As the purpose of this debate is to seek the views of the Senedd on the budgetary priorities of Government, I want to take this opportunity to once again emphasise the need to move towards budgets that are preventative, and budgets that provide long-term solutions.

Investing in the education of our children and young people is a central part of the preventative agenda, and it's clear that we need to prioritise investment in our schools, and to employ more staff to support our young people with their learning. Over a decade, we have lost almost 1,700 staff from our schools, and we need to start to reverse this as a matter of urgency, and to do this by planning to increase the workforce by investing in our schools, rather than what has ben happening, namely forcing them to make cuts to their budgets and to make staff redundant.

May I urge you to include the extension of free school meals as a priority in the 2022-23 budget? Don't ignore your own Government's review, which has come to the conclusion that every family on universal credit should qualify for free school meals. If you do only one thing in this budget, do that for the benefit of the poorest families in Wales.

And finally, may I just take this opportunity to ask about teachers' pay and conditions? The independent review body has suggested that every statutory grade point—at all grades and allowances—should be increased by 1.75 per cent. The Minister for education has accepted this recommendation. Of course, I understand that there is no additional funding for teachers' pay allocations from the Tories and their Government in England. Can you provide us with some clarity on this point? How are you going to take forward that recommendation that has been accepted by your education Minister? And will you give us an update on your negotiations with the WLGA as to what the situation will be with teachers' pay and conditions? We need to know this as a matter of urgency, because school budgets run from September, of course, which is another problem. But having clarity on that situation this afternoon would be very useful indeed. Thank you.