5. What support is the Welsh Government providing to schools in light of the cost-of-living crisis? OQ58411

The cost-of-living crisis is having, and will continue to have, significant impact on all public services, including our schools. The First Minister has already made clear in the Senedd yesterday that only the UK Government has the financial firepower to tackle the crippling effects of rising energy costs and other costs.

Thank you, Minister. Certainly, as the First Minister emphasised, there is a role for this Government and there are other things that we could be doing. The First Minister mentioned yesterday the campaign in terms of ensuring that people do take up every benefit currently available, including those that are under the control of the Welsh Government. In Scotland, they have advisers in specific schools to support parents to ensure that they do receive every benefit available to them. Is that something that you are considering introducing here in Wales?

It's already happening in some schools in Wales. Schools support families in all sorts of different ways to ensure that they can access support more broadly. One of the considerations mentioned by the First Minister yesterday was the need to ensure that any contact between families and any public body allows people to understand the range of support available to them. One of the things, and perhaps the Member is aware of this, that we considered in the context of free school meals was how to remind families that, although they already access free school meals, if they are already eligible to receive certain support, that they know that and that they can inform the school of that so that the school can ensure they have access to that broader range of support that is already available. And there's also more to be done in terms of communication and ensuring that we as a Government also provide information to schools to support families in need.

Minister, undoubtedly the cost of supplying energy to school buildings with the recent increases in wholesale energy prices is going to put enormous strain on finances, which, as we know, are already under considerable pressure. It is therefore a real concern that headteachers will have to make staffing cuts in order to balance budgets, as highlighted earlier by other Members. Whilst we all agree that the situation that schools find themselves in is far from ideal, I believe that the current situation gives cause to invest more vigorously in the energy efficiency of school buildings. I wonder therefore what plans you have to upgrade the energy efficiency of school buildings across Wales, and, given that many of them have highly suitable roof surfaces and sufficient ground space to support renewable energy generation, whether this Government is going to provide investment to enable schools in Wales to install solar panels or suitable wind turbines. Thank you.

Well, that is a longer term solution to the challenge that the Member correctly describes as being imminent for schools, and I hope, as I'm sure he will, that when the statement is made on Friday, the Prime Minister will be clear in terms of the commitment that she's making to businesses and to individuals about the support for energy costs, which is certainly necessary in order for public services right across the UK not to feel the incredible pressure that otherwise they would.

On the broader point that the Member was making, in a number of ways he will know that we have a programme to ensure that the school estate, like every other part of the public estate in Wales, makes its contribution to reaching the goals, the ambitious targets that we've set for making Wales a net-zero nation. So, for new school builds, as he will know, from 1 January this year, any school seeking funding from the Welsh Government will need to be a net-zero school. But there are many schools, obviously, that are much older than that and there is a significant amount of the school estate that requires investment in order for them to be able to make that contribution as well, and there's work under way to understand the scale of that with our local authority partners and then to look at how that can be mapped out into the future.

Minister, there's been significant interest in the reported consultation on school uniforms, and the First Minister spoke about this yesterday. The Welsh Government, of course, has extended the pupil development grant to support more families with the cost of uniforms and school kit to the extent of £200, but the Children's Society have said that the average cost of school uniform is still over £300 per child per year, and that is completely unnecessary and unfair. It's three years since we brought in guidance to improve uniform affordability—two years, that is, before England—and the succession of Westminster Tory Governments have widened the inequality. Now we find that school uniform banks are springing up, alongside food banks, alongside proposed warmth banks, and yet the bankers can get their extended bonuses. Can you provide an update on what schools in my region are doing to ensure families claim all the support that is available to them, and on the timetable for that public consultation?

I thank Joyce Watson for that supplementary question. She's right to say, of course, that the costs of school uniform are a considerable concern for many families. I wrote to schools over the summer recess, towards the end of the recess, to say to them that we will be looking again, as she says, at the guidance that's been in place for three years, effectively, at this point, but the scale of the issue is such that we need to look again at what more we can do. We know that the cost of uniform with school logos can be a real issue for families, so I will want to look at whether that is absolutely necessary and whether schools should be required to provide iron-on logos free of charge, so that the merits of the school uniform can be maintained without the costs being borne by those who are struggling most.

The PDG access grant that we run in Wales is the most generous of any part of the UK. It is actually worth up to £300 for pupils in year 7, which is a year where the costs are particularly challenging, but for other years it's £225, and this year it's been increased to that level. And that is one of a range of ways in which we support families, but the pressures that families are feeling due to costs are very, very real, and there are many families who don't qualify for free school meals who are also finding it challenging, obviously, which is why tackling some of those questions, like the cost of uniforms, is so important.