COVID-19 in Schools

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 14 September 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:08, 14 September 2021

I thank Laura Jones for that point, which I know has been of concern to some parents, and there are some local authorities who have taken a particular view and provided advice to their own schools on it. The advice of the Welsh Government does remain in place, but, as I said in my answer to Siân Gwenllian's question, we meet regularly through the schools partnership forum. Local authorities are represented there, as are the teacher unions, including headteacher unions, and there will be opportunities this month for that issue and any other issues that have emerged as schools return in September to be considered and a shared approach to them developed.

The good news about the forum, Llywydd, is this: that it starts with a shared belief of all participants that our ambition should be to make sure that the education of our young people is disrupted to the least possible extent during this term, given everything that they've had to live through over the last 18 months, and, of course, we work with partners to try and make sure that everything practical is in place to secure that outcome.