2. What support is the Welsh Government providing to the voluntary sector in Wales? OQ56239

The Welsh Government provides core funding to the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and county voluntary councils to enable them to support local voluntary organisations and volunteering groups across Wales. We have approved £26.5 million, with an additional £5.7 million for the voluntary sector—that final £5.7 million was approved this week—to support the sector during the pandemic.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for that answer. Voluntary groups and charities do exceptional work to support some of the most vulnerable in our society. One such group is the Sparkle Appeal, which supports children, young people and their families with disabilities and developmental difficulties, at the Serennu centre in Newport. Their work is crucial. However, they themselves have had an incredibly hard year, with COVID restrictions seeing their work and funding opportunities limited. They greatly appreciated the Welsh Government grant last year, which was aimed at covering six months of core costs; however, nine months in, their financial state is suffering. How are the Welsh Government supporting organisations such as this, to ensure that they can continue to support the most vulnerable through this period, because the work that they do is vital, and we can't afford to lose them?

Thank you, Jayne Bryant, for bringing attention to this important charity in your constituency. In fact, inspirational work, as you've described, is done by charities like Sparkle. And, of course, all their volunteers in the Gwent area are particularly helping to support disabled children and young people and their families. So, as you say, Sparkle did benefit from the £90,000 grant from what was our voluntary services emergency fund, during the pandemic, and we'll be ensuring that these sources of support for third sector organisations continue during the pandemic. But it has been a great challenge for communities and groups of this kind, because of the coronavirus outbreak. Because so many of them, of course, have lost income, as well as having additional demands and expectations, and so many volunteers have engaged. But I am very pleased that, as I said in answer to your first question, we're making a further £5.7 million available to continue with this work through the pandemic, and I hope this will be able to support organisations such as yours.

Question 3 [OQ56230] is withdrawn. Question 4, Delyth Jewell.