Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 17 March 2021.
Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, the Member tried to lull me into a false sense of security, I think, before asking that question. If I had any hopes that she would spare me in this last session, they've been cruelly dashed by that question. Can I just say that the success of the RRRS programme is something to be celebrated? I think it is fair to say that we had initially anticipated that we would have more qualified teachers recruited under the system, but, actually, schools have been given the freedom to recruit professionals as they see fit, and many schools have decided to recruit teaching support staff rather than qualified teacher status staff. Some schools have used the resource to offset redundancies that had been planned and were being taken through the system, and they've been able to retain additional staff that would have been lost to them. In some schools, they've been able to up individuals' hours. So, somebody perhaps that was employed on a part-time contract, the school has felt it was appropriate, because of their familiarity with the school—rather than bringing in additional members of staff, they were happy to increase hours of part-time members of staff. So, the programme has been utilised in a number of ways. Some schools have looked outside traditional staffing roles, and, for instance, have recruited youth worker mentors and those skilled in child well-being and mental health. With regard to additional funding, I am delighted that we have been able to secure additional funds to support the RRRS programme. And I would say to the Member that those funds that we've been able to secure go above and beyond the Barnett consequential that her colleagues in Westminster saw fit to give us.