I, again, also very much welcome this debate. Firstly, I want to address the problems faced by schools. The local government settlement is a good one, but one year's increase cannot negate over 10 years of austerity. While school budget allocations in most councils are yet to be finalised, the expectation is they will go up in line with council expenditure. This is different to the increase in council support from the Welsh Government. Whilst the Welsh Government payment is a major part of council income, it is augmented by council tax fees and charges. With the expectation of low council tax increases, low fee increases and low increases in charges, it means council expenditure will increase by less—quite often substantially less—than the amount of money that has been given by the Senedd to the council.

And looking at school budgets, the vast majority of school budget expenditure is staff costs, including teaching staff and support staff. School budgets are affected by pay awards, leading to an increase in salaries for staff and increased pension costs. Schools will also be affected by increasing energy costs. In one of the schools where I chair the governors, the gas and electric cost this year was slightly less than £15,000. The expectation is it'll be over £30,000 in the coming year. It's a medium-sized primary school. It's an increase of just under 2 per cent of the total school budget. While school budgets will appear to rise substantially, the pressures mentioned will mean that there will not be as much for additional support for pupils, and I think that's one of the things we're looking at: the money is going in to support pupils. Schools exist for pupils; they exist to help them attain the best they can.

I support reviewing the effectiveness of the statutory guidance on school uniform policy to ensure consistent affordability across Wales. A number of parents have contacted me regarding school uniform, and the need to buy from either expensive suppliers or via the school, as opposed to lower cost stores. Even when it's exactly the same colour, when it's exactly the same everything else, the school ask you to pay what can be substantially more. Yes, I paid it; I was a college lecturer, I could afford to pay it. There were others who had children in my daughter's class who weren't college lecturers, who weren't well paid, who had difficulty paying it.

Perhaps the Minister can explain to me, when schoolteachers refuse to teach pupils because they're wearing the wrong clothing—and in one case I dealt with, the wrong colour black—how the school is not breaking the law, and why the Welsh Government is not using PLASC to cut funding to schools who exclude pupils on grounds of uniform is something I would like to see addressed. Children are being penalised. The child doesn't decide. A nine, 10, 11, 12-year-old child does not decide what colour coat they wear; they don't decide what colour jumper they wear; in fact, they don't even decide at the age of eight or nine what colour clothes they have. That is done by their parents. Punishing children for the activities of their parents is morally wrong and should be stopped.

I'm sure the Member tabling the debate will join me in condemning Gwynedd Council and the decision by the strategic head of Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle who warned parents and carers in a letter that their children would not be given school meals if their debts were not cleared. Punishing children for the activities of their parents; that is wrong. The letter suggested pupils would not be fed if they were more than a penny in debt. Fortunately after the furore and Welsh Government intervention that threat was withdrawn. How can someone think not feeding children was a good idea?