Item 6 on the agenda this afternoon is the statement by the Minister for Education on the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme, and I call on the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I have been absolutely privileged, during my time as the education Minister, to see the improvement in the educational settings for our children and young people throughout our country delivered through the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme. 

Over this term, we have successfully delivered the first wave of £1.4 billion of programme funding within the five years, as was promised, with some really important additions. Going beyond the 150 school projects originally promised, investment has culminated in 170 new and refurbished schools right the way across Wales, giving our pupils the very best start in life. We have changed the learning environment for over 100,000 pupils during the first wave, provided an economic stimulus during difficult times, we've created jobs as well as learning and engagement opportunities for communities, and benefits for local supply chains.

This success has paved the way for a further £2.3 billion-worth of investment through the second wave of the programme funding, which I launched in April 2019. With an improved programme intervention rate, this has increased the affordability of the programme for our delivery partners, and a mix of capital and revenue funding to make the most strategic investments in the school estate is now available as we move forward. I'm delighted that £1.5 billion has been spent to date under the programme, and we've been able to invest in inspiring schools and colleges in every single part of Wales. And I'm particularly proud that this financial year, in the most difficult and challenging of circumstances, the programme has continued, and, in some cases, accelerated delivery, as shown by the number of projects that are under way or being completed ahead of the programme schedule.  

We have achieved the largest annual programme spend of over £300 million in this financial year, which demonstrates and illustrates the resolve of Welsh Government and our delivery partners to continue to deliver for learners across Wales. However, the programme is not just about new buildings and remodelling existing educational settings; it is about providing environments that invest in the people that use them, valuing our excellent teachers and school staff and truly making a difference for our learners.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I have particularly enjoyed being able to witness that first hand—sometimes, indeed, with you, Deputy Presiding Officer—in the schools that I have been able to visit. It has been delightful to talk with our children and young people and school staff who have shown me the benefits of the investment in their school setting, what has made them feel really proud, what has made them feel really supported, and what has given them the determination to succeed.

Throughout this time, I have been particularly conscious of the condition of the school estate, and I'm keen to ensure that we recognise this for the schools and the pupils who, at this stage, are not lucky enough to enjoy support under the twenty-first century schools programme. So, we have been keen to ensure an annual maintenance budget is made available to support schools so that they can be in the best condition possible for learners. I recently announced £50 million-worth of capital maintenance funding, providing schools with additional money to manage maintenance costs, and I'm very pleased today to confirm that this will be enhanced by an additional £45 million that is being allocated to schools across Wales to support revenue maintenance costs.

Over this Government term, personally, I have been particularly proud of the innovative way in which we've invested capital funding to help continue the expansion of Welsh-medium and bilingual education; 2018 saw the establishment of the Welsh-medium capital grant, worth £46 million, which has supported projects, again across Wales, creating nearly 3,000 school and childcare places. However, to build on this momentum, last week, I was delighted to announce a further £30 million to continue this important work. And, of course, following £5 million of Welsh Government funding, I was very pleased, last September, to be able to visit, with the Presiding Officer, the newly-refurbished Pantycelyn halls at Aberystwyth University, hosting 200 of the university's Welsh-speaking student community.

2020 has shown how absolutely crucial and important the school environment continues to be as a place where children learn, grow, and feel safe and secure, and it has been a salutary reminder to us all of the importance of the school estate to the wider community. I have been a strong believer that schools must play a vital role within their communities. This is why community benefits are such an important consideration for all of our proposed education projects, and why I've been delighted to invest £15 million specifically to fund pilot projects that look to encourage wider use of community assets. Twenty-one projects are currently under way, showcasing excellence in community learning hubs, community provision and community-focused schools. This is good progress, but, Deputy Presiding Officer, we need to push forward with a greater emphasis on widening parental engagement, increasing family and parenting activities, and expanding the use of facilities beyond the school day.

