Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm very pleased to contribute to this debate today as Chair of the Finance Committee. We've made nine recommendations. Given the time available, I will perhaps focus on some of our main concerns in this debate this afternoon.

The committee heard from the Minister that the Bill provides the legislative underpinning for the development of a wholesale reform of the curriculum and assessment for Wales, but there were only two options contained within the regulatory impact assessment, namely do nothing, or legislate, and we believe that the RIA should be a key tool to critically assess a range of methods, and to provide an evidence-based approach to policy-making decisions and the committee is concerned that informed, comprehensive RIAs are not driving the decision-making process here. Whilst the committee accepts that the impact of the pandemic may have created a more difficult environment for the preparation of the Bill, we are concerned that the Welsh Government has replaced the explanatory memorandum two months after the original was laid. Whilst the changes weren't particularly relevant to consideration of the financial aspects of the Bill, that's a worrying precedent that has been set.

The RIA notes that the curriculum will be decided at school level with each school applying the curriculum requirements in their own contexts. Therefore, there is no single basis on which to assess the costs of the legislation. However, a significant proportion of the costs are estimated to fall to schools, and that is between £146 million and £438 million, or between 45 per cent and 71 per cent of the total costs.

The methodology used to estimate the costs for schools was based primarily on a survey of 15 innovation schools, with the RIA providing a plus or minus 50 per cent range on the estimate costs. It's disappointing that a more representative sample of the wider school population has not been used, and that more detailed work of the costs to schools across Wales was not undertaken. Our second recommendations recommend that this work should be undertaken and included in a revised RIA.

The duties placed on pupil referral units and education other than at schools are different to those placed on schools. The Welsh Government undertook a small-scale investigation with these stakeholders. However, the transition and ongoing costs were not included in the RIA, as they weren't considered robust enough to aggregate to an all-Wales level. The Minister confirmed the Bill would provide a framework for learners in education other than at school, entitling them to have access to the new curriculum arrangements. However, she said that given the wide range of different learning needs in that sector, it was difficult to quantify costs, because it's a needs-based approach, and therefore the costs were not included. We recommend in our third recommendation that the Welsh Government should undertake further work to define and estimate the costs for education other than at school in consultation with stakeholders.

Now, £126.8 million will be provided to schools for professional learning. The Minister confirmed that the funding allocated to schools is determined by a funding formula. We also heard from the Minister that other elements of professional learning are accounted for in different ways, and that the National Academy for Educational Leadership is funded via an annual grant.

To aid transparency, the committee recommends that details of the teacher-based formula used to fund schools and information on the other ways schools receive funding should be published.

We heard that engagement with a number of key stakeholders had to be paused in response to COVID-19. As I mentioned at the beginning of my contribution, the committee acknowledges the impact of the pandemic, of course. However, it is disappointing that the engagement work with stakeholders had not progressed further upon the Bill’s introduction. This leads to a number of concerns around the evidence used by Welsh Government in making the decisions outlined in the explanatory memorandum.

We are grateful to the Minister for providing an update on engagement with stakeholders, which stated that Welsh Government officials had met with representatives from the further education sector to discuss the potential impact on the post-16 education system, including financial implications for training. We recommend that the detail on the Welsh Government’s discussions with stakeholders around the potential costs to the post-16 education sector should be published along with any details of the financial implications.

That's a brief outline of some of the main recommendations that we made, but the full range of recommendations is available in the committee's report. Thank you.