Questions now from the party spokespeople. The Conservative spokesperson, Laura Anne Jones.

Diolch, Llywydd. May I start by welcoming you again to your role, Minister, as I am now formally the shadow education Minister, and it's now official? May I say that I'm very much looking forward to working with you, opposite you, on this hugely important brief, particularly at a time when we're coming out of a pandemic, and we edge closer and closer to the biggest change in education delivery for decades?

Minister, our schools and universities should be places of learning and development, not places of intimidation, abuse and harassment. Therefore, it was very concerning—and I'm sure you're concerned too—that 91 Welsh education establishments are included in that Everyone's Invited website, with some truly shocking behaviour described. I welcome your written statement this morning that Estyn will be conducting a review, but we mustn't leave out our higher education settings in that, as these allegations have shone a light on what appears to be a systemic issue across all the age groups across Wales. Having spoken to my councils since this topic hit the headlines last week, it's clear to me that schools and colleges are already taking action, Minister, and I'm pleased your officials will now be speaking, contacting these schools and offering them support; I know you've been asking for e-mails already. But we need to find a way of collating this information on a national level, because we need to deal with this on a national basis, because it's obviously systemic across the board. And so that's something we need to look into so we can see if things are working and your proposed solutions are working or not. And I believe that this—

You'll need to ask a question now, please.

Yes. And in the last term, I said that the new curriculum would be a perfect way of us beginning to have these conversations in schools. Minister, your statement outlines a great deal of advice, guidance, toolkits that are already taking place, and yet these allegations are still coming forward. What do you expect to change, Minister, as a result of issuing another report, or more guidance, when there is so much available? And how are you going to ensure that these new toolkits are really reaching the places they need to reach, and actually that behaviours start to change?

I've been very, very patient—that's two minutes now. So, I think there were enough questions there for you to attempt an answer, Minister.

Diolch, Llywydd. I'll try and do justice to the questions, because it's a very sensitive topic, in the way that the questions are asked. I welcome the fact that you welcome the statement that issued this morning. I feel that this is a cross-Government priority, in the sense that it engages a number of portfolios. Because some of the underlying causes of the behaviours that we have seen demonstrated in that very painful report, and some of the very searing remarks and testimony, if I can use that language, in the Everyone's Invited report and material, those are behaviours and those are experiences that exist outside educational settings as well. So, I think it's very important that there's a cross-Government approach to how we can respond.

I just want to be clear that, in requesting that Estyn should conduct a review, I am not in any way suggesting that action should await the outcome of that review. So, I just want to be quite clear about that. And there are some practical steps, which I set out in the statement, which are firstly about understanding whether the resources that are currently available are sufficient, are sufficiently easily accessible, and, if they aren't, obviously we will do something about that. Some of the resources that have already been issued, including some comparatively recently, have been well used, have been well accessed at least, and what I want to understand is whether there's more we can do to provide training around that to schools. As you say in the question, there is a significant amount of material that is already available. I want to make sure it's as easily available as it can be, and I want to encourage people to use the various helplines that the Welsh Government and others already fund in order to be able to support people to come forward with their concerns and their personal stories, if I can use that term.

I do want to say I think there is a very clear message for us here in the new curriculum about how fundamental it is to make sure that our learners have the kind of relationship and sexuality education that we envisage for them. We're consulting on the code for that at the moment, and I was pleased to hear the children's commissioner acknowledge over the weekend that she feels as well that the curriculum provides an underpinning for helping us tackle this question, certainly within a school setting. 

Thank you. Minister, I'd like to just hone in on upskirting, and, for those who aren't aware of it, it's when boys are taking pictures up girls' skirts and sharing them on social media platforms. It's a serious matter, Minister, as I know you're aware, and I don't believe that the answer is forcing girls to wear trousers or shorts. Why are we punishing girls? Girls are not to blame. So, forcing them to wear trousers or shorts is entirely the wrong response. If schools are concerned about the length of girls' skirts, then surely they should be enforcing school uniform policies and cracking down on inappropriate behaviour, and tackling upskirting by better educating boys about the need to treat others with respect. What discussions has the Minister had on uniform policies and the right of girls to wear skirts?

