Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 16 March 2022.
Diolch yn fawr. That's also a very important question, because the delivery of free school breakfasts was a proud day when we announced that so many years back now, and it was a free school breakfast scheme that was to be available in every school in Wales. I am aware of some schools that had already got their own schemes. Obviously, that has to be organised between local authorities and schools, but I will ask the education Minister to review the present take-up and availability of free school breakfasts, because my understanding is that it is very robust, and I can feed back on that. But I think it is important to recognise that that free school breakfast is the crucial free and nutritious start to the day. But can I also say that the importance of the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru to extend free school meals to all primary school pupils over the lifetime of the agreement is crucial to your question about how can we actually help our children and young people and households who are most vulnerable, how can we ensure that we provide a shield and support as a result of the cost of living crisis on children? We are looking at the findings of our child poverty review, and looking at ways in which we can specifically target those children and families who are most at risk. We know that they are lone parents, particularly, and we know that there are other ways in which we can support, through the school holiday enrichment programme, targeting support for children, not just in terms of free school meals, but also other initiatives to help those families.