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.