5. What interventions has the Welsh Government put in place to support learners in the Cynon Valley whose education has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic? OQ56260

The range of measures to support learning include extensive professional learning, significant investment in devices and the £29 million accelerating learning programme. Schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf have received over £2.3 million from that £29 million investment and an allocation of over £358,000 from the £7 million fund to support coaching and mentoring for examination years.

Thank you very much, Minister, for that comprehensive answer. Evidence has consistently shown that those pupils eligible for free school meals are at more risk of falling behind their peers while learning from home, for a variety of complex and interrelated reasons. I recently had the privilege of attending the Senedd's Children, Young People and Education Committee, where you spoke about the emerging plans to use the school holiday enrichment programme as a vehicle to help those pupils who are eligible for free school meals to catch up through the summer holiday on the learning they may have missed during the pandemic. This is a strategy that could prove to reap rich rewards for young people in my constituency and across Wales. So, Minister, are you able to share any further details on this ambitious scheme with us today?

The Welsh Government's budget for 2021-22 includes £4.85 million for the school holiday enrichment programme. This represents a £2.15 million increase on the amount that was available in the previous year. We believe that this will allow us to fund places for up to 14,000 children in Wales. We continue to work with the Welsh Local Government Association, who manage the programme with us, to maximise that budget. We are discussing the potential need to adapt the nature of the programme in light of COVID to be a broader part of our recovery programme. I know, in the past, that the SHEP programme has made a massive difference to children, and it provides us with a really, really helpful model and vehicle to begin to address the very real impact that, as you have quite rightly identified, has hit more disadvantaged children particularly hard.