The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Lesley Griffiths and amendent 2 in the name of Siân Gwenllian. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected.

Item 8 is the Welsh Conservatives debate on teacher recruitment, and I call on Laura Anne Jones to move the motion. 

Motion NDM7811 Darren Millar

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Recognises the hard work and dedication of teachers and school staff across Wales throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Acknowledges that teachers in Wales continue to face unprecedented pressures as we move out of the pandemic and implement a new curriculum.

3. Believes that falling teacher numbers in Wales will adversely impact the ability of learners to overcome the adverse impact of the pandemic on their education.

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to urgently bring forward a plan to boost teacher recruitment, which includes:

a) setting targets to deliver 5,000 teachers across Wales in the next five years;

b) refunding tuition fees for those who go on to work as teachers for at least five years in Welsh schools;

c) establishing a Welsh education advisory service to improve access to employment opportunities and establish more pathways into the teaching profession;

d) guaranteeing all newly qualified teachers with at least one year of employment in a Welsh school or college.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to move the motion laid before us in the name of Darren Millar. Moving to the amendments, amendment 1 we will not be supporting as it sets out to delete all after point 1 in our motion. This is a motion that puts forward a constructive plan that seeks to address the teacher recruitment and staff shortage crisis that we're currently facing in Wales. Of course, we would agree with the sentiments outlined in points 2, 3 and 4 of amendment 1, which are similar to the tone in our own motion, and I will go on to recognise some of the positive steps that the Welsh Government has taken. But point 5, Minister—I would certainly like some clarification from the Minister as to why this was even included. It's slightly confusing, and from my understanding—correct me if I'm wrong—education is fully devolved here in Wales. Teachers' pay is fully devolved here in Wales from 2018, as set out in the explanatory memorandum to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Order 2020.

As we're discussing teachers' pay in Wales, apart from trying to shift the blame to the UK Government and attempt to have another pop at them—which I know you enjoy doing as a Government, which is both draining and baffling in this case, and which, considering the point, is completely irrelevant to this motion—I can only think it's an attempt to hide the fact that you have no concrete plan in place to address the concerns that we, the unions and teaching staff at schools have raised time and time again,which are laid out in our motion today. I can't see that point 5, apart from being churlish, is offering any constructive comment to this Welsh Conservative motion and debate today, which is actually trying to make a difference to the lives of children and teaching staff here in Wales. 

As for amendment 2, we'll also not be supporting this. It's a great shame that Plaid's amendment offers nothing new or constructive to add to our motion. It suggests deleting point 4, which is the main point in our motion and offers a constructive plan to support teacher recruitment and address staff shortages here in Wales. I can't disagree with any content within it, but by deleting our point 4, it would water down any positive suggestions that we are putting forward to the Government here today and, as such, we will not be supporting it. 

I'll debate a point that needs to be made in this Chamber until I'm blue in the face, but I also give credit where credit is due, and this Government has made some efforts, as you've outlined, to improve teacher recruitment and staff shortages, but it's just not good enough—it's really not. In terms of teacher recruitment, if I was a teacher marking this Government's effort on teacher recruitment and staff shortages, I would add these comments: not a bad effort, but there is much room for improvement. You, the Welsh Government, make some aggressive amendments to our motion, but the facts are there. Wales is currently facing a teacher shortage crisis, and it is for this reason that we, the Welsh Conservatives, have brought this debate to the Chamber today to highlight this, and to ask you on behalf of the children and teaching staff in Wales, to make a plan to safeguard their education by improving teacher recruitment in Wales, and to do so as a matter of urgency due to the urgent need to do so. 

I would like to at this point take this opportunity to pay tribute, Deputy Presiding Officer, to recognise the hard work and dedication of teachers and school staff across Wales, particularly during this COVID pandemic. It has been an exceptionally difficult time for them and pupils, and all teaching staff are continuing to do an exceptional job whilst facing continuing and increasing pressures. These pressures were apparent and prevalent well before the pandemic began, because of the chronic underfunding by successive Labour-led Welsh Governments. We acknowledge that teachers in Wales continue to face unprecedented pressures as we move out of the pandemic and implement the new curriculum. Through increased workloads, staff and pupil absences increasing due to COVID, and a significant impact on teachers' well-being, they are all hampering the roll-out of the new curriculum, as well as having an impact, of course, on staff recruitment. 