It was only back at the beginning of this year that our chief inspector noted that one of the very few silver linings of this terrible pandemic is the increased communication and relationship building between parents and schools. Let's not lose this as we go forward. Indeed, let's plan for this and support it in the use of greater community facilities within our school settings. It's also clear to me that what we do now will impact on the environment we leave for future generations to live, learn and work in, and that's why it's important we make sure we involve our staff, children and young learners in decisions about their schools and colleges. And this is why I firmly believe that the education sector is key in moving our nation towards a low-carbon economy that maximises the benefits for all people in Wales and our environment. It is important that we act now to ensure that proposals for new schools are delivered against the Welsh Government's longer term commitment towards carbon reduction and the net-zero public sector buildings strategy. This is a strategy that we're embedding into our programme through a net-zero carbon pilot project, helping us towards decarbonisation of our schools and colleges. And it has been a real pleasure to see the start of the construction of the first net-zero school in Wales: the new primary school in Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan. All in all, I hope colleagues will agree that this programme is truly is a cause for celebration, and one in which we can as a nation be proud. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you for your statement, Minister. I'm going to agree with you that the programme is indeed a cause for congratulation in some cases, but I still have some questions for you where there are questions to be asked here. I think it's an important point to make as well that progress has accelerated during a difficult year, and I'll just come on to that in a moment. I've been lucky enough to see some of the schools that have been built as a result of the band A part of the programme within my own region, and it's absolutely right that the learning environment does affect the experience of the learner as well as the staff there, whether that's frying in some of those over-warm rooms that we all fall asleep in, or freezing in the draughty classrooms of the Victorian era or even more modern buildings that are essentially held together by safety pins and sticking plaster.

Regarding band A, this part of the programme closed in 2019, but there are seven schools that benefited from that that are either still under construction or have not yet started being built, which is two years after the pot closed, effectively. I wonder what you can tell us about the reasons for the time that some of these projects are taking and whether issues like the location of a new school might be a material factor in the delays. If that is the case, is there an argument for saying that the application process, certainly as we go forward, needs to tighten up on certain questions or certainties in order for the building programme to progress more quickly?

As for band B, in 2017, Welsh Government said that they'd received £2.3 billion-worth of strategic outline bids; it's a figure that you've referred to again today. But here we are in 2021 and only four of those projects have been completed, and only £448 million-worth of work has been approved. Now, that's 20 per cent, roughly, of the £2.3 billion referred to. I'm wondering why it's taking that amount of time, bearing in mind this part of the project is only open for another few years, and I wonder also if you can tell us about the balance between what are new schools and what are refurbishments, because it's been really difficult to get that. It's been really difficult to get that information via the researchers' department's questions to Welsh Government. I still can't attribute individual figures to individual projects from the information that I've got.

Annual maintenance grants—this is great news, but I'd be surprised if all Members here still aren't receiving pleas for help from various schools. So, what can you tell us about how that money is distributed? If it goes through local councils, is it ring-fenced or is it at the mercy of other claims on the revenue support grant, and how confident are you that it's actually spent on school maintenance rather than anything else?

And then, just to finish, the £15 million on community use of schools. Yes, yes, yes. I underlined that three times. I just wonder why we need to be spending money on something that should be happening anyway. We have community schools who should behave like community schools already, and I think it's been a source of disappointment to us all that they're not. And then, just on the Welsh schools and the use of the money that you mentioned in your statement, does that mean that you've brought money in from the Welsh main expenditure groups, if you like, into education, or is this an addition to the £2.3 million that you've committed to twenty-first century schools? I wasn't quite sure what you were saying in that part of your statement, so any clarity on that would be very welcome. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Suzy, for that. Good to see you back. Can we say we missed you very much last week in our debate on the curriculum and assessment Bill, given all your hard work in scrutinising that Bill?

