The next item is the business statement and announcement. I call on the Trefnydd to make the statement. Rebecca Evans. 

Diolch, Llywydd. I have several changes to this week's business. Firstly, later this afternoon, the Government will move a motion to suspend Standing Orders in order to enable the Senedd to debate the new coronavirus restrictions. In order to accommodate this, I have reduced the timings of the statement on the Valleys taskforce and the debate on the equality and human rights annual review. The debate on the Non-Domestic Rating (Multiplier) (Wales) Order 2020 has been postponed. And finally, the Business Committee agreed this morning to move tomorrow's debate on the standards committee report to the last item before voting. Draft business for the next three weeks is set out on the business statement and announcement, which can be found amongst the meeting papers available to Members electronically. 

On 23 November, the Welsh Government announced a pilot programme for supporting visits to care homes in Wales. I call for a Welsh Government statement on provision for families to visit loved ones in care homes this Christmas. The Welsh Government statement said you were offering testing to care home visitors across a small number of care homes, intended to pave the way for a wider roll-out to more Welsh care homes starting on 14 December. Last week, the UK Government announced that care home residents in England will receive indoor visits from family and friends this Christmas if they test negative for COVID-19 unless there is an outbreak in the care home, with over 1 million rapid lateral flow tests sent to care homes as the first phase of an English national roll-out to enable visiting by Christmas. As a constituent then e-mailed, and I'll quote them, 'Testing of relatives in England and more and more people going into the care homes and holding their loved ones is beautiful, but what about Wales? Why are we always last in the queue? For God's sake, just roll it out and let the Welsh residents be granted the same lifeline as England'. I call for a statement and update accordingly. 

Well, Llywydd, I hope that the Member does recognise the very difficult balance that we do have to strike in terms of keeping residents in care homes safe from COVID, but then also recognising that they have important well-being and mental health needs as well. And we are trying to strike that really difficult balance. The statement that was announced by the Minister with responsibility for social services recently did point to the actions that the Welsh Government is taking in this regard. It referred to the use of tests to enable more visits and it also referred to the investment that Welsh Government is making in pods to allow those safe visits as well. I know that there's ongoing and, quite rightfully, a lot of interest in this particular agenda, so I will ensure that the Deputy Minister for social services keeps the Senedd up to date on progress in this regard. 

I want to ask for a number of Government interventions, even though I understand that the Senedd time available this year is limited. The first relates to payments for self-isolation. I've had a number of supply teachers, among many other people, who have contacted me who are not eligible for this payment. So, can you tell us how you can extend eligibility to make it much easier for people to be able to self-isolate? Again, I ask for a statement on keeping the clinically vulnerable safe. People need to have the right to stay off work and it's not okay that clinically vulnerable people in Wales don't have the same protections as they do over the border. And finally, will the Government give consideration to prioritising school staff for vaccination? I've already talked about the need for mass testing in schools, because we know that COVID is spreading in schools. These front-line education workers deserve all the protection that we can give them, so they deserve priority status when it comes to vaccination.

I thank Leanne Wood for raising all of those important issues this afternoon. On the last issue, which relates to the prioritisation of various groups for vaccination, she'll be aware that the Welsh Government takes its advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, as do all four Government of the UK. And that's really important, because the prioritisation that it advises for vaccination is done on the basis of its understanding of the needs and the risks that people face. I completely understand the various groups who passionately campaign that they should be at the front for those vaccinations, and they make excellent cases, but I don't think that this should be a political decision; it should be a decision based on the best advice that we get from the JCVI. I know that they take into consideration all of the representations that Governments across the four nations are receiving in this regard. On the issue of payments for self-isolation, I will ask Leanne Wood to write to the Minister, Julie James, with regard to the specific cases that she has described—the staff working in schools—so we can better understand the challenges there. And again, I will raise that important issue of what more we can do to ensure that clinically vulnerable staff are kept safe and that employers are exercising their responsibilities to their staff to keep them safe. I'll pursue that with the health Minister further.

Trefnydd, could I ask you for one statement? It could be a statement after the health Minister meets with the community pharmacy sector next week. It could be a written statement if it's good news. If it's an oral statement, perhaps we could have it on the floor so we could question it. It's to do with the role of community pharmacies in stepping up to the mark during this coronavirus pandemic that we've had. When GPs were forced at the start of this pandemic to actually shut their doors to public-facing arrangements, it was the community pharmacists that stepped in. They stepped in when physiotherapy and optician services and dental services were unable to perform and they stepped in to help in emergencies as well. And they've done this against real challenges with their own staff, some of whom have been shielding. So, would it be possible to have a statement that looks at how community pharmacies have served us during this pandemic and, indeed, how they can be remunerated for the additional costs they've had? I'm aware that Community Pharmacy Scotland, and those in Ireland and England as well, have been bringing forward support. It would be great to see, after the meeting with the health Minister next week, that we had a similar package brought forward to recognise people like Gareth Rowe of Nantymoel and Ogmore Vale pharmacies, and others, who really stepped up to the mark during this crisis.

Thank you to Huw Irranca-Davies for raising this particular issue. I also agree that community pharmacies have really gone above and beyond in many cases in terms of supporting their communities. I can tell Huw Irranca-Davies that negotiations between the Welsh Government and Community Pharmacy Wales officials have been ongoing since CPW submitted a claim back in April for additional expenses incurred due to the pandemic. We, of course, as I say, recognise it has been an extremely difficult time for community pharmacy, and the health Minister has signalled clearly his intention to provide additional resources, subject to these negotiations. A number of offers have been made, but they have been rejected, and a final offer has been made in recent weeks. As yet, it's been not possible to reach an agreement with CPW, but this is what the meeting next week will intend to come to a resolution on. I should add that we made additional funding of £1.5 million available in March to support business continuity, and we also postponed until further notice a range of services in pharmacies, but we're still continuing to provide the funding for those services. Again, that was because of our concerns about business continuity and meeting the additional costs for servicing their patients who are shielding, for example. So, we do recognise those matters as well. But I'll be sure to ensure that the health Minister provides that update on the outcome of those negotiations as soon as he's able to. 