I commend the work that you outlined last week in this Chamber that you're doing on mental health and supporting staff mental health, as a result of reacting to the crisis in schools that teaching staff are facing in terms of mental health: 82 per cent of school staff responding to a survey saying that it has a negative impact on their mental health. Teachers' workloads substantially increasing also raised concerns about staff burn-out. Schools have suffered people leaving the profession for some of these reasons that I've outlined already, and they are struggling to recruit new teachers, and thus have become overly dependent on supply teachers, as well as substantially and disproportionately increasing the workload of teaching assistants, as outlined by my colleague, Peter Fox, yesterday. It is clear that this Government need to bring forward a plan to boost teacher recruitment in Wales for a variety of different reasons. After two decades of Welsh Labour-led Governments, they have managed to oversee a decline in teachers' numbers of 10.3 per cent between 2011 and 2021, including a drop in numbers of teachers able to teach through the medium of Welsh—something my colleague will clarify later.

A clear plan is what we need from this Government: a clear plan to set targets to deliver 5,000 teachers across Wales in the next five years, to refund tuition fees for those that go on to work as teachers for at least five years in Welsh schools, and to guarantee all newly qualified teachers at least one year of employment in a Welsh school or college. Ambitious, but it's forward thinking, and we want that teacher recruitment and retainment in Wales. Are you wanting a—? No.

To achieve this, the Education Workforce Council could be given powers to accredit different roles into the profession, including allowing teachers from other countries to convert their qualifications to those permitting them to work in Wales. A lack of funding from this Welsh Government has hampered the ability of schools to employ sufficient numbers of staff. The National Association of Head Teachers have raised this as a very real concern, and it's just not good enough. We need fundamental reform of teacher recruitment, which is why we are calling on this Welsh Government to establish a Welsh education advisory service to improve access to employment opportunities and establish more pathways into the teaching profession. This will allow a new route for teacher recruitment by creating a new database of qualified teachers, allowing schools to more easily search for teachers and schools to fill vacancies, operated using data from the Education Workforce Council in Wales. Teachers could capitalise on this, then, by providing in-house continuous professional development, upskilling and reskilling, which would be a great opportunity.

I look forward to the Government's response to our debate today, and hearing the plans that they have to tackle this ongoing crisis and the legitimate concerns of our schools, and I hope Members across the Chamber can support our motion today.

I have selected the two amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected. I call on the Minister for Education and Welsh Language to formally move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Lesley Griffiths.

Amendment 1—Lesley Griffiths

Delete all after point 1 and replace with:

2. Expresses its gratitude to the entire education workforce for prioritising the well-being of learners and its commitment to implementing the new curriculum despite the unprecedented pressures of the pandemic

3. Believes the well-being of the education workforce is of paramount importance.

4. Recognises that professional learning is essential for a high-quality and motivated workforce.

5. Condemns the Westminster Government’s public sector pay freeze and the impact it has on teachers at a time of unprecedented pressure on the workforce

6. Welcomes that:

a) there was a 40 per cent increase in applications for teaching courses last year. 

b) salaries for new teachers in Wales have increased 15.9 per cent since 2019 and that the Welsh Government helped deliver a 1.75 per cent pay rise for all teachers this year despite the public sector pay freeze.

c) Welsh Government additional funding this financial year has helped match over 400 newly qualified teachers with schools.

d) Wales’s focus on teachers’ professional learning has been found to be 'exceptional in comparison to many other OECD jurisdictions and provides a strong basis for the enhancement of professional learning in schools'.

e) Wales is leading the way with a statutory whole-school approach framework guidance, which is designed to support the well-being of staff as well as learners.

Amendment 1 moved.

Formally.

I call on Siân Gwenllian to move amendment 2, tabled in her name.

Amendment 2—Siân Gwenllian

Delete point 4 and replace with:

Believes that falling teacher numbers are influenced by a myriad of factors, including workload, unnecessary bureaucracy, staffing and personnel issues, inspection processes, as well as funding and budgeting related issues;

Further believes that addressing recruitment issues has to be a multi-pronged approach, focusing on valuing the profession and creating better working conditions and opportunities.

