I thank the Member for that question. I don't accept the funding takes money away from the school system; the funding is there in order to support the school improvement programme that we have right across Wales. And the majority of the funding that is made available to the regional consortia is delegated directly to schools, rather than being retained by the consortia themselves.

On the broader point that the Member makes, I think he's basing, or perhaps NAHT were basing some of their reflections on the thematic report from Estyn recently into the regional consortia and local authority support for curriculum design, which described the consortia as demonstrating the curriculum design progress and stages of curriculum development, developing stronger approaches to supporting collaboration between primary and secondary schools, and generally targeting support for schools that are causing concern, but also indicating that more work needed to be done in relation to maintaining consistency across the understanding of the quality of teaching and learning, for example.

So, I think that report was helpful, in that it identified a number of measures that we can take to further support our collective ambition for curriculum reform. My officials are working closely both with the consortia and, in those areas where there isn't a consortium, with the local authorities, to ensure that schools have the support that they need to prepare for the curriculum, and working also to develop a clearer model for capturing and understanding some of the information that is available in the system, in response to a specific recommendation that Estyn has made. And my officials have also ensured that the terms and conditions for grants to regional consortia for the coming financial year are clear and closely align to the priorities and requirements to support schools to implement the new curriculum.