Can I say you're correct in that there are some outlying projects that were initially earmarked for band A of the programme? There are specific circumstances in each case. Any commitment from the Welsh Government to spend money in the twenty-first century programme is subject to local authorities going through all the usual planning processes, and sometimes that can prove challenging. We are aware of cases where, also, sometimes there has been a delayed completion of the project through unforeseen circumstances, such as the collapse of a contractor who may have been initially earmarked or indeed have begun to work on a project, which sometimes then has led to a delay and local authorities having to go back out to secure new contractors, being subject, of course, to all of the regulations around public procurement. And also, sometimes, as with any building project, despite everybody's best endeavours, additional features and challenges can sometimes be uncovered on a site that perhaps had not been fully anticipated at the beginning of the project. So, those could be some of the reasons why we have seen a few projects not being delivered as quickly as possible. 

Again, you make a good point around greater transparency between new build and refurbishment. It's really important that we stress once again that the project allows for both. Sometimes, there is a misapprehension that the only way to draw down twenty-first century schools money is to have a new building. That's not the case. The programme also allows for the refurbishment of existing facilities or, indeed, the refurbishment and the extension of facilities as well. I've been to some fantastically innovative projects where a school has been a listed building and has very sensitively been expanded to provide additional capacity where the local authority has felt that the school is certainly in the right location and there is a high demand for places, but the existing building simply can't keep pace. So, it's important that there is flexibility in the programme to be able to meet our partners' desires to develop their estate. But I will look to supply the Member with some greater detail around the split between new builds, refurbishment and extensions, if the Member would find that useful.

With regard to revenue money, that does indeed go to local authorities. Each local authority has an allocation that is based partly on the number of pupils, but also partly on the number of schools that a local authority has. There are two pots of money this year. The first is for capital costs. We would expect local authorities to allocate those resources—indeed, ring-fence—for the purposes of school maintenance. That would be for, for instance, larger projects that would not normally be able to be covered within a school's own capital budget, such as complete roof replacements, for instance, and that kind. And then the revenue budget, again, is finding its way into school budgets to cover the costs of some revenue maintenance that they would have carried out themselves. It is ring-fenced, but it does go via the local authorities. 

With regard to community-focused schools, you're right, Suzy, all of our schools should be community-focused schools. This particular pot of money has been used to pilot approaches where there's a real desire in the school to provide greater community usage, but actually the building has demonstrated some constraints. So, we're not talking here about leasing out the school hall for larger events; this is about, for instance, having the space to develop a new classroom that is dedicated to parents' learning, or having the ability to create a new space on the school estate that allows for interdisciplinary teams to work with parents. So, this is not about schools that are not willing to do it, it's about actually adding additional facilities to schools to be able to really expand what they're able to offer parents and where the current estate actually has constraints. So, there's a real desire on behalf of the school, the local authority and the community, but actually there's no adequate space within that building to allow those activities to happen. So, that's why the money is there. But you're right, we need to continue to have conversations with governing bodies, because of course, once the school is handed over to the governing body, it is their responsibility, and we need to engender an expectation always that that building, yes belongs to the school, but actually provides a wonderful opportunity for the wider community. In some communities, the school can be the last vestige of the state; it could be the only public building in an area, and therefore there should be an opportunity. But this is to specifically look at additional spaces on the school estate that allow that school to go the extra mile to develop those relationships.

The ring-fencing of the £30 million for Welsh-medium education comes out of education capital expenditure, but it is ring-fenced to specifically support Welsh-medium expansion, whether that be in schools or in nursery settings.

Thank you for the statement and the update. In discussing twenty-first century schools, you continue to use this concept of a building to describe a school. New buildings, well designed, can contribute towards creating an environment that encourages creativity and learning, and I myself am familiar with a number of brand-new school buildings in Arfon that have been warmly welcomed and have been built as a result of the particular programme that we're discussing today. Welsh-medium schools need to be a central part of the long-term strategy in terms of educational infrastructure for the future, given the 1 million Welsh speakers strategy, and I don't think that they currently are at the heart of the strategy at the moment and that it's additional funding that is often used, rather than the programme including buildings for Welsh-medium education from the very outset.