Amendment 2 moved.

Thank you very much. The main reason we decided to table our amendment to the motion today was to highlight the fact that the issue of teacher retention is more complex and multifaceted than issues around staffing and personnel alone; it is broader than the scope of this motion. Of course, personnel and staffing issues are important, and we shouldn't forget that recruitment campaigns are also crucially important, but we need to invest more in schools in order to employ more staff, if we really want the Welsh language to prosper, if we want the new curriculum to succeed, if we want to reform additional learning needs education in full, then the reality of the losses in education that we've suffered during the pandemic are also a cause of great concern. And we truly need to ensure that there's a plan in place to meet the huge challenge of restoring education.

However, when it comes to a matter of giving the workforce a boost, we must bear in mind that there are myriad reasons as to why people leave the profession, and at the moment, one in three teachers are quitting the classroom within the first five years in post. Evidence from broad research and indeed, common sense tells us that the main factors related to retention problems in education are teacher welfare as well as workload issues, accountability issues, inspection processes, bureaucracy, funding and budgeting and a lack of professional development opportunities—a whole range of issues. And in order to secure the strong education workforce that we need in Wales, then the Government must respond to all of the factors that relate to teacher retention, and that's why we believe that we need a multifaceted approach to tackle recruitment and retention issues, a plan that focuses on appreciating the profession and creating better working conditions and opportunities for our educators.

It strikes me too that the Conservative motion doesn't make any reference to the Welsh language. There is a shortage of over 300 Welsh-medium primary teachers and 500 in the secondary sector, and that is a cause of great concern. The Welsh Government has introduced a number of interventions in order to try and attract more to train as Welsh-medium teachers, but in reality, we need more strategic and far-reaching changes if we are to change these patterns.

Funding issues and budgeting issues place a huge burden on teachers and school leaders, having an impact on their well-being and therefore on retention levels, and one solution would be to provide longer term budgets for education so that schools and FE can plan and better use their resources, and the Welsh Government needs to ensure that that funding reaches the front line in an effective and timely manner.

Surveys suggest that most teachers don't feel that their voices are being heard by the Welsh Government, but in order to create the profession that we want to see developed if we are to create an attractive profession to promote recruitment and retention, then the Government must listen to teachers and school leaders. And the workforce also needs to see that the Welsh Government is pressing for very real change in policy in practice areas that have an impact on their well-being, as well as issues related to workload, accountability, inspection—all of these myriad issues that do place huge pressures on our teaching workforce.

In the long term, we must resolve this problem, or we are depriving our children and future generations of an education that truly respects the workforce, and we will be losing more and more teachers and losing one of the most valuable resources that we have as a nation, namely, the teaching workforce.

Teaching is an honourable profession. We all have family members, friends and acquaintances who teach. We have all benefited from the hard work, dedication, effort and love that our teachers showed us from our early years and then when we became adults. We all hold fond memories and perhaps not so fond memories of our time in school. It is a vital time in our lives when we learn so much, not just academically, but about social situations, forming bonds with other people and learning what is and isn't socially acceptable. I have fond memories myself of school. I didn't quite enjoy school a lot of the time, but I can remember having quite lively debates with my teachers about world events, and it was always quite encouraging, and they always encouraged me to have a go and got me involved in the school council and tried to make a real difference for pupils. I do really appreciate the encouragement that I was given in school.

School years are vitally important for our development. They shape who we are. But, all too often we measure this in academic success—in GCSE and A-level results, and not the life skills that we develop while we are in school. We can all remember that teacher that went above and beyond and that inspired us and made us believe in ourselves. Having the right number of qualified teachers, assistants and school staff is vital.

We are currently experiencing a shortage of teachers qualifying and wanting to come to Wales to teach. This is no easy task to fix, Minister, and I don't envy any Government trying to get to grips with this issue. But, it has been going on for some years, and we need to seriously look at what is happening.

