7. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for children and young people learning at home? OQ56340

Llywydd, getting children and young people back into school remains our top priority. The range of measures to support remote learning include additional support for practitioners, significant investment in devices, support for learners with additional needs and the £29 million Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme.

Thank you, First Minister, and it was absolutely fantastic to see our youngest children going back to school yesterday, and unlike Andrew R.T. Davies and, it seems, Boris Johnson, I think it's really important that Governments should follow their own scientific advice, which means that our children in Wales will be learning at home for a longer period, as we manage that return to school safely. With this in mind, and given the recognition that there's been from the Education Policy Institute about the pace—and very welcome pace—with which Welsh Government has got digital support out there to families, what further investment is planned to ensure that all children and young people can learn at home for the period that we now hope will be as short as possible?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Lynne Neagle for that, and thank her for the work that she and her committee have carried out in support of returning children and young people to face-to-face learning as quickly but as safely as we need to. I've seen her letter to the education Minister of earlier this month, which, I think, sets out very fairly indeed the balance that has to be there between the urgency of the need to get those young people back into education, but always doing so in line with the best scientific advice to keep them and those who look after them in that setting safe from this deadly disease.

I thank the Member for what she has said about investment in the Hwb edtech programme. We're very lucky, Llywydd, I think, that when coronavirus hit, we'd already had nearly £100 million-worth of investment in Hwb. It genuinely is a global-leading set of resources that we've been able to mobilise for young people here in Wales. And, as Lynne Neagle will know, earlier this month, the education Minister decided to invest a further £15 million in education technology in schools next year, and that is very much focused on ensuring that there are devices available for young people who need them, but also that there is connectivity for digitally excluded learners. And the £15 million that we were able to announce just a few days ago now means we can be sure that we can support those learners right through to the end of this academic year.

Finally, question 8, Llyr Gruffydd.