I do agree entirely with the implication in the question that we must not be in a situation where, by virtue of the sort of policy that she's referring to, we create the impression that girls are responsible for the sorts of incidents that the Member is referring to. I don't imagine for a second that that is the intention behind any of the policies that I think she's implying and referring to. And I think it's really important, in our schools, that the way we teach boys and girls addresses this question and teaches the nature of respect in this context. I don't think it is a helpful signal to send—I'm sure it's completely unintended—but I do think the point she makes is a valid point: we must not be in a situation where girls feel that it is their responsibility, if you like, to dress in a particular way. 

Thank you, Minister. I think it would be completely remiss of me not to ask you today about sport and PE in our schools at a time when our country is Euro-crazy at the moment. And I'm sure you'd like to take this opportunity, Minister, to join me in wishing our national Wales football team all the best in this afternoon's match. But there are some people across this Chamber, I was aware yesterday, who don't like football, and for a sport nut like me that's quite hard to understand. But I know that something we can all agree on is the fact that there are a multitude of physical and mental health benefits that sport and physical activity bring. Sport is a proven benefit for mental health. It's a known leveller, bringing people together from all races, all backgrounds, rich or poor, as well as a key tackler of obesity, especially in children. Sport teaches you discipline, how to work together as a team and individually, and it shows you respect. I could go on, Llywydd, but I won't. 

But, Minister, my point is, with all these things in mind, don't you agree that it's sad that we often hear that sport and PE are often the first thing to be dropped from a school day when something else comes up, but its importance is huge. Never has that been more apparent than during lockdown and in the effect that sport and exercise have had on children's mental health. Minister, what are you doing to ensure that sport and PE are given the status and level of importance that they should have within our schools, and ensuring that this is reflected within the school timetable within the new curriculum, going forward? It is important that we capture that interest and promote good habits early on, something that, I'm afraid, private schools do better than public schools, because they see the benefits academically and the key life skills that they teach. 

And you have a Llywydd who is football crazy as well and is trying to urge brevity in questions and answers in this Chamber and is failing miserably. [Laughter.] And thank you, Lee Waters, for your support in trying to curtail all contributions by not congratulating each other and thanking each other all the time. Anyway, Minister—brevity.

Brevity. Well, certainly my sports career was very brief, Llywydd [Laughter.] I was an incredibly ineffectual sportsperson when I was in school, and I actually regret that in many ways. I think the qualities, which the Member outlined in her question, are spot on in terms of the development of young people, and I share with her the regret that, over the last year perhaps, we haven't been able to, because of the circumstances in which we have found ourselves, to make sure that children and young people have the full access to sporting opportunities and sport in schools and colleges that we would want to see. And I'm really confident that the prominence given to health and well-being in the new curriculum will help us make sure that sport continues to be properly valued in our school system. 

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian. 

Thank you very much. It’s good to see you across the Chamber in the flesh, as it were, for the first time in quite a while.

We are following a different regime again this year in terms of GCSE, A-level and AS examinations. It is an assessment standardisation exercise led by individual schools and teachers, to all intents and purposes. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced that they would provide a one-off payment of £400 to teachers who were engaged in additional assessment work as recognition of that additional burden. How is the Welsh Government going to ensure that teachers who do have additional responsibilities in the current examination round are going to be properly recognised for this work, including in financial terms—that is, the teachers who wouldn’t be external examiners for WJEC usually?