The pandemic has taught us that we must ensure that schools are safe places that help to reduce the risk of spread of disease, and therefore ventilation is crucially important, so we need to ensure that schools are fit for purpose by investing in technologies that allow effective and efficient ventilation in all of our schools. Do you agree that we need a particular work programme to ensure that problems of ventilation are properly addressed in the short term as well as the long term?

To return to my first point on twenty-first century schools, a school is not a building; a school is a group of children and young people learning together, led by skilled teachers who can inspire future generations, and I believe that it's time for us to move towards a far broader definition as we discuss the meaning of the word 'school' in the modern world, and I will just look at one aspect of that new definition that we need to move towards. A school can happen outside of the four walls of a room. Some countries are already leading the way in terms of outdoor education—Denmark, Finland, Singapore and New Zealand—with these countries using outdoor education to enhance learners' connections with the natural world while promoting mental health and well-being too. So, I would like to know what funding your Government is allocating specifically for the development of open-air learning, so that a school in the twenty-first century can become a concept that can include this.

The outdoor education sector, including residential centres, have an important contribution to make too, but this sector is on its knees at the moment, and it's very disappointing that they are not being adequately supported by the Government through this pandemic. Out of the 44 centres in Wales, there are five that have already closed in an industry that's worth some £40 million to the Welsh economy. I've had a number of meetings with representatives of the sector, and I also arranged for them to be able to make their case for support directly to the Minister for economy's officials, but it's very disappointing that they are still awaiting support. So, finally from me, do you accept that the sector needs support, and that the crisis provides an opportunity to give a new direction to outdoor education that will include strengthening links with schools and local colleges?

I would be pleased to hear your comments on those two specific issues, namely ventilation and the importance of outdoor education.

Can I thank, Deputy Presiding Officer, Siân Gwenllian for her comments? She raises an interesting concept of what constitutes a school and I think, over the last five years, we as a Welsh Government have demonstrated our commitment to recognising education in its broadest possible form. I'm sure the Member is very familiar with the absolutely outstanding and innovative building at Ysgol Hafod Lon in Penrhyndeudraeth, a school for some of our most special children, and the concept of that building is one of a highly adaptable and responsive space that truly meets the needs of the pupils that attend there.

Over the last five years, one of the things that I am particularly proud of is the instigation of our e-sgol, a virtual school that allows children to be able to access teachers and opportunities from across the globe. Only a matter of weeks ago, students in Wales had the opportunity to receive lessons from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the world's leading university. It did not require them to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts; they were able to do that sitting in their own homes. We're delivering increasing amounts of remote learning via our e-sgol model, a model that initially was set up to respond to some of the logistical challenges of delivering education in a rural setting, but now authorities such as Cardiff are showing real interest in how they can adopt that model for their own children and young people, to increase educational experiences here in our capital city.

The Member is also right to talk about outdoor education, and that's why the Welsh Government's support for early years settings is not limited to buildings. We have seen during the last five years the beginnings of skogsmulle, which is a nursery setting that does not have an indoor space, where the entire day—well, the majority of the day—is spent learning outside. So, the range of funding programmes that we have here in Wales is perfectly able to capture schools in the widest possible definition.

Can I just say to the Member, when she says that Welsh medium is not central to the twenty-first century plan, in recent weeks I've got used to this kind of spin coming from the Member, but can I just refer her to the statement? I've announced today, on top of the £48 million that has already been invested—that is 100 per cent of the capital costs borne by the Welsh Government to be able to assist local authorities to drive forward their Welsh in education plans—a further £30 million today. That is opposed to the usual intervention rates for the programme. It's just one way in which we're developing Welsh-medium education, and of course we are reliant, I should remind the Member, on the fact that the plans that come forward to the twenty-first century schools programme are plans from our local education authorities. We don't impose them on our partners; it is they that come forward with the plans and the priorities that they have. What we are able to do as a Welsh Government is to make those plans more affordable when it comes to Welsh-medium education.

With regard to ventilation, well, ventilation is regulated by building regs. All approved schools must comply with our building regulation regime within Wales, and of course, since the pandemic, COVID guidance on ventilation has been issued too.

