Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you very much for your statement, Minister. We welcome, of course, what you've outlined and what is being done so far on what is a very worrying rise in school attendance at the moment in Wales. Of course, it all comes down to, in my opinion, behaviour, choice and lack of support, and of course the mental health impact of, particularly, COVID.

As you've mentioned, the COVID impact has had a hugely significant effect on all our lives and all aspects of education in Wales. As we know, prior to the pandemic, maintained school attendance data was published annually in a form that was summarised for a whole academic year. The most recent published data for the period before the pandemic is the 2018-19 academic year. However, the data since the start of the pandemic has shown some very worrying trends. There are higher rates of absences in secondary schools, there are higher rates with primary schools, and far more absences for disadvantaged learners, those eligible for free school meals and pupils with additional learning needs, those with an special educational needs statement or on school action plus.

During the pandemic, we have seen that schools have reported to the attendance review that their attendance has been down, typically by 5 per cent and usually within a range of 2 per cent to 10 per cent. As the report highlights, some learners have established a pattern of not attending school during lockdown that they and their families are finding difficult or unnecessary to change. The review even suggests that, even after disaggregating COVID-related reasons, attendance generally has not returned to pre-COVID levels yet. This is clearly an issue. Minister, how are you going to address the issue and encourage the full return to class at at least pre-pandemic levels? Not only do we need to see a firm encouragement back to the classroom, but we need to have better safeguarding and support—mainly support—in place for those who have unexplained long-term absences.

Also, Minister, how are you going to better closely monitor long-term absences, and will you change the related trigger points for interventions to ensure absences aren't missed? It's also known from the attendance review that deteriorating absence can be a precursor to and predictor of a range of behavioural and emotional problems for learners that, if not addressed, may lead to the exclusion of these learners from school. So, really stepping in at the right time—.

And finally, Minister, it is clear that this is now a good chance to tackle truancy and our chance to make sure that students are in the classroom. So, will you undertake further research into the use of fixed-penalty notices and their impact on learner attendance patterns, improving learner experiences, now that fines are returning, to see if they are actually working or not? However, what is clear, though, is that, prior to the pandemic, one of the best ways for improving attendance was based on an acknowledgement that attendance will improve if learners want to come to school and if they find what is offered engaging, interesting and relevant to them, and, of course, obviously, since the pandemic, whether the support's been there or not. I know as I've been going around south-east Wales recently, I've met a lot of pupils that have found it difficult to get back into school, purely because of the mental health impact of the pandemic and the struggles that they had.

We must take a multipronged approach to this issue and use all levers available to Government, whether it be strengthening fixed-penalty notices or ensuring the educational offering is up to a certain standard and enticing for the learner, and that that support—mainly that support—is in place.

Minister, although your statement is a start, we cannot rest on our laurels and we should now be looking to make the most of this opportunity now after this review to ensure that no child needlessly misses time in the classroom if at all possible. Thank you.