Are teachers underpaid? I would argue, absolutely—especially those who are newly qualified. It takes years to train to be an educator, and when qualifying, many just can't live the life that they deserve with the wages that they are on. With house prices currently out of control and the standard of living becoming evermore expensive, teachers simply aren't paid a wage that reflects the work that they do.

Will you take an intervention?

Yes, Joyce, I'll take an intervention.

I thank you for taking an intervention, and I note your comments about teachers' pay. So, does this mean that you disagree with your Government's public sector pay freeze, and that you welcome the 1.75 per cent teachers' pay rise that the Welsh Government has put in place?

Thank you, Joyce. Actually, teachers' pay is devolved to the Government. So, if you have an issue with what teachers are paid, I take it that you should have a look at the front bench and take it up with the Minister himself. 

I do hope that the Government does look to ensure that teachers' wages are an issue that is dealt with, because we are finding recruitment to my area of mid Wales getting harder with the lack of affordable homes and available opportunities for these people. While recruitment in cities is attractive for young professionals, we need to ensure that Wales is an attractive place to work right across the country, both in urban and rural areas. We need a guarantee that all newly qualified teachers will get at least one year's employment in a Welsh school or college.

In rural communities, teachers are an integral part of the local community, and they should be valued for the immense role that they have in shaping our younger generations. Ever-decreasing school budgets are putting more and more pressure on teachers to deliver that high-quality education for less, and that puts a huge strain on teachers, headteachers and governors.

Finally, bureaucracy. This can be an overused word, but it is one that I find is said to me time and time again by teachers and others, along with 'overworked' and 'underappreciated'. The pathways into teaching need to be widened. For example, teachers in Wales need Bs in English and maths to teach in Wales. In England, they need Cs. This gives far more people the opportunity to train to be teachers. Many may consider a career in teaching in Wales, but just won't be able to qualify here because they didn't achieve a B grade when they were 16 years old. They may then choose to go on and do something else.

So, this does seem a backwards policy that restricts a number of amazing and talented teachers from teaching here in Wales, and we judge someone's job prospects and future career path on a test at 16. This is something that I think really needs to be addressed, and also to establish a Welsh education advisory service to improve employment opportunities and establish more pathways into the teaching profession.

I believe this—and a combination of factors—is affecting the recruitment of teachers, and that we need to seriously look at this. We need to deliver 5,000 more teachers across Wales in the next five years. Consistently, I hear Ministers in this place saying that they are trying to fix things. I hope that that is right, because our teachers are the people who help our younger generations develop the skills that they have to fix tomorrow's problems. Diolch, Deputy Llywydd.

I would like to put on record my thanks to the teaching profession for their efforts to maintain education standards during this most challenging of periods. Sadly, teachers and school staff have had one hand tied behind their backs during this pandemic. Despite the Welsh Government's lack of leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak, educational standards haven't suffered the decline that many felt would occur. But, at what cost?

The toll that the pandemic has taken on pupils, teachers and staff has been monumental. While the vast majority of pupils will recover academically, the loss of face-to-face teaching will have had a longer term effect on their mental well-being and emotional development. For many communities, particularly many of those in my constituency of the Vale of Clwyd, online learning is not an option. It is not an option because there are simply no reliable broadband connections. Parents in many parts of the Vale of Clwyd do not have reliable internet, and many of those that have an internet connection don’t have the devices to support Zoom classes for their children as well as remote working for themselves. Even now, we are seeing entire year groups or even schools sent home for weeks on end due to COVID. The on-again, off-again nature of schooling impacts pupils, teachers and parents—all because the Welsh Government failed to get a grip on the pandemic sooner, failed to show leadership and failed to protect pupils and staff.

But it’s the toll taken on an already demoralised teaching profession that will have the biggest impact on our ability to educate future generations. Long before the SARS-CoV-2 virus found its first human host, teachers were leaving the profession in droves. One in 10 left over the past decade. My fear is that many more will leave as a result of the pressures they've faced over the past 18 months. Teaching unions and the Trades Union Congress have reported on the fear experienced by an overworked and exhausted profession—a profession let down by this Welsh Labour Government, a Government who delivered a botched COVID action plan, from a test, trace, protect system that failed to test, trace or protect, to passing the decision making on face masks on to schools. Teachers have effectively been abandoned by Welsh Ministers. If we don’t reverse the decline in teaching numbers, not only will we be abandoning whole generations to falling education attainment, but we will not be training the future medics and social workers that Wales badly needs. I therefore urge Members to support our motion and help ease the burden on our hard-working teachers. Diolch yn fawr.