Well, the Member is right to emphasise how important the role of teachers is for the system this summer, following what we heard last summer—how important it is in terms of the trust of learners and the system in general in relation to results. So, I just want to put on record my thanks to teachers across Wales for the work that they’re doing to ensure that that’s possible this year. In the four countries of the UK, the four Governments have taken slightly different approaches in looking at the system. What we’ve done in Wales is ensure that the majority of the work that’s being done happens during the term, rather than cutting into the summer period. So, we’ve emphasised more of the work earlier on in order to level it out a bit more. We’ve also provided a budget of just under £9 million to allow schools to increase capacity in order to be able to do this and to introduce flexibility into the system, for INSET use and end-of-year assessments, so that that creates flexibility in the system for teachers to undertake these additional responsibilities.

Thank you. I’m pleased that you recognise that it is quite a substantial amount of extra work in some cases. And there is funding in the system, because I’ve been made aware of a case where one secondary school is paying a great deal—around £100,000—to the external examining bodies, although they, of course, are not delivering the same functions in this year’s examination round. It’s important that the funding in the system is used or vired, where appropriate, in order to recognise the unique arrangements in place for this year.

Staying with the theme of school funding, I turn to the commitment in the programme for government, published yesterday, namely that your Government will fund up to 1,800 tutoring staff in our schools. Your written statement today—and I welcome that, of course—refers to retaining and supporting over 1,800 members of full-time equivalent staff, recruited under the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme. Now, the word 'tutor' doesn't appear in your statement this morning, so can you confirm first of all that we are talking about the same thing here? Is the figure of 1,800 mentioned in the programme for government and described as tutors the same people as the teachers and additional staff that you mention in your statement? So, what kind of staff are we talking about here? Are they new staff and is the funding announced new funding, and will they be permanently available within the system, post dealing with the pandemic?

Well, the answer to the final question is that we intend that they will continue to do their work until their work is done. That's our commitment. In terms of their functions, they provide education. The word 'staff' means people who teach or support—teaching assistants and so forth—to allow the pupils to have more support in terms of their learning. And that's the commitment. And I think that this builds on the three Rs work that we've done over the last year. It allows us to provide a broader range of support for our learners. In England, for example, the emphasis is on individual tutoring—catching-up on content. That's not the concept that we have at the heart of our plans. We have a broader definition of what our learners need to ensure that their confidence and motivation is being supported so that they can engage with learning again. And that's part of the capacity we're creating in the system in order to provide for those who need it—even one-on-one support, perhaps—but also to create capacity in the system to support the learning skills, the basic skills, that have had a tough time in the last year.

Thank you. I'm still not entirely clear on the issue, but hopefully we can discuss this further outside the Chamber, and I would appreciate some clarity as to where the funding is coming from. Is this new funding—

It is.

—or is it a continuation of the funding that Kirsty Williams mentioned in the previous Senedd? 

Now, you've mentioned closing the attainment gap as one of your early priorities and I agree with you on that—it is crucially important. There is clear evidence, of course, that the one most effective thing that we can do in delivering this aim is to provide a nutritious free school meal to all school pupils as an addition to the formal education programme provided. But it's very disappointing to see in the programme for government, published yesterday by the Government, that you mention finding the resources and that any expansion of qualification for free school meals is conditional on finding additional resources. I would say that we must find the funding in order to support Wales's poorest pupils and that your Government must take that very first step on the journey towards universal free school meals provision.

Well, of the four UK Governments, we were the first ones to take the first step in most contexts in terms of FSM provision in our schools. So, I do accept what the Member says in terms of how important it is for us to be able to meet that need. We've said already, and we reiterate, if I can say that, in the programme for government, that we intend to look again at the eligibility criteria for having access to this scheme, and that's our intention and that's our plan. Additional data will be available by the end of the summer and that will give us an opportunity to look at who is eligible for this. But we've just had a conversation about investing in the well-being of pupils more broadly and an emphasis on those who need more support than others. All of these interventions call for resources, and we want to ensure that the package of support that we give our pupils is one that meets the demand and it's inevitable therefore that we need to look at where the resources go and where the resources come from. And that's why we're making the commitment that we are making. We are ambitious, but it is responsible that we look at the range of interventions and, when we can expand the criteria—and we are eager to do that—we will do that in a way consistent with the resources.