We now turn to spokesperson's questions, and the first up this afternoon is the Conservative spokesperson, Suzy Davies.

Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Well, here we are, Minister—our last spokesperson session together. Dirprwy Lywydd, I hope we will get a chance—. I mean, I'm going to get a chance to thank other Members in this portfolio next week, but I hope you will allow me just a few words at the end for the Minister when we get to my third question.

But I'll start with asking about this, which is that the Education Workforce Council has confirmed that registrations with them are down by 1,000 on last year. Many Members have been contacted by supply teachers, saying how difficult it's been for them to get work this year, yet your Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme has apparently found 1,800 new members of staff to help deliver on its intention. That's twice as many as you'd budgeted for, and especially impressive considering you've only spent £17 million this year of the £20 million you'd earmarked for this. If the number of registered staff has dropped, who are these 1,800 new members of staff, and how can you afford them for £17 million? Why is it only in the last 10 days that you've been able to reverse the position of providing only half the catch-up money for Welsh pupils that their peers in other parts of the UK have benefited from throughout the year?

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.

Thank you for that answer. So, what we're talking about here, then, is 1,800 equivalents of teachers, rather than new members of staff. I'm grateful for the clarification. But there's still no doubt at all that we need more teachers, and so I was pleased to have it confirmed that teachers from anywhere in the world will be permitted to apply to teach in Wales now. Newly qualified teachers will need particular support—I know we're going to have new ones, but they will need new support, of course, because of limited classroom experience, and all teachers will need to find time to acquire the knowledge and skills to design and teach the new curriculum. None of the NQT targets, apart from physical education, I think, have been met, and they still won't be, despite the new interest shown in teaching careers during COVID that you alluded to earlier. Do you think that might be because the degree, or the degree plus a PGCE, and of course now the Master's option route to teaching, is squeezing out talent, because the process is too long and too expensive, and maybe still values theory over life experience a bit much? And is part of potential applicants' worry that, despite the shortages that we've just been speaking about, schools won't have enough money to employ them and pay them properly?

Well, Suzy, I'm grateful for your acknowledgement that the Welsh Government has introduced new secondary legislation that allows teachers from across the world to enter into a process, with our Education Workforce Council, to be accredited to teach in this country. I believe those first applicants are already in process, including a new would-be maths teacher who qualified in the United States, who is very keen to take up a role here in one of our secondary schools in the capital.

With regard to ITE, we have reformed initial teacher education to ensure that it gives our teachers the best possible start in a professional career. And we have recognised that the more traditional routes perhaps were putting off those people that had something very valuable to offer our children and young people, but the traditional routes were not appropriate to them. And that's why we've worked with our partners in the Open University, for instance, to develop a distance learning part-time route to qualified teacher status. That makes it much easier, especially in areas of Wales where you and I live, where, actually, accessing a university on a full-time basis is really challenging. And I'm delighted to say that we have seen good and strong recruitment to that part-time distance learning route that is now offered by the Open University.

Thank you. Yes, I'm rather keen on that OU route as well, as indeed I am on teaching apprenticeships; I think there are many ways, different routes to excellence, here that should be explored by the next Government, which, obviously, I hope is a Conservative one.

Kirsty, when we met in 2007, I'd be surprised if either of us thought we'd be doing this today, although I suspect that perhaps you've always hoped you'd get the chance to be the education Minister, because it's evident to everyone, even those who might disagree with you—and that's been my party less often than perhaps the public might imagine—that the life chances of our young people really matter to you, and that accessible education, that education of all Welsh citizens, but particularly children and young people, needs to be an education that they can reach into and grab hold of and create themselves with, on the basis that, of course, if you can transform one child, you transform the world entire. 

But I wasn't sure, after my early raid on your territory back in 2007, what my reception would be when I got this shadow role, but what I've found is someone who has goals, is values driven, knows her stuff, and, most shocking of all for us, is open to listening to the views of others. And so I was sorry I couldn't join you for Stage 4 of the curriculum Bill last week to say thank you for specific changes to that Bill, but I also wanted to thank you for the respect and understanding you show to the scrutiny process overall, your willingness to act on committee recommendations, not ducking too many questions, and seeing scrutiny for what it is. I think that's been deeply impressive, because facing scrutiny is not about protecting the party brand in the face of inconvenient questions; it's about recognising that Parliament represents the people, and it's Parliament that legislates for them. And so I do honour you for that. It does leave me with my final, slightly horrible spokesperson's question though, Kirsty: does a period in opposition make people better Ministers?

