We will now move to the short debate, when those Members who are leaving the Chamber have done so.

If Members can leave the Chamber quietly, we're moving on to another item of business. I ask John Griffiths to speak to the motion in his name. John Griffiths. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Knowledge is power: education is a route out of poverty. Llywydd, Mike Hedges, Luke Fletcher and Laura Anne Jones will contribute to this short debate.

Llywydd, on Pill library, there is a keystone at the top of the building that states that knowledge is power. I'm very pleased to say that having been born and brought up in Pill, now so ably represented as part of Newport West by my colleague Jayne Bryant, I very much agree with that sentiment. Knowledge is power and, obviously, education, training and skills are ways of establishing that power in our communities, if we make sure that they're available to everyone, and particularly those in more disadvantaged circumstances.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

The power of education is very precious to me, Diprwy Lywydd, because my own route out of what I guess was relative poverty was through education and lifelong learning. I went to secondary school, Dirprwy Lywydd, but unfortunately didn't take any exams, and I was then for a period of time out of work with a young family, living on a council estate in Newport, and thinking about not just my own future, obviously, but the future of my family. I thought about my options, and decided that education would be my route, hopefully, out of those circumstances into more favourable ones, and thankfully that did prove to be the case. It was evening classes that enabled me to take those opportunities at what we called 'Nash tech', now, I guess, Newport college, of Gwent college—the Newport campus. Evening classes in GCSEs, then A-levels, and then on to Cardiff University where I studied law. I later worked as a solicitor and then went on to politics, local politics and now to the Senedd. That journey was of great benefit to my family as well as to me, and, of course, it's not just about better income and better standard of living; it's also about personal development, and, for me, fulfilment of my ambitions to try and make a difference—help to make a difference in politics, and try and help other people on that journey, as well as having undergone it myself. So, education is very precious to me—lifelong learning—but also, obviously, trying to get it right in the very earliest years and at primary and secondary level, as well as into further and higher education, skills and training.

And we do note that there is a great need to provide whatever opportunities we can to allow people to help make Wales a more equal country. I was looking at the paper that Dr Mark Lang did for ColegauCymru that really was looking at these issues of social mobility and if current education provision in Wales supports that social mobility and adequately enables young people to secure a life of well-being. The focus is post 16, but it also considers education provision more generally, and whether that service supports social progression and socioeconomic resilience, particularly for young people from deprived communities and disadvantaged personal backgrounds. In producing that paper, Mark Lang looks at the background that we have in Wales and the UK where, sadly, skills inequality is now higher and social mobility lower in the UK than any other developed country. And it refers to publications by Janmaat and Green in 2013, and then Oxfam in 2016, which show that, again, economic and social inequality are at unprecedented levels. The Social Mobility Commission in 2019 stated that social mobility had stagnated over the four years previous to their publication, at virtually all stages, from birth to work, and being born disadvantaged means that you will have to overcome a series of barriers to ensure that you and your children are not stuck in the same trap. And the recent Augar report, in 2019, states that there has been no improvement in social mobility in over half a century. And, indeed, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report in 2018 shows social mobility declining. So, I think it's clear that there are very big challenges ahead of us if we are to reverse those trends, reverse that pattern and, particularly, do something here in Wales that is powerful in reversing that picture.

There is some hope, of course, on the horizon, and, indeed, Dr Lang states that, although there's a shortage of statistics in Wales that are recent and comprehensive on education and social mobility, nonetheless there are some sounds of progress here in Wales. But, of course, we know that, more recently, we've experienced the pandemic. We now have the cost-of-living crisis and, day by day, our society is seeing new challenges that exacerbate and highlight inequalities in all areas of our society, and very poor decision making, policy and strategy at a Westminster level is leading to the rich getting richer and the poor becoming ever poorer. Poor management of the economy is exacerbating the inequalities that we face. So, it's a major challenge, of course, for all of us and for our schools and educational establishments to try and counter some of these influences and trends. But, as I said at the outset, knowledge is power, and education can be a route out of poverty. A good education allows for underprivileged young people to access the skills required to take employment with higher pay and better conditions, and it's also about education as a good in itself, not just about economic progress, but personal development and social progress also.

