Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to thank Claire Morgan for her work during her time as interim chief inspector, and I'd also like to extend a warm welcome to Owen Evans, who took up the substantive post in January 2022, and it's really good to see Owen here in the gallery today. I look forward to working closely with Owen, Claire and their colleagues throughout the sixth Senedd.

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic is the central theme of Estyn’s 2020-21 report. Although schools resumed face-to-face teaching in September 2020, pupils, staff and families continued to face significant disruption throughout the academic year. The foreword to Estyn’s report tells us that

'the workforce has once again risen to these challenges.'

It urges us to

'recognise and appreciate the teachers, trainers, support staff and leaders who found innovative ways to provide for their learners' educational and wellbeing needs and supported one another through difficult times.'

On behalf of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee, I'd like to record our thanks to Estyn, the learners, staff, families and the many other professions and support staff for everything they have done for children's education and well-being throughout the pandemic.

We scrutinised Estyn on their annual report in December 2021. During that evidence session and in the report itself, Claire and her colleagues set out how Estyn approached its work during the 2020-21 academic year. Estyn had planned to support schools with the roll-out of the new curriculum and the additional learning needs reforms. Instead, it focused on how schools were responding to the pandemic, the well-being of learners, the well-being of the workforce, teaching, learning and leadership. Estyn stepped up its partnership working, meeting regularly with stakeholders, teaching unions and its headteacher reference group. It undertook a series of thematic reviews, which involved engagement with learners, parents and staff. We were also reassured to hear that Estyn continued its professional learning programme for its inspectors, particularly in light of the new curriculum and additional learning needs reforms, and that Estyn continued to monitor schools causing concern. Overall, we felt that Estyn's approach was appropriate. We supported their efforts to help schools to continue to support the well-being of their learners and staff, and deliver the core curriculum.

But we can be in no doubt about the implications of the pandemic for Estyn and for the education and welfare of children. The pandemic disrupted the education of every single child in Wales. For some, such as vulnerable learners, those with additional needs or those for whom English is a second language, the disruption was particularly acute. The pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities between disadvantaged learners and their peers. Estyn was unable to provide the level of support it hoped to institutions in relation to the new curriculum and additional learning needs reforms. Worryingly, Estyn reports that progress with planning for the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales varies widely across the sector. The Welsh-language skills of learners in Welsh-medium schools who don’t speak Welsh at home have declined.

Despite some silver linings, we were and remain concerned by much of what Estyn set out in its annual report and by what we heard in committee. So much so, in fact, that our annual scrutiny of Estyn has been a key driver of two committee inquiries. The first, into peer-on-peer sexual harassment among learners, was triggered by the publication in December of Estyn’s report on sexual harassment among secondary school pupils. Our final report on this deeply troubling and endemic problem is scheduled to be published in July. The second, which we will launch very shortly, will investigate persistent school absenteeism among some children—often our most vulnerable—which has been exacerbated by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will also draw on Estyn’s work to inform a Senedd-long piece of work to monitor the introduction of the new curriculum and the implementation of the additional learning needs reforms, which will begin in the coming weeks. This demonstrates why Estyn’s work, our annual scrutiny of Estyn’s annual reports and our ongoing relationship with Estyn are so crucial to the Senedd’s ability to hold the Welsh Government to account for the well-being of, and quality of education it delivers to, children and young people. As Estyn’s report makes abundantly clear, that scrutiny is more important now than ever.