Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 18 May 2022.
'Yes' is the answer. There are two things ongoing. We have tripled the budget to provide support to teachers who are under pressure. Part of that is online resources, some of it is one-to-one advice, and some of it is training for leaders and headteachers to identify what more could be done in terms of support within schools. The broader budget is going to enable that service to reach more people. The experience on the whole, I would say, is if you've been to a school where you've had experience of that service, it is a positive thing, but it hasn't been available to enough people. So, that's the intention in increasing the budget: to ensure that it is available for more teachers.
But the basic question is: what does that mean in terms of workload and work pressure? We have a forum with the trade unions and local education authorities looking at what we can do to ensure that we strike the right balance between the requirements and the pressure. So, that process is ongoing. The unions are all part of it, and I hope that that will come to fruition soon.