Questions now from party spokespeople. The Conservative spokesperson, Suzy Davies.

If you could turn your microphone on, Suzy Davies—okay, try again.

Sorry about that.

Yes, Minister, I was listening to your response to Jayne Bryant there and that observation that schools and colleges aren't vectors for the spread of COVID. Yet we've seen considerable numbers being sent home from some schools—200 in one case, and over 400 in another. You say you're monitoring what's happening at the moment, but have you learnt anything yet about why further education colleges seem to be doing a better job of minimising face-to-face teaching? They're losing fewer students than schools. Why is that?

Thank you, Suzy. As you said, we are keeping in close touch with our local education authorities and our directors of education. And in the case you've just mentioned—400 pupils leaving a school—I myself have spoken to the headteacher in those circumstances to understand why that situation arose. That's why, as I said in answer to Jayne Bryant, we are learning the lessons of these four weeks, where schools have worked incredibly hard to operationalise the guidance that we've made available to them. But clearly, in the light of those experiences, we need to understand what more we can do, how we can improve our guidance in schools, so that they can limit the number of direct contacts, and what other support we can give schools from our TTP teams, to be able to help them make decisions around which students can safely remain in school and not disrupt their education, and which students will, indeed, need to isolate. So, we're looking to review our guidance and, as I said, work closely with our colleagues in Public Health Wales and TTP to ensure that the advice given to headteachers is as good as it needs to be and that we have consistency across TTP teams in Wales.

Thank you for that. I think it would be helpful as well if colleges within a certain area might be prepared to speak to some of the headteachers in schools within their area about some of the good ideas that they've had.

Further education and higher education have both received over £20 million each from the Welsh Government COVID pot, despite a projected funding gap of more than £400 million for higher education. You signalled in the Welsh Conservative debate last week that that's one of the reasons why you don't support a partial reduction in fees for students who've lost out on the experience they've paid for. But, as we've heard, some students are having to stay in their expensive rooms to log in when they could have done that in a more familiar and cheaper environment at home—a home that many students will be leaving for the first time. None of the £27 million for HE is ring-fenced for student support. What are universities in Wales telling you now about how much of that money is going to unanticipated and speedy emotional and mental well-being support for students, and will they be coming to you for a top-up to the £27 million because of that?

Suzy, you'll be aware that the £27 million additional money that we've made available to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales will be delivered to our institutions by the funding council. I met with the chair and the chief executive of our funding council just yesterday. And in my remit letter to them, emotional and mental health support for students is a priority for me, and I would expect part of that £27 million to be used to support universities deliver robust mental health and well-being support to students at this time, and also, potentially, to use some of that funding to ensure that financial distress that some students may experience is also taken into consideration. Obviously, Welsh students who are residing in Wales and studying—well, wherever they study—are entitled to our support programme. But I recognise that many students would usually supplement their income with part-time jobs, which may prove more difficult to come by at this particular time. So, both financial support and mental health support are a priority for me and a priority for the funding council, and we await bids from Welsh institutions to that pot of money, to ensure that that support is available.

Thank you for that. That's a good, strong message there to universities, so I certainly hope they're picking that up, because, at some point down the line, of course, we'll be scrutinising you on the spend of that £27 million, and I'm sure you will want that reassurance in the reports that you get back from universities in due course.

On a related matter—you'll know this—concerns have been raised with me, in my region and elsewhere, regarding some confusion about students living in large, off-campus houses in multiple occupation. Now, some set-ups are clearly single-person households in one building, but others can legitimately say that they're one genuine household of friends, sharing all facilities and costs like a family. This will impact on how the occupants of those buildings can respond to lockdown, and those in the latter situation are certainly at an advantage. I accept that this applies to non-students as well. But can you tell us how far down the road Welsh Government is to allowing solitary students to have a limited extended household in order to keep them sane? And, more generally, what concerns have you brought to the attention of the Minister for Housing and Local Government about what is understood by students to constitute an extended household, bearing in mind that they all have their own families, who may be happy to accept their own child in a bubble but not a whole household of friends?

Thank you very much for that. Can I assure the Member that I am not just seeking reassurances from individual institutions or the funding council about the levels of support institutions are putting in place for mental health? I met this week with the National Union of Students Wales to understand from them how their members are feeling. I will meet again with them next week, and I will continue to meet with them on a weekly basis so that I can receive reports from them as to how members are feeling. So, there are a number of checks and balances in how we are understanding what is going on on the ground.

I think it’s really important, Suzy, that we make clear that students will not be treated in a less favourable way than permanent residents of Wales. Wales is now their home. Our expectation is that they abide by Welsh regulations and guidance, but we certainly won't be putting additional restrictions in place. Indeed, in some cases, recognising some of the challenges around student accommodation—both on campus and off campus—the ability to share facilities has been made an exception to some of the issues around single households. But, clearly, we will continue to work with the housing Minister to ensure that those students who would be described as a single household are subject to the same consideration when we look at the wider issues related to individuals who find themselves living alone in the pandemic—some who might be vulnerable, some of them who are not vulnerable. But we all need that human contact and, as a Government, we're looking at finding ways in which we can allow that to happen safely, recognising that periods of isolation for those living alone can be particularly challenging.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Helen Mary Jones.

