Thanks to the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, more pupils are in receipt of free school meals since the beginning of this month, as part of the roll-out of free school meals to all primary school children by 2024. But we should be striving to expand this free school meals scheme to every secondary school pupil too, as a matter of urgency, to help to tackle the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our children and young people, and to tackle child poverty, which is increasingly a problem here in Wales. And as I mentioned yesterday, we must now look at expanding eligibility for free school meals to a wider range of children and young people. As the Welsh Government’s child poverty review found, not all of those who need free school meals receive them.

The Welsh Government has been trying to tackle high levels of poverty in Wales for years, and indeed, it could be argued, since the beginning of this Senedd, and yet the situation is getting worse. I'm sure that a number of us remember the ambition to eradicate child poverty by 2020, after the Welsh Government commissioned in 2003 the child poverty task and finish group to investigate the impacts of severe child poverty in Wales, at a time when one in three children were living in poverty.

Almost two decades later, this figure has hardly changed at all. No council ward anywhere in Wales has a child poverty rate below 12 per cent. And even before the pandemic, around 195,000 children were living in a household below the poverty line. Due to these high rates of child poverty, our children are being disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis. We know that child poverty is causing serious and lifelong harm to children’s outcomes, which worsen the longer a child lives in poverty.

Growing up in poverty and experiencing the related stress and strain leads to adverse childhood experiences, and this will affect an individual throughout their life. It is traumatic for a child to grow up without their needs being met. This is likely to have a negative impact on their mental health, their self-image, self-worth, physical health, education and ensuing career path, as well as the ability to socialise normally and to engage with their contemporaries, and the likelihood that they will be involved in crime, either as a victim or as a perpetrator.

Food prices rose at the fastest rate in August for 27 years. The proportion of people living in households with one or two children that are having to cut back on food has almost doubled since November 2021—since we were elected to this sixth Senedd. Bearing in mind the fact that there is a significant body of evidence demonstrating the effect of poor nutrition during childhood on a child's long-term health outlook, the fact that one in five households with two children is cutting back on food for those children is particularly worrying. We have to do more in this regard.

But, alongside expanding the free school meal provision and support to provide the very best start to every child, we must also look at the education maintenance allowance. This sum has remained at the same level, namely £30 a week, since it was introduced in 2004. For a little under 20 years, it hasn't increased at all, despite costs continuing to increase. We know how vital this payment is, and the difference it makes in terms of young people being able to continue in education or not; for the parents to be able to keep their children in education.

We have to increase the EMA now to £45 per week as part of this emergency package of cost-of-living measures, to ensure that this crisis doesn't have a negative impact on our young people and learners, along with their ambitions and the opportunities available to them. There is more that we could and should be doing, if we are serious about giving the very best start in life to every child in Wales.