With regard to outdoor education, it is important to recognise that those outdoor education providers, many of them have been able to be assisted by Government grants and interventions that have been available to all businesses during the pandemic. We recognise what a really challenging, challenging time it has been for those operators that are either private businesses, some are owned by local authorities—indeed, some of them in Wales are owned by local authorities that are not within Wales—and some of them are charitable organisations, but I recognise that all of them have been hit. But as businesses, they have been able to access the range of funds that have been made available. And indeed, for some of our most prominent providers, such as the Urdd, the Welsh Government has been able to intervene to support that organisation especially. But I continue to work with my colleague Ken Skates on these issues, because I recognise that once we are able to get children back outside and enjoying these activities, these outdoor education centres have a really, really valuable role to play in our recovery from the pandemic. Providing children with the opportunity to get to them is really important to me. That's why I hope that before the end of this term, Deputy Presiding Officer, the Government will be in a place to provide extra amounts of help and support. 

Minister, I want to thank you for your statement and for the work of this Welsh Government in ensuring that we can continue with the urgently needed rebuild of our Welsh schools infrastructure. Education, apart from love, I believe, is the greatest gift that we can give our children. As a society, it speaks to who and what we are, to what we prioritise and what we value as a progressive and dynamic nation. In Islwyn, the delivery of the £3.7 billion twenty-first century schools programme has seen schools like Islwyn High created, with large-scale investments to secondary schools in Newbridge and Blackwood.

We have, as a local education authority and Welsh Government partnership, delivered on brand new state-of-the-art primary schools, eco-schools, across the borough, and with much more to come. Our schools and places of learning should be in their bricks and mortar what they embody in soul and spirit to the communities they serve, whatever the pedagogy they follow. And after decades of chronic lack of investment from a Tory Government via Whitehall, Islwyn communities value our twenty-first century schools as much as they value their teachers and education staff, who make up the very heart and soul of our communities. 

We agree that they need to be more than fit for purpose, because our children and future generations deserve the best that this generation can offer them. So, Minister, what are the challenges facing this innovative Wales-only programme in the years ahead, what are the obstacles we face in accelerating that reach so that every community in Islwyn and throughout Wales continues to experience the priority value we place on the very most important legacy of all for our future generations? 

Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, I must say that I don't want to use all my ammunition, otherwise I'll have nothing to answer the Member tomorrow, because I know she has a question on twenty-first century schools in Islwyn on the order paper tomorrow afternoon. I don't want to use all my best lines today, otherwise I'll have nothing to say to the Member tomorrow, except that, Rhianon, you're absolutely right in that the buildings are more than just bricks and mortar. It is a message to the children of those communities and the educators of those communities that what they do matters. It is a sign of the value that we place on them and their work. 

What I have been struck by when I've had the opportunity to travel around Wales to visit these buildings is how often, especially in some of our more deprived communities, the children find it hard to believe that the building is truly for them. I think the Deputy Presiding Officer will agree with me; when I visited her brand new high school, the overwhelming response from the children when they saw it was, 'Is this really for us? Has this really been built for us?' They couldn't quite believe—many of them living some really, really tough lives—that they were seen as so important that their local authority and their Government had built that building for them. And if nothing else in some of our toughest communities, I hope these buildings demonstrate a commitment in our national mission that no matter where you're from or whatever your background is, we want you to fulfil your potential. And building the schools that you've just referred to is a message to the children in your constituency that their futures matter to us, because when we get it right for them, we'll get it right for the nation as a whole. 

As I said to Suzy Davies, sometimes the barriers that we face are protracted planning considerations and building site issues, but what is amazing to me is that even a global pandemic has not been able to slow this programme down. I anticipate that, with the strong working relationship that exists between us and our partners in local authorities, and our colleagues in the further education sector, we can continue to deliver more of those fabulous buildings, so more children can see that their futures really matter.

Thank you very much for that, Minister.