Given the importance of this afternoon's debate, it would be remiss of me not to touch on the important contributions of our Welsh-language teachers, in particular those in both primary and secondary education, who are working around the clock to deliver a first-rate Welsh-medium education to young people right across Wales—a key tool in the chest should the Welsh Government want to achieve their ambitious 'Cymraeg 2050' Welsh-medium strategy.

But, as Siân Gwenllian mentioned, it's a critical point in terms of the recruitment of Welsh-speaking teachers. Over the last five years, the number of individuals training to qualify as Welsh-medium teachers has been falling significantly year on year. On top of that, the rising rate of Welsh-medium teachers choosing to leave the profession within 10 years of qualifying means that our schools are reaching a crisis point.

The current workforce is overstretched, but it still manages to deliver a first-rate classroom education. And this is a testament to the hours of dedication and commitment from teachers. Now, I grew up in Pembrokeshire, where I received a bilingual education, and I can say personally how beneficial the Welsh language was to my schooling. The teachers that I had, such as Barbara Lewis and Jane Griffiths or Paul Edwards and Richard Davies, were excellent, in both in Welsh and English alike, and their ability to switch between both languages brought lessons alive and made school fun.

However, if the Welsh Government does not act, it's possible that the next generation of learners will miss out on the experience that I and many others received in school, and we must break the cycle where people grow up in a small town, they attend the closest university and they return to teach in that very same school in which they were taught. So, how do we recruit teachers from outside of Wales, who have different life experiences? And what support can we give them to learn and teach through the medium of the Welsh language? We cannot close the door on those from outside of Wales who wish to teach in our country. And as the coleg Cymraeg have said, we must be strategic and far reaching if the patterns outlined in this speech are to be changed. Thank you.

I call on the Minister for Welsh language and education, Jeremy Miles.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As I start, I'd like to put on record my profound thanks once again to the entire education workforce for their incredible efforts in supporting our young people through these challenging times. Every one of us here today knows the important role that teachers and other school and college staff play in supporting young people's well-being, but, to do that, we must also support their well-being as well.

Supporting our education workforce's well-being is of paramount importance, and central to achieving this—and I welcome the acknowledgement by the Conservatives of this—is our whole-school approach to mental health and well-being. Yes, this supports learners, but it is more than that; it supports every single person involved in our education system. To help this work, we've commissioned Education Support, an expert organisation that supports mental health and well-being specifically for the workforce, and their project provides a range of bespoke services, including coaching and mentoring support for practitioners. This project will run throughout the 2021-22 academic year and will provide a range of services, ranging from resilience training, peer support groups and telephone support services, amongst other interventions. We've also supported an extension to the coaching and mentoring well-being project, developed by the regions in partnership with the Welsh Government last year.

Alongside our support for well-being, we know how important professional learning and development is to ensuring our workforce feel valued as professionals. Aligned with the professional standards, our national approach to professional learning creates a vision fit for our evolving education system, and integral to that approach is ensuring that professional learning is adequately resourced in terms of both funding and time for teachers, but also teaching assistants and school leaders. We are expecting a profound transformation in the way our practitioners and leaders think about their professional learning in light of the new curriculum and in the way we respond to the challenges of COVID. We will provide support to schools to enable them to make this step change.

To allow time and space for practitioners to work together across schools, record levels have been invested in professional learning since 2018. This has been awarded directly to schools to support curriculum implementation—an example of the funding to the front line that Siân Gwenllian was calling for in her contribution. It's my view that professional learning is an entitlement, backed by Government, that all teachers must have a right to, and I'm exploring ways that we can do more in this area to make this entitlement far easier to navigate, and we'll be updating Members further in due course.

We will continue to invest in a wide range of national programmes, including our professional enquiry programme, the teaching assistants learning pathway and the national professional qualification for headship. Alongside these is support for early career practitioners, our new Master's programme, the Welsh language sabbatical scheme and the national leadership offer. And when we talk to teachers, it's this sort of richer support offer that will help us to continue to increase teacher recruitment. All of this equates to a system where we invest in our practitioners and in their professional development.

