Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 17 March 2021.
Jayne Bryant has raised a really important issue. Minister, in November, academics at Cardiff and Swansea universities published the results of a joint survey. They spoke to around 13,000 people; half of those were identifying with some degree of mental health issues, and 20 per cent said they were severely affected. This was particularly relevant to younger people and women and, of course, both of those groups are to be found within our primary school sector where there is a higher number of women involved there as teachers. What discussions have you had with the education system, with the trade unions about ways that these mental health issues can be addressed in future? In terms of recruitment, has any assessment been made about the potential effect on recruitment, because it strikes me that as we come out of the pandemic, the last thing we want is there to be a negative impact on recruitment into our primary schools?