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.