Covid-19

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 11:41 am on 24 June 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 11:41, 24 June 2020

Well, Llywydd, my colleague Kirsty Williams will answer a topical question on this matter later this afternoon. Let me just repeat that the advice that the Welsh Government provided was that, if it were possible to create four weeks of resumed education in Wales, the case for doing that was strong. We always recognised from the beginning that there was a contractual issue in the fourth week, which is why we proposed that, for teachers who worked in the fourth week, there would be an extra week of holiday restored to them at the October half term. But, as the Welsh Local Government Association said in welcoming our proposals, it was for them to take the proposals and put them into operation in the different circumstances that each local authority in Wales faces. And that's the way it has to be, because they are the employers, not the Welsh Government.

There will be children in Wales who will be in places where four weeks of school opening is possible, and I'm very glad that those local education authorities able to do so have been able to reach that agreement. Other local authorities will face different challenges, different circumstances, and come to different conclusions. That's inevitable in the way that things are done.