We've worked with the OECD, which some Members have referred to in the debate, to evaluate the professional learning progress that we have been making. In recent weeks, they've declared that our focus on teachers' professional learning is exceptional in comparison to many other OECD jurisdictions, and, in their words, provides a strong basis for the enhancement of professional learning in schools.

Over the past 18 months, the changes to normal working patterns and the disruption in school have been unprecedented. The education profession has responded to these challenges, showing an incredible level of flexibility and resilience and continuing to show excellent levels of professionalism. May I help Laura Jones with some confusion in her speech? It is entirely unacceptable that the UK Government has decided to freeze public sector wages at a time when so many of our workforce have been working under these challenging circumstances. However, the point is, we as a Government have decided to provide £6.4 million towards the cost of the pay award in schools and sixth form colleges this year. Now, many argued against the devolution of teachers' pay and conditions, but, in the brief period since those powers were transferred to Wales, we have already shown that we can make a difference here. For example, since 2019, new teacher salaries have increased by 15.9 per cent—perhaps James Evans wasn't aware of that. We will build on that work to continue to develop a national system that is more unique, fairer and more transparent for all teachers.

The Conservative motion and the Plaid Cymru amendment note that the number of teachers is in decline, but that is incorrect. In 2020-21, we saw an increase of 40 per cent in the number of students who accepted places on initial teacher training courses, as compared to the previous year. According to early figures, recruitment levels for initial teacher training courses for 2021-22 will continue to be higher than the levels recorded in 2019-20. Indeed, the data published in January of this year suggested that we had 435 more teachers than we had in 2019-20.

Will you take an intervention?

Yes, certainly.

I hear what you say in terms of the numbers that are currently on initial teacher training courses increasing, and that's good to hear, but the problem is that one out of all three leave after five years, and it's that that's causing the major problem. It's about the retention of teachers; that's the main problem, and surely that's what you should be focusing on.

Well, I was going to make a comment on Siân Gwenllian's contribution, and I think she discussed a range of things that need to be done in order to support the workforce—to attract the workforce in the first instance, and to support them in the longer term. It's true that we need to do a range of different things. I've referred to some of those in my speech already, but Siân Gwenllian and Samuel Kurtz also mentioned challenges in recruiting to the Welsh-medium sector, and I accept that more needs to be done in that area. We do have some work ongoing in drawing up a plan with partners in order to attract more Welsh-medium teachers to our schools, which is crucial if we are to reach our targets. But, although the increase that I've mentioned is to be welcomed, we recognise that there is still more work to be done, particularly in those areas where recruitment is more challenging.

To respond to the impact that COVID-19 has had on teachers who are undergoing training, we are investing over £7 million to provide long-term placements to newly qualified teachers to tackle some of those challenges. And working closely with local authorities, the regions and the Education Workforce Council, we have found an appropriate school for over 400 newly qualified teachers. This creates additional capacity for schools, enabling them to enable learners to get over this recent time and to develop the curriculum for Wales. 

To conclude, Dirprwy Lywydd, supporting the education profession is a key priority for this Government. To do this, we are investing more money than ever before in professional training, we are taking steps to support well-being, and we will continue to do everything we can to release capacity and to remove bureaucracy, so that they can continue to do what they do best—namely to inspire and educate the young people and children of Wales.

I call on Tom Giffard to reply to the debate.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's a real pleasure for me as a former teaching assistant to respond to this debate today. I think it's been a really interesting debate, with a lot of different perspectives on exactly what the problem is. And I was actually, in part, encouraged by the Minister's response to a number of the problems. Laura Anne Jones in her initial remarks talked about the over-dependence on supply teachers and the pressures that puts on teaching assistants—because it's important to remember that these shortages are not just shortages on a spreadsheet, they have real-life impacts in classrooms, and the effect that that has on existing staff I think Laura covered really well. She also mentioned about how we need more pathways into the profession. People with—. Not just—sorry, I can't remember who said it now—people who have left university only to return to teach in the school that they themselves learnt in, but people with life experience from other walks of life, and that's really important too. So, those are some of the things our motion today is looking to achieve.

