7. How is the Welsh Government supporting parents in north Wales with the cost of the school day? OQ57858

Llywydd, our access fund, helping families with the cost of the school day, will enter its fifth year next month. Over that time, it has been progressively expanded. The latest development, a £100 uplift per child to help address this year’s cost-of-living crisis, was announced by my colleague the education Minister on 14 March.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. Families in north Wales are feeling the pinch thanks to the Tory cost-of-living crisis. I welcome the additional support that the Welsh Labour Government has put in place to help with costs related to the school day. The additional funding to extend free school meals in holidays, the cash boost to help with school costs and the extension of the childcare offer will provide relief to those who are worried about the impact of rising costs. First Minister, do you agree with me and the money saving expert Martin Lewis that for those on the lowest incomes this cost-of-living crisis is not something that money management can fix, but is instead something that desperately needs UK Government intervention? Thank you.

Llywydd, I thank Carolyn Thomas for the welcome that she has given to the latest actions that the Welsh Government is able to take. I visited a school in my own constituency on Friday last week in a very challenged community, where the welcome for the £100 extra per child was very warm indeed. It really will allow families to participate in the opportunities that the school can provide in a way that other families are simply able to take for granted. And this was a school, Llywydd, where the extended school day had been in operation, and it was great to see the enthusiasm of the staff in that school for the way in which that funding, that expanded day, had allowed them to put those opportunities in front of young people who simply wouldn't get them without that way of having them provided.

The Welsh Government, Llywydd, does so much in so many areas to leave money in the pockets of families who otherwise would have to pay for their prescriptions, for their free breakfasts, for their school uniforms—all those things that allow families to manage the other demands that we've been talking about this afternoon. The supplementary question, Llywydd, ended by Carolyn Thomas saying that the UK Government needs to take action itself, and I absolutely echo that, and as we've said already this afternoon, there's an opportunity coming for them tomorrow in the spring statement to demonstrate just what a Government with the interests of its population at heart can do to protect them.