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Yesterday, Minister, the First Minister said in response to a question from Adam Price regarding students returning home for Christmas that he wouldn't treat students differently from anyone else. Now, I'm very glad to hear what you've just said to Suzy Davies—that you won't treat them less favourably—but I would suggest to the Government that this is a very distinct group of citizens. There can't be many other groups of citizens that will be moving in such large numbers from one community to another at particular times.

If a student is in a situation that they are in a university at Christmastime that is subject to a lockdown, does that mean that they can't go home? Everything that you've just been saying to Suzy Davies about the welfare of students and their mental and emotional well-being is very encouraging, but I would suggest to the Government that students do need to be treated differently, and perhaps what we need is a system whereby all students can be tested before they return home for Christmas, so that they could socially isolate when they get back home, if that's what they need to do—if they get a positive test. Otherwise, we will face, potentially, groups of young people or young people on their own over the Christmas holidays, and I know that you would not want to see that any more than I would.

Thank you, Helen Mary, for that. I want to assure the Chamber and, indeed, I want to assure students and parents that it is a priority for me, and a priority for this Government, to ensure that students who are residing and studying at Welsh universities will be able to return home for Christmas. I say that as a Minister, and I say that as a mum who has just sent my eldest daughter to university on Sunday evening. Believe me, she might have views about coming home for Christmas, but I desperately want her home for Christmas with me.

So, we will be working with our health Minister, working with our individual institutions and, indeed, working with the UK Government to ensure that the circumstances can be put in place to allow that to happen. SAGE, in their advice to the UK Government, is very, very clear that this needs to be worked out on a UK-wide basis because of the student flows across our borders. Individual students will be wanting to cross county and country borders, so, therefore, Governments need to work together on creating the circumstances that will allow that to happen. I discussed this matter with the universities Minister in the UK Government yesterday. I will discuss it again tomorrow with Gavin Williamson, and we are determined to ensure that students, when they want to, will be able to return home. But, clearly, we need to put the circumstances in place where they can do that safely.

Thank you, Minister. So, what you're telling the Chamber today is that you will be treating students, potentially, differently from other groups of people. If that's the case, I'm very glad indeed to hear it. I fully support your point about trying to develop a UK-wide response to this, because, obviously, we have a lot of cross-border flow. I would put it to you, however, that if the UK Government acting as the Government for England fail to sort themselves out on this, I do hope that there will be a plan B from the Welsh Government.

If I can turn, then, to students who are currently at university but not receiving any direct teaching or only receiving very minimal amounts of face-to-face teaching, there will be some of those students who would wish to return home and to be able to do their remote learning from there. What's the Government's position on that at the moment? For example, if you're, let's say, a student in Aberystwyth whose home is in RCT, is it permissible for that student to come from Aberystwyth to RCT to study for a period of weeks if that's what they feel they need to do, and is it then permissible for them to return to the university when blended learning and face-to-face learning can start again? It is quite a complex situation, I think, for students, and I think they would appreciate more clarity.

I wonder if you can give us a sense as well this afternoon, Minister, because I know you'll have your finger on the pulse with this, as to how much blended learning is taking place, how much actual face-to-face learning are students getting. I don't support, as you know, the Conservative position that would have students having their fees repaid, simply because I don't think our institutions can afford it, but I do think that if students are only getting very minimal or none at all in terms of face-to-face teaching, they ought to be allowed to go home to be with their families, if we can do that safely, in order that they can get that emotional support. Many of them, especially first years, of course, will be self-isolating potentially with people they've never met before, and that's not a happy place for an 18-year-old to be.

Firstly, with regard to the suspension of face-to-face learning in Aberystwyth, that decision was taken late on Sunday evening; it will be reviewed on Friday and I know it is the sincere hope of the university to be able to move back to a blended learning approach. A quick survey of social media will demonstrate to you that our institutions across Wales are already delivering a blended learning approach, whether that be our medics back doing face-to-face learning in Cardiff University, whether that's engineering students at Trinity Saint David, whether that's history students at Swansea, or, indeed, something that is of particular interest to me, our ITE, our education students at Cardiff Met, who are out and about, actually, doing their learning outside as part of their induction into the university and developing their skills in delivering outdoor learning activities. So, universities are working incredibly hard to deliver that blended learning approach.

What's really important to me, Helen Mary, and I'm sure it is to you, is that it needs to be a quality experience. Lectures that are delivered online need to be good lectures and good experiences, as well as that face-to-face contact. That's why I've received assurances from HEFCW yesterday that they will be monitoring the quality of the blended learning approach very, very carefully. And let me say, blended learning and face-to-face contact is not just important in the context of learning. It is an important part of how universities can check in with the welfare of their students, by having an opportunity to see them face-to-face, and I know a great deal of time, effort and resources have gone in to, for instance, expanding university estates and creating more space to allow that to happen safely. So, for instance, in the case of Aberystwyth, they have actually recommissioned buildings that had previously been mothballed so that they can indeed deliver that face-to-face contact in small tutorial groups, and I know that they're keen to continue to do so as soon as is possible.