Well, Suzy, can I just say thank you very much for your kind words, and thank you for forgiving me? I do remember a certain public meeting in the Strand Hall in Builth Wells—although the subject that day was health—when I suspect that I was particularly mean, not that anybody in the Chamber would ever remember me being mean or sharp or difficult with people, but—. So, I thank you for that. 

You're right; it is an absolute dream job for me to become the education Minister, and I suspect an unexpected surprise to everybody, including myself. It's been a joy over the last five years. And I am sorry that you weren't here last week, because, if you had been, you would have heard me say that the Bill that we got to vote on last week was a better Bill for the scrutiny and the legislative process. And I was honoured to present it, not just as the Minister, but as a parliamentarian. And I agree with you, Suzy: there is something particularly interesting to have crossed the aisle, having served a very long apprenticeship on the opposition benches. And all I would say to anybody that finds themselves on the opposition benches and then maybe, or maybe not, might be lucky enough to find themselves in a position of Government is that it's a lot harder than it looks, and it's not as easy as you suggest that it might be when you're sitting on those opposition benches. 

Thank you. Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. One of the issues that is of concern to the majority of teachers is the workload that they are having to deal with in addition to the work that they are trained to do, namely to educate and to lead. According to some, the additional burden, the daily bureaucracy, has got worse over the past five years. What's your response to that claim?

I recognise that we ask an awful lot of our teaching professionals. And now, more than ever, we need to attach even greater weight and greater pace to the managing workload and reducing bureaucracy group. That group is still working, despite the challenges of the pandemic, to identify the pressures facing teachers and implement new solutions. The workload charter has now been published, with the workload and well-being page on Hwb currently in development. The education support charity that I also spoke of earlier is producing a well-being toolkit on Hwb, which will contain a greater range of resources and practical advice, to be published in April, and the Welsh Government continues to work with our partners in regional consortia, in individual local education authorities, and, indeed, with Estyn, to ensure that the demands placed on schools from outside organisations are manageable, proportionate and add value to outcomes for children. 

One issue that certainly adds significantly to that workload is budgeting, particularly at this time of the year. What creates complexity is when funding is provided via grant very late in the day, as has happened this week. I want to quote one headteacher who contacted me yesterday, and this is what she said: 'We are spending more time writing about how we're going to spend these grants than we spend in actually using the grants in the first place.' And another headteacher told me that, 'Whilst, of course, I always welcome any additional funding on any occasion, I do feel that a lack of planning and arrangements does account for the money being released so late in the day, and perhaps this, of course, gives an unfair picture of school budgets and the amounts carried over from one year to the next.'

Now, I understand entirely and accept entirely that the situation is even more unstable than usual this year because of the pandemic, but do you accept that this is a major problem—the grants arriving very late in the day? And what should the next Government do, in your view, to reduce that workload in terms of budgeting placed on our teachers, so that they can be released to focus on teaching?

The Member is correct: sometimes, we are able to release additional resources to the education system later on in the year. The challenges of operating a budget of the size that we do are not without difficulties, but I will never turn down an opportunity from the finance Minister to spend more money on schools.

With regard to the bureaucracy and the reporting, I would say to Siân Gwenllian that, throughout my period as education Minister, she has often asked me to explain where the money has gone, and, indeed, we've just heard from Suzy Davies wanting to know a detailed breakdown of how the additional money from RRRS has been spent. I can only provide answers to people like yourself, Siân, or Suzy Davies, if we ask teachers to report back on what they're spending money on, otherwise I'm not able to answer the questions you often ask me. 

I of course accept that point, but there is far too much data being collected, and it's data that the teachers, very often, don't understand why you, as a Government, would need that data. 

If I could turn to my final question to you—not just for today, of course—may I also thank you very much for your willing collaboration through this Senedd, and particularly for our regular meetings during the pandemic? We certainly share the same passion for the importance of education in the lives of our children and young people, and I'd like to thank you for all your hard work over the years, and particularly for focusing on the deprived children of Wales. I think that has been a prominent feature of your period in post. 

Suzy has already asked you about useful experiences for prospective Ministers, but I want you to look forward, and look beyond COVID, if you could. What, in your view, is the greatest challenge facing the new education Minister over the next years?

The greatest challenge facing any education Minister is the realisation that education reform and transformation cannot be driven by the will of a single Minister. It has to be done in collaboration and co-operation with the sector. The co-construction of our national mission and our new curriculum has focused on building those strong relationships. I think it will be really important for any incoming education Minister to continue to work in that spirit and not dictate from the centre.