Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:11 pm on 3 May 2022.
I thank Jayne Bryant for those remarks and those questions. When I made my statement, I want to be clear about what we are doing: we have never at any point, in fact, changed the law in relation to fixed-penalty notices. She may remember that we decided not to do that, but that we would express a view, if you like, about the extent to which they should be used in the context of the last two years. And what we are doing today is simply saying that the guidance that existed previously should be reinstated. But her question provides me with the opportunity of emphasising once again that I think it's important to see—in the way that Laura Anne Jones was saying in her question—this as part of a range of steps and that, actually, the focus will very much be on supporting learners and families to make sure, through the work of family engagement officers, through the guidance, the reassurance, through the work in relation to the blended learning review, through that fresh look at the point at which the various supportive interventions that are available to school start to be made available, by looking again at the persistent absence threshold in particular, but other trigger points as well, all of those interventions come together. And I know that she will have seen this in the report: there is a sense of the range of tools that schools have available to them and I'm very clear that it'll be in a very small number of cases that notices will be unfortunately needed. For the overwhelming majority, I'm confident that the work that schools will do, which they're very skilled at doing, and with the additional resources that we are providing, I'm confident that, for most learners, for most families, that will be the best way for making sure that learners come back to school, learn with their peers face to face with their teachers, which is very beneficial in terms of their education, but also, as a number of contributions reflected today, absolutely essential to their well-being as well.