Siân Gwenllian was right to say that the reasons for this teacher recruitment shortage are very complex indeed, and the point she made about teachers leaving the profession within the first five years was entirely correct. I was a little bit disappointed by the Minister's reaction to that particular intervention, because he mentioned there was more to do, but was very non-specific, I thought, about exactly what action he was taking to address that.

Samuel Kurtz spoke at length about the crisis with Welsh language teachers in particular, and if we don't tackle that problem, reaching the 2050 target of Welsh speakers becomes very, very difficult indeed. So, we need real action on that, and if you look at the age profile of a number of the Welsh language teachers that are currently in the profession as well, this is something that's worth looking at too. So, this is a problem that, if we don't tackle today, is only going to continue to get worse.

I particularly liked James Evans's contribution, because, going back to what I said earlier about numbers on a spreadsheet and the number of teachers in the profession, teachers have much more of a value than that. Teachers have a real-life impact on the pupils and the communities that they teach in. They teach more than just the curriculum, and, going back to what Laura said, that's why it so important that people with other life experiences get into the profession and teach, because we know the impact that they can have as well, because they become a real part of the communities they serve in.

And Gareth Davies was right, as well, to point out the effects that the pandemic has had on teaching. I'd wager that there aren't many professions, probably, over the last 18 months, that have had to change and adapt more than the teaching profession has had to do. So, I was encouraged then to hear the Minister—and I welcomed some of the things that the Minister said—talk about professional learning and development, and I welcome the investment he mentioned in that as well, because I think that is really important. But I do note that he talked a lot about the role that regional partnerships had in doing that, but, unfortunately, Estyn found that, whilst they did play a positive role, that was underdeveloped and patchy across Wales, particularly in our shared—in the part of the world that we represent—ERW region, which is another story in and of itself.

So, I just wanted to use my time today to focus on the new curriculum. Teachers in Wales are facing significant pressures to plan for and implement that new curriculum, which is adding to the workloads of many who are already overworked. Whilst a recent survey commissioned by the Welsh Government found very strong levels of commitment to the curriculum reforms among teaching staff, there were also significant concerns within schools about a number of key aspects concerning its implementation. It showed around half of the senior leaders were not clear about how assessment arrangements will change in their school following the reforms and what their school is required to do to plan their assessment arrangements. Only 21 per cent of school leaders believed they had sufficient time to prepare for the roll-out of the curriculum, with just over half of senior leaders disagreeing with the statement that:

'To date, sufficient time has been available within the school calendar to prepare for the new curriculum'.

Some schools are struggling to prepare for the new curriculum, with 13 per cent of school leaders believing that their school did not have sufficient staff capacity to design the new curriculum either, and this comes back to the point in our motion today that the Welsh Government should set that target, firm and in writing, of recruiting 5,000 new teachers over the next five years, because recruiting more staff can alleviate many of the concerns raised not just by us as politicians, but by teachers, parents and senior leaders alike.

One thing that has come across as a result of this lack of a target, vision and planning from the Welsh Government when it comes to teaching recruitment is how heavily reliant schools are now, as Laura Anne Jones said, on supply teachers because of the lack of other teachers in Wales. Schools in Wales spent approximately £250 million on supply staff across Wales from 2016-21, and, yes, supply teachers are a major lifeline for schools and they do a very good job, but that is not a long-term solution. Schools have had to deal with staff shortages and self-isolation, of course, over the last years of the pandemic, but this overreliance on supply teachers needs to end, and we need more permanent teachers in schools, more than anything, for the value that James Evans spoke about, which they can give in their schools as well.

So, I think we're stood at a crossroads today. Our motion is very clear—there is a plan to deal with it. This is a problem and it will not change overnight, but what I will say is the alternative is doing nothing, and doing nothing is what got us into this situation.

The Llywydd took the Chair.

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I will therefore defer voting on this motion until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

We now reach voting time, but we will need to take a short break to prepare for the voting. So, a short break.

Plenary was suspended at 18:04.

The Senedd reconvened at 18:11, with the Llywydd in the Chair.