1. Will the Minister provide an update on measures to enable students to progress their education in Wales during the current pandemic? OQ56086

Thank you, Laura. The range of measures to support remote learning include extensive professional learning, significant investment in devices, and the enhanced £29 million accelerated learning programme. Building on guidance to support blended learning, further guidance has been published today to enable schools to effectively support learners.

Thank you, Minister. The announcement that Welsh schools will remain closed now until February half term has obviously had a massive impact on children's mental health. And also that stress has been felt by parents also trying to work from home at the same time, as you'll know, as I do. But that is being exacerbated in some families by the access to devices. And I know that there has been some, now, more money allocated following discussions we have had in committee to devices, but the Child Poverty Action Group has raised concerns that

'Children without access to a laptop are being denied support for home-schooling by means testing'— with some schools only offering support to children on free school meals. They went on to say that

'Three-quarters of families who lack the kind of devices they need aren't eligible for free school meals.'

So, what action are you taking, Minister, to tackle this inequality of provision of devices to enable home learning, which is stressful enough without children worrying that they are falling behind or don't have the equality of opportunity at home as they do in school? I'd just quickly like to share that I have, on Facebook—it was shared around that people can now access the Hwb on PlayStation and Xbox, and I thought that was really useful, but I'm just wondering, what else are you doing, Minister? Thank you.

Thank you, Laura. You're correct to say that access to digital devices is one part of the challenge. Since the pandemic began, we have made available approximately 106,000 devices for schools, which they can lend out to children. In the autumn term, we established with our local authority partners a distance learning working group to further understand the barriers to children accessing distance learning should that become necessary. We are working at speed with the local authorities to address the needs of those families that have come forward in the autumn term for additional support, as well as looking at the issues around connectivity, which, at this present time, local authorities tell us is a bigger concern than actual devices themselves.

Minister, I'm sure we can all agree that there is no substitute for face-to-face learning. Attending school is not just about educational achievement, it's an important part of the emotional development of our young people. While COVID is impacting upon school attendance, it must not be allowed to impact a young person's development, and I've been contacted by a constituent who is concerned that schools in Bridgend are not conducting live lessons, albeit via video link, they are merely providing workbook downloads from the Twinkl website. Minister, do you agree with me that this is unacceptable, and will you ensure that children across Wales continue to receive live teaching via video link as long as the schools are closed?

Thank you, Caroline. We have published extensive guidance to local education authorities and schools around distance learning at this time. All learners should be provided with the duration of learning time that they would have received should they have been in schools. Obviously, there are some exceptions to that implementation, especially for our youngest children. I'm sure Caroline would agree with me it's not in the best interest of our youngest learners to be sat in front of a screen for long periods of time. We continue, via our regional school improvement service and Estyn, to provide additional support for practitioners to improve practice in this area. I'm also aware, though, we have seen an increase in the use of live lessons in Wales since the previous lockdown, and that brings a different set of stresses to parents who are, especially for our youngest children, now required to sit alongside them to do that work, and sometimes parents find that challenging. I would urge all Members, and indeed parents, to go to the Welsh Government Hwb site to join the 3 million people that log on every month. There are specific resources available, not only to practitioners to learn from good practice, but also support for parents so that they can make the most of the resources that are available so that they can keep their children both safe and learning at this time.

Minister, in order for our young people to make progress in their education, they need to be supported by teachers who are fit and well, both physically and mentally. Nowhere is this more so than in our pupil referral units, where staff work with some of our most challenging young people, including throughout all of the lockdowns. PRUs are classed as special schools, and there was relief and optimism across the sector when the Welsh Government recently announced that staff in special schools would get priority access to the vaccine. However, since, that announcement has been clarified to state that only those staff providing intimate personal care will be eligible. With staff in PRUs having to deal with close contact, pupils spitting, refusing to comply with social distancing or to wear masks, all on a daily basis, will you please commit to seeking priority status for these staff, who consider themselves to be in a uniquely vulnerable position and are experiencing considerable stress as a result?

Thank you, Vikki. I would like to place on record my immense gratitude and thanks to those working in our PRU units, as you quite rightly say, working alongside some of our most vulnerable learners. That is why we have asked local authorities at this time, where at all possible, to continue to provide PRU education, and I'm grateful for those staff that are doing that on a daily basis. Could I reinforce the clarification? All staff, whether they are in a special school, a mainstream school, or indeed a further education college that are involved in the intimate care of pupils will be classed as social care staff. The tasks that they are involved in doing, if they were carrying those out as part of a domiciliary care package, or indeed as a care package, for instance, in a care home, they would be classed as social care staff. And it is those staff that will be eligible for the vaccine in this first round. We continue to discuss with the other parts of the United Kingdom, and with scientists, around when the further education workforce will become eligible for a vaccine. And I am very keen that that should happen as soon as possible. That's all staff that are keeping education going—so that's those working in our schools and those that are taking our children to school. And once the first phase of the vaccination process is completed, I hope we can move to a situation where we will receive advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation about how we can protect other front-line workers.