I'd like to thank Siân Gwenllian for those questions. I'm pleased that she recognised the huge contribution that the childcare sector makes and that she thanked the sector for providing the opportunity for care workers to be able to continue to work in this pandemic. The childcare sector played an absolutely vital part.

At this time of the year, applications for the childcare offer are always lower than during the rest of the year, and in my statement I said that it was between 75 and 85 per cent of what we would normally expect at this time of the year. Bearing in mind that, for the reasons I used in my previous answers, many parents may be still reluctant for their children to go to childcare, many may still be working from home and trying to look after the children at the same time, and many may be on furlough still, I think there are reasons why that number is low and we anticipate that it will gradually rise as confidence grows in terms of returning children to the childcare sector.

We did do this survey in August to see what help had been made available to the sector and, in fact, 90 per cent of the people who replied did say that they had some form of Government grant from some place or other. So, I think 90 per cent did get grants, but nevertheless I absolutely accept what Siân Gwenllian is saying because it was a fragile sector before all this happened and obviously we want to give as much support as we possibly can, which is why we produced the provider fund grant. It's only been open for a few weeks, but as you say, the applications are slow at the moment, so I have asked officials to liaise with the providers—with Cwlwm in particular—to see what help can be given and to encourage the groups to apply, because obviously, many of these groups are run by voluntary management committees who are doing it in their own time, and we want to give them as much help as possible, because we certainly don't want that £4.5 million to go to waste, because it was specifically aimed at trying to plug the gaps in the childcare sector.

In terms of the review, we have been considering whether we can extend the offer to people in education and training, and people who are on the cusp of work. That review is taking place. It will report to me in the autumn, and I hope we'll be able to say something definitive to the Chamber towards the end of this term or at the beginning of next term.

In terms of the impact on children, I think Siân Gwenllian is absolutely right: so many children have suffered so much during this period, particularly disadvantaged children. I'm glad we were able to provide some support for disadvantaged children and also through the summer holidays, when we were able to give some money to local authorities to try to provide some provision during the summer holidays. But because we know that it is so absolutely crucial for the early years, for children to have as much support and help as they possibly can, I absolutely agree with her that we have to do all we possibly can to help the children catch up and help support the schools and the childcare settings to do all they can for particularly the disadvantaged children.