Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 13 January 2021.
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.