So, what are the statistics in Wales that we can draw on in looking at these issues and these matters? They show that pre-pandemic data from 2019 showed that 28 per cent of learners eligible for free school meals achieve level 2, which is equivalent to 5 GCSE passes at grades A to C, and that 28 per cent compares to 61 per cent of learners who are not eligible for free school meals. There has been a deal of improvement in closing the gap here in Wales since devolution, but, obviously, more needs to be done. The Bevan Foundation, who I work closely with on the poverty cross-party group, have highlighted differences in the exam results of children who receive and did not receive free school meals, and many of the gaps that we see appear when children are very young, and widen as children get older. And, of course, the pandemic has worryingly worsened these gaps as well. The Bevan Foundation added that the risk of not obtaining five A-to-C GCSEs is highest for pupils eligible for free school meals, but also those on the special educational needs register.

As far as the new curriculum is concerned, this is seen as providing a very important opportunity to make the sort of progress we need to see in Wales. It's very exciting and has great potential. And of course, it's built on four purposes and aims to develop learners who are ambitious and capable, enterprising and creative, ethical and informed, and healthy and confident citizens. So, it's very much on that wider territory of personal development, social progress, having those life chances and that quality of life that we want to see our children and young people enjoying, as well as economic progress and advantage. It's very much underpinned by the aim of reducing inequalities in education. I welcome that national mission aiming to achieve high standards and aspirations for all, and the value of not giving up on learners who are disadvantaged by poverty through the continuation of support for learners throughout their educational journey by providing them with opportunities to achieve their potential and fulfil their aspirations. 

A very important part of the Welsh Government's strategy is the pupil development grant, one of their flagship policies first introduced some 10 years ago with the direct aim of tackling the impact of deprivation and disadvantage on educational outcomes. It provides extra money to schools based on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals on their roll, and it seeks to try and weaken that link between relative deprivation and high attainment. Of course, we know of many positive cases of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds that go on to do very well in life, and do very well in education, but too many do not follow that route and are largely not equipped, encouraged and facilitated to do so through systemic failure. The Welsh Government's commitment of £130 per annum on the pupil deprivation grant is very valuable indeed, and of course it covers not just those eligible for free school meals, but also looked-after children and those in referral units. The increase of a further £20 million from 2022-23 is also very welcome, particularly in the light of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. 

In the last Senedd term, as a member of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, I know that the report 'On the Money?' focused on the pupil deprivation grant and its effectiveness, and made many important recommendations to make the most of this investment. Of course, the earliest years are absolutely crucial, and Flying Start is a very important programme for this effort. Children under four years of age living in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Wales benefit. In Newport, over 3,000 children, and many more in my patch, as it were, in the Monmouthshire council area, benefit from these services. Thirty-eight per cent of that Newport figure are children from an ethnic minority background, and I would very much support what Julie Morgan, our Deputy Minister for Social Services, said in regard to the programme, when she said:

'I have heard from parents and carers about the positive impact Flying Start has had on their families. We are committed to expanding early years provision and this excellent programme is the best way of delivering this. We know children who attend quality early years settings benefit from spending time in a happy, nurturing environment with their peers and are better prepared for primary education.'

In Newport East as well, the pupil development grant is delivering very important opportunities, advantages and benefits. Ringland Primary School, I think, is a very good example of this. The community of Ringland has relative deprivation, and it is great to see that the work of the school has been recognised as the Voice 21 spotlight school, a pioneer in terms of oracy and well-being. And in Lliswerry High School, a big proportion of the PDG has employed specialist staff to very good effect. 

In conclusion, I'll just mention one other very welcome development, which is Welsh Government increasingly prioritising and highlighting community-focused schools. We know many children in deprived areas do not get the mum's taxi experiences, but they will benefit from activities and opportunities after the school day if they're provided at their school. Dirprwy Lywydd, Wales once seemed to provide teachers to the world. I do believe education is still very much valued in our culture and DNA. We must draw on that spirit and those values for a national mission to engage our children, families and communities to ensure all our children, young people and lifelong learners succeed in our country. 

The Member has shown his passion for the topic and has used up all of his allocated time, but I'm in a generous mood this afternoon, so the two Members will be allowed to speak. Luke Fletcher. 

My thanks to John Griffiths for yielding a portion of his time. This is an important debate to have, and I agree wholeheartedly that knowledge provides that route out of poverty. Members know this already about me, but I was on free school meals and the education maintenance allowance growing up and, before I came into politics, I was a bartender. I'm not sure if John remembers—I hope he does—but one of the first times I met him was when I was doing GCSEs and I had work experience in Welsh Government, and John was the Minister that I had that work experience with. It was at the same time that the 5p plastic bag charge came in. Maybe I'm embarrassing Members a bit in terms of my age, there. But, I think that was vitally important—as well the free school meals and EMA—to why I'm here today now. It's something I passionately believe in. 