I'd like to call for an urgent statement from the Minister for Education regarding the teaching of relationships and sexuality education. I've been contacted by many, many concerned parents who feel that the proposed new curriculum is a step too far. They are also very concerned that parents can no longer opt their children out of such lessons. Thousands of parents rightly believe that sex education starts and ends in the home, that those parents who want to teach their children developmental sex and relationship education should be free to do so, and that the children can opt out of RSE lessons. Much of the concern and outrage has been centred upon the materials, shared with me by concerned teachers, that will be shown to children as young as four. A four-year-old is still a baby in my eyes and should not, under any circumstances, be taught about sex and masturbation. Let's let children be children. Concern has been rising in recent weeks and we need a statement by the Minister to categorically state that RSE will not be compulsory and certainly not taught to children as young as four. Diolch yn fawr. 

The Welsh Government has been working on the curriculum and assessment Bill, which the issue the Member describes is part of, for a long time, and we've undertaken extensive consultation on this particular matter. I will invite Caroline Jones to write to the education Minister with those examples that have been shared with her, because the education Minister has always been absolutely categorical that any teaching provided to children in this particular field should always be absolutely age appropriate. So, if Caroline Jones could share the concerns that have been raised with her, I know that the Minister will be keen to see those descriptions. 

Business Minister, may I please call for a statement from the education Minister to address a problem in our schools that's now escalated from the last time that I spoke to you? I want to welcome what the First Minister said earlier—that a statement has come out this morning saying that local government and schools are now going to keep open until the end of this term. The First Minister also interestingly said that children are more at risk at home than in schools. To that end, I'm sure he'll share my concerns that whole year groups in some of our schools now are still going off just due to one coronavirus case per age group. For example, in a school in my area, in my region, two year groups have been off for two weeks and have been back in school four days, and now have been told to isolate again for two weeks, and this is all supposedly on just one case per age group. Minister, I'm acutely aware, obviously, as we've discussed today already, that cases are rising rapidly and that public health and safety must come first, and that schools are doing the best on the advice that they have been given, but something isn't working along the line. We are still getting massive differences between council areas on how COVID is being handled in our schools. I know there has purposely been a degree of local autonomy given on these matters, but, looking at these outcomes, don't you think it's time that we got control of this? Children are off school far too regularly now. The Government urgently needs to address this Chamber and state how it's going to address this disparity and how they're going to ensure that everyone can now access home schooling at a level that's close to receiving an education in the classroom. And I'm having reports that's not completely—

You do need to bring your contribution to a close now. Thank you.

—and admissions from heads that still children are unable to access devices. So, please could the education Minister bring a statement on how she intends to address the problem of frequent isolation now? The impact that is having—

Okay, okay, that's enough now. I asked you to bring your contribution to a conclusion. I gave you sufficient time. The Minister to respond.

Thank you. It is disappointing to see whole-year groups being sent home to self-isolate when you look at other schools that seem to be managing the situation much better. I know that the Member has raised this issue with me, alongside a couple of other questions specific to education recently, and I have asked the education Minister to provide a letter with a response. I'll ensure that she reviews the transcript today to ensure that the comments you've made are reflected in that written response as well.

This week, the roll-out of a vaccine has started and there is hope on the horizon for many people. But we are still looking at a few challenging months ahead, and the elderly and the young will feel this particularly. Perhaps it's the elderly and younger people who been most affected by loneliness and isolation over the past few months, losing out on experiences in the company of their friends and relatives. Recently, a group of Members launched a new cross-party group on intergenerational unity, and we will be working closely with the older people's commissioner, the future generations commissioner and the children's commissioner to draw attention to areas of policy that can be developed to nurture these relationships between the generations and to bring people back to the heart of their communities. So, I'd like to ask for a statement from the Welsh Government on the importance of intergenerational working in order to tackle loneliness. And I'd also like to ask a Government Minister to meet with members of the new cross-party group so that we can discuss what steps could be put in place before the next election.

I'm really pleased to see the formulation of the new cross-party group on intergenerational unity. I think there's plenty of ground to be gained in that area, and I think all of us can think of some great examples of things that are happening locally in order to address loneliness and isolation at both ends and to foster that better understanding between the generations. But perhaps these examples are more isolated than we'd like them to be. So, when the cross-party group does come forward with its proposals in terms of areas of policy that could be developed in this area, I know that Welsh Government would be very keen to see the suggestions and ideas coming forth from the cross-party group.

Trefnydd, can I just add my voice to that of Laura Anne Jones for a statement from the education Minister on the subject she was speaking of? We can't have 300 children going off just because there's one positive case and children just going to school for five days since the beginning of September.

Could I also ask for a statement from the education Minister regarding students and what they're being offered regarding their tests before they return home? You may have noticed that they're being asked to lay low in the period between the two tests, and if that means self-isolating, I think students need to know that's what it means. I think we could also do with a little bit more information on whether students will need two negative tests before they are allowed to return to university in January for face-to-face work?

Could I also just mention that the latest statistics show that only eight students in a seven-day rolling programme are testing positive for COVID? So, something is going right in universities and it would be useful to know what that is. Thank you.

Thank you to Suzy Davies for raising that issue. I will make a point of speaking to the education Minister to seek some clarity on those specific questions relating to some of the practicalities around the arrangements for students as they leave to go home for Christmas, but also in terms of the arrangements for returning to campus. So, I'll be sure to do that.

I thank the Trefnydd.