children to access the IT they may need for remote learning during the crisis. 

We have recognised the exceptional service provided by care workers through a flat-rate £500 payment to those in the social care workforce providing personal social care. As with the £60,000 death in service payment, this will have the greatest relative benefit for those with the least to begin with. Llywydd, women bear the brunt of low pay in our society. More than 80 per cent of workers in social care are women, and our decision to make a payment of £500 will have an equality impact in gender as well as in income.

At the same time, Llywydd, I should welcome the decision of the Ministry of Justice to locate the first new women offenders residential centre in Wales, a long-overdue development and much assisted by the advocacy of my colleagues, Alun Davies and now Jane Hutt.

Llywydd, in providing financial support from within a limited block budget, we work to target funding where it is most needed. By providing a ceiling of £0.5 million on the rateable value eligibility for our business rate relief scheme, we have freed up more than £100 million to support smaller businesses across Wales. And here we have kept to important schemes that benefit low-paid and vulnerable people. The discretionary assistance fund was particularly important during the flooding emergency earlier this year, and it continues to offer vital protection to people in financial crisis. We have allocated an additional £11 million to this fund this year. In normal times, Llywydd, the discretionary assistance fund makes around 5,600 payments each month, totalling £330,000; since the impact of the crisis, 12,000 payments are being made monthly, totalling now £0.75 million. We continue to support households experiencing hardship through the council tax reduction scheme, and continue to encourage people to contact their local authority to see if they are eligible for help through it. 

Finally, Llywydd, last week marked five years since the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 became Welsh law, and that was set out in an important statement by the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip yesterday. As we respond to the current crisis and plan for a post-COVID Wales, the Welsh Government will hold fast to the principles of that Act to build a more prosperous, greener and more equal Wales. The actions I have outlined today are rooted in our commitment to social, economic and environmental justice, and it is this that will continue to shape our actions in the future. Diolch yn fawr.