There are two points I want to focus on very quickly here. Education is a route out of poverty, but too many aren't able to fully traverse that route, with barriers to education via the cost of the school day. Free school meals, of course, go a long way to addressing that, and the EMA is another way. I've made points in the past to the Minister and various other Members, and continue to make the point, that the payment should increase to £45. It's currently at £30, and it's been £30 since 2004; it was £30 when I was in receipt of it. So, I think it's vital now that we look at how we can facilitate an increase. And of course, travelling to school and the cost of travel is proving another barrier. We have got kids in some of the most deprived communities in Wales walking over an hour to get to school. And of course, with free school meals—again, very important—it's all well and good, but if the kids can't get to school to have those free school meals, it still presents a barrier. Until we solve the cost of the school day, then the system won't allow working-class kids, like I was and like John was, to flourish and reach their potential. 

And finally, very quickly, Dirprwy Lywydd—I know I'm testing your patience—I think we need to also have a bit of a culture change in education. What I mean by that is that we need to move away from the obsession with going to university. Apprenticeships should be on an equal footing. I know a number of people who have gone on to do apprenticeships who are extremely successful now, even though, and they would admit this themselves, they weren't necessarily academically gifted. University isn't the only route out of poverty. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for your generosity. I would also like to thank John Griffiths for giving me a minute in this debate. There are traditionally two legal routes out of poverty. One is via sporting prowess and the other is via education, but education is not a level playing field, and it has become less so with the development of technology. I had access to every book that my wealthier contemporaries had, although it was via the library. Today, I would be limited to two hours of a computer in a public library, and have to pay to print my work. I spent 25 rewarding years teaching in further education, and I believe I helped to change the lives of very many. 

Education offers an opportunity to young people, but also, via the further education sector and the Open University, there's an opportunity to gain qualifications throughout life. Taking these opportunities has transformed the lives and earning capacity of many people, moving them out of low-wage employment into higher wage sectors. I would urge everyone to take their educational opportunities, because unless you are a highly gifted sportsperson, this is your one big chance. I, like John Griffiths, can say it worked for me. 

I call on the Minister for Education and Welsh Language to reply to the debate—Jeremy Miles. 

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. This is such an important debate, and I thank John Griffiths for bringing it forward and for the other contributions that we've heard. Challenging poverty and inequality is a central part of all our work as a Government and my work as a Minister, and education, as we've heard, is crucial to deliver that objective. We want to see high standards and high aspirations for everyone, wherever they come from or whatever their background.

We've taken significant steps forward already, leading to our current reform programme, our commitment to invest in early years education and care, as we heard from John Griffiths, the new Curriculum for Wales, our Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, assistance for post-16 education and lifelong learning—we've heard about the power of that clearly today—our free school meals policy, our funding for the school day, initiatives related to music services, and giving books as gifts. All of these focus on overcoming barriers to success and equality. 

Although we have made progress, I think that progress has been too slow. Look at the 14 to 16 cohort, for example. We know from our own data that there hasn't been sufficient progress over the past decade in closing the attainment gap between learners from low-income backgrounds and others. And the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. According to research in our universities, the well-being and attainment of pupils in poverty have fallen even further behind, as John Griffiths noted. We cannot accept a situation where personal success in the future relies on one's background, and I'm determined to take radical and consistent steps to ensure that that isn't the case. 

We need a whole-system approach that looks at the areas that will make a difference to people. This should be based on an approach to education that reflects and draws on the community, and is consistent with policy developments in areas such as health and the economy. In my statement on 22 March, I started to set out some of our work in delivering this, and I outlined further steps for the Bevan Foundation on 16 June. And soon, I will publish an action plan that will bring these publications together, and will set out the direction for partnership working in the future. 

Qualifications play a crucial part, but we also need to consider employability, well-being and achieving personal goals. I am commissioning a review in this area, and I've asked my colleague Hefin David, Senedd Member for Caerphilly, to look at the way education providers do provide experiences related to the workplace, and to make recommendations on focus, consistency and the efficiency and effectiveness of these experiences. 

We will have to use the pupil development grant in an effective way. We're already starting work with partners in this regard. The PDG access has made a huge difference to many disadvantaged families across Wales, assisting to alleviate concerns about buying school uniform or equipment, and enabling children to go to school and take part in activities at the same level as their peers. Last year, the grant was extended to children and young people in all school years, meaning that it is now possible for even more families to benefit from this support.

