The number of vulnerable children attending school has been discussed at length during this debate and has increased as lockdown progressed. That is something that is not unique to Wales, and our experience in persuading parents of vulnerable children to send their children into our hubs is one that was mirrored in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. I have to acknowledge it took until we were able to open up all schools that we saw the numbers increase significantly, and that was one of my main reasons for opening all schools to check in, catch up and prepare at the end of this term.

If I could clarify, for Hefin, we have a very clear definition of what constitutes vulnerability during this crisis—a definition that was expanded and was supported by many of the key stakeholders that gave evidence to the committee, in terms of how we had identified children who were able to get support from hubs.

I acknowledge that for some of our special schools—our special educational needs schools—there have been particular challenges, but I would also like to highlight the very good practice. In many local areas special schools remained open, providing support for those children in familiar settings. It's a pity that Mr Melding is in an acting Presiding Officer role this afternoon, because he has some very good examples of a school, which he has a close connection with, that cares for very vulnerable children that has remained open throughout this pandemic and has supported parents to an excellent extent. 

To help schools with their other functions during this time, we've provided guidance on the continuity of learning with our 'Stay Safe. Stay Learning' document. This comprehensive plan included consideration for the provision, not just of those children who would attend mainstream school, but also children that would otherwise be educated in places other than at school.

We also sought to tackle digital exclusion, provide additional learning resources and guidance for parents to how best to support their children during this time. I'm sure many colleagues will have seen the stories in England and Scotland of the millions that have been spent on laptops that never actually reached learners ahead of the summer holiday. And I'm very pleased that, thanks to the innovative way we invested our funding, and the hard work, again, of schools and local authorities, that was much less of a problem here in Wales, and we were able to quickly mobilise support for digitally excluded learners, ensuring that they were equipped with the kit that they needed to carry on learning.

Of course, we were very fortunate to be working off a strong base with our online learning platform, Hwb, which provides unparalleled access to a wide range of bilingual digital tools and content to support digital education transformation. Logins throughout this period to Hwb have been incredible, as has been the professional engagement with professional learning opportunities provided by our regional school improvement services to ensure that our professionals could get the most out of it also. 

On the issue of vulnerability, again, Wales was the first country in the United Kingdom to guarantee free-school-meal provision during the Easter holiday, during the Whitsun half-term holiday and over the summer holiday. And we made that decision because we knew it was the right one to do, rather than being forced into it by a high-profile campaign.

But I know that transition to home schooling and online learning has not been easy and that, for some learners and their parents and carers, it has presented particular difficulties. On top top of that, as we've known from the children's commissioner survey, many learners have been concerned about missing school, about exams and results, about missing out on those end-of-year activities, saying goodbye to their friends and simply that structure that is so important to them. But mitigating the impact of this pandemic has been the major focus for the Welsh Government.

If I could turn to the issue of mental health, which, quite rightly has been the focus of this afternoon's debate also, in anticipation of increased demands of mental health resources, we have provided additional moneys to support children's mental health, on top of the investment that we made in counselling services and mental health support over the past year. And I am, indeed, very glad that we are now out to consultation on our whole-school approach. That work has been amended to reflect the COVID-19 situation, and I'm looking forward to a good response to the consultation that is out at the moment.

Can I say a little bit, briefly, about our youth services that moved to a new way of working and developed a new innovative practice, again at speed, and have continued to support children the length and breadth of Wales, although doing that in a very different form? And that support has been invaluable.

I remember, acting Presiding Officer, seeing a tweet from a youth worker right at the beginning of this crisis. She had been carrying out a weekly check-in with one of the young people—a primary-aged pupil that she was working with. She asked the young boy whether he was going to be okay, and whether he would have enough to eat and things to do. He replied to her and said, 'You don't need to worry about me—I'm going to be fine. I've been one that's chosen to be in the valuable group, so I'm going to school every day.' And I think that's wonderful that that school was able to identify that young boy as being valuable rather than vulnerable, and ensuring that he continued to have access, not only to the hub, but to his youth worker that was supporting him.

Last week I announced that all pupils will be able to return to school in September, and that is as a result of the hard work and the efforts of the people of Wales. We are now seeing community transition rates coming down, and that effort and hard work and sacrifice has allowed us to make that announcement. But I recognise that this needs to be planned and that schools and pupils will need support. And schools will have flexibility right at the very beginning of the new academic year to priorities certain groups of learners, as many already do. Safeguarding measures, such as hand washing, risk assessments and appropriate restriction measures will, however, have to remain in place, and updated operational and learning guidance was published earlier this week to support that return to school in September.

Also to support schools, we will recruit extra staff and support the recovery phase and continue to raise standards as part of our national mission by making available some £29 million in that effort. This is not a short-term fix, and I'm guaranteeing this money and extra staff and support for the whole of the next academic year. This means we will be able to recruit the equivalent of 600 extra teachers and 300 extra teaching assistants throughout the next school year. Extra support will be focused on those taking public examinations, as well as disadvantaged and vulnerable learners of all ages. Approaches could include extra coaching support, personalised learning programmes and additional time and resources for the examination of pupils.

Very quickly, acting Presiding Officer, we will be working with the childcare sector over the summer, and our aim is to increase the size of contact groups and support their move towards full operations, and I'm working very closely with my colleague the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services to enable that to happen. And additional resources for support for families of vulnerable children has been made for the summer holidays. I recognise that nursery education has its own complexities, and we are developing further guidance to support the sector.

I have been clear throughout this pandemic that our priority must be to deliver maximum learning with minimal disruption for our young people, and I'm also clear that we must never lose our expectations that any of our young people, no matter what their background, can be supported to achieve the very highest standards. And I'm determined that we will not lose that momentum, despite COVID-19, and I know that that ambition is shared by teachers and parents across Wales.

Alongside our new curriculum, which I was very pleased to spend an hour and a half—