Whilst acknowledging the pressure on families, Dirprwy Lywydd, in March I announced a one-off payment of £100 to all children and young people who qualified for this grant. This means that the funding for that grant has increased to over £23 million for the next school year.

Building on this, and working with Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement, from September of this year we start to roll out the universal primary free-school-meal offer. The biggest influences, Dirprwy Lywydd, on the success of learners are the quality of the learning and teaching they experience, and particularly, as John Griffiths was saying, for our younger learners, the environment that they experience both at home and at a community level as well. And I've previously set out some of the actions we are taking to support community-focused schools, for example, but it's also essential that we continuously improve the quality of learning and teaching that learners from low-income households experience, as we know how profound an impact this is on their progress. So, I want to look at how we can incentivise teachers to teach in the schools that serve our most disadvantaged learners, and I'm commissioning some initial research in this, with a view, then, to launching a pilot to explore some approaches. Over the next five years, we will be providing over £500,000 to enable our school improvement services to offer a specific professional learning programme, focused on how to raise the attainment and support the well-being of learners from low-income backgrounds, and that will be launched in January of next year.

We are also establishing a strategic partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation, and they will be adapting their teaching and learning toolkit, which provides teachers with accessible evidence of effective learning and teaching strategies, in our distinct context in Wales, and it will obviously be available both in Welsh and in English. As part of the rich professional learning opportunities we are offering our teachers, our universities are working with us to develop a module for our national Master's programme, focused specifically on tackling the impact of poverty on attainment, and that will also be available from 2023.

The reading and oracy action plan, which I announced last autumn, sets out our priorities to improve speech, communication and language. I've announced an additional £5 million for reading programmes across Wales, which will provide a book for every learner alongside a targeted scheme of reading support, focusing on early years and on disadvantaged learners, and we're expanding a project that will support over 2,000 children to improve their language, communication and reading skills—a project led by Bangor University—and it provides seven to 11-year-olds with an intensive, interactive 10-week language and literacy programme in Welsh and in English, either in or out of the classroom.

In relation to learning and teaching, evidence indicates that many of the countries that have the most equitable education systems are those that adopt mixed attainment learner grouping for as long as possible, so that can raise overall learner attainment and it can avoid the detrimental impact of setting, which often can result in learners from lower income households being placed in the lowest groupings, and that suppresses their aspirations, all too often. We know that setting and other forms of attainment-based learner grouping are used widely in our system in Wales, but we lack the robust research evidence on it, and the effect that it has. So, I am commissioning an initial review of evidence, with a focus on the extent to which mixed-attainment teaching and learning is already taking place, what the advantages are of that, and what the downsides are as well.

All of these considerations are at the forefront of the curriculum reforms that we are undertaking. As John Griffiths said, it is designed to achieve high standards and aspirations for all, and that absolutely includes those impacted by poverty. Schools are free to design their own curricula, with the needs of their learners and their communities in mind. I published additional materials in June to support schools to design their curriculum, and to embed that knowledge and those experiences key to the process of curriculum design.

In response to the disruption caused by the pandemic for learners moving from pre to post-16 education, we've introduced a post-16 transitions plan, supported by £45 million-worth of additional funding from 2020 to 2023. But there is much more that the post-16 sector can do to tackle the impact of poverty on attainment, and in my oral statement earlier this year, I made clear our intention to expand the work of the Seren network, for example, so it reaches more socioeconomically disadvantaged learners. And in the Bill that we've just passed through the Senedd, there will be a legislative duty on the new commission to seek to expand equality of opportunity and improve access for learners from under-represented groups, and to encourage learners from lower income backgrounds into post-16 education.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I thank John Griffiths, once again, for bringing this debate. His story, as we have heard, is the embodiment of my ambition for Wales to be a nation of second chances, where it is never too late to learn, and I know as well that we both share the conviction that whereas untackled poverty can be a bar to education, we also know that education at its best can also be a bar to poverty. Dirprwy Llywydd, working with our partners, I give you the promise that we will build an education system that can play its full part on the journey to the fairer Wales that we all want to see, where we achieve high standards and aspirations for all.

Thank you, Minister.

And diolch to all Members who contributed, because I think this is an important topic and the passion you've shown demonstrates that.

And that brings today's proceedings to a close.

The meeting ended at 18:35.