Item 4 this afternoon is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Services: Early years provision—expansion of Flying Start, and I call on Julie Morgan to make the statement.

Thank you, Dirprwy Llywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to come here today to talk to Members about our plans to expand early years provision for two-year-olds across Wales. 

The Welsh Government is committed to ensuring that every child in Wales has the best start in life. The early years are vitally important in a child's life, providing formative opportunities and setting the course for longer term learning and development. Investment in early years care and education, as set out in our vision for an integrated early childhood education and care system, is key to children's happiness and well-being and sets children on the path to achieve their full potential.

Reflecting the importance of the early years, our programme for government commits us to continuing our support for our flagship Flying Start programme. Working with our colleagues in Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement, we have extended our commitment to deliver a phased expansion of early years provision to include all two-year-olds, with a particular emphasis on strengthening Welsh-medium provision.

In March this year, I announced that the expansion of early years provision would initially be delivered through our Flying Start programme, with the first phase starting this September, this month. The initial expansion will provide Flying Start services to up to 2,500 additional children across Wales under the age of four. These children and their families will benefit from increased access to health visitors, support with speech, language and communication, parenting services, and access to Flying Start childcare for children aged two to three. I'm pleased to inform Members of the Senedd that this additional provision is already being delivered across Wales, and along with the Plaid Cymru designated Member, Siân Gwenllian, I want to thank our local authorities and wider early years partners for ensuring that this expansion could happen so quickly. We've had a tremendous response from them.

I'm now able to confirm that the second phase of expansion will focus on delivering the childcare element of Flying Start to even more two-year-olds. This approach will build on that taken in phase 1, working with our local authority partners and the childcare sector to provide the highest quality provision. Starting with some of our most disadvantaged communities, delivery will begin in April, and over the following two years, we will invest £26 million in expanding Flying Start childcare. This investment will allow the reach of Flying Start childcare provision to expand significantly, supporting long-term, positive impacts on the lives of those children and families across Wales facing the greatest challenges, and never has it been needed more.

I'm pleased to say that we have already published detailed draft guidance for our partners and the sector. This will enable early planning to take place at a local level so that we can make rapid progress towards achieving our goal of providing the best possible early years experience for all children in Wales. Over this period, we'll also be seeking to significantly increase the availability of Welsh-medium childcare provision. The co-operation agreement commitment also emphasises the importance of supporting Welsh-medium early years provision. I'm pleased to announce a package of measures to support existing Welsh-medium settings and childcare workers, as well as those wanting to enter the children's workforce. Additional funding of up to £3.787 million will be provided to Cwlwm over the next three financial years to support a range of measures, including additional and bespoke Welsh language training, dedicated support to Welsh-medium settings, and those seeking to increase their use of the Welsh language, as well as training courses delivered through the medium of Welsh.

This funding will support us to attract more Welsh speakers into the workforce. It will provide opportunities for Welsh learners and Welsh speakers within the existing workforce to improve their language skills, and it will deliver a continuous programme of professional development for Welsh speakers within the workforce. Funding will support existing settings to expand into Welsh-medium provision, as well as enabling new, dedicated Welsh-medium settings to open. And, as I said earlier, I've been working very closely on this with the designated Member, Siân Gwenllian.

Increasing capacity across the childcare sector will be integral to driving forward this expansion, working across all parts of the sector. Since 2006, we have invested over £160 million in childcare settings across Wales through our Flying Start and childcare offer capital programmes. Building on this success, I'm pleased to announce a new three-year capital programme of £70 million, which all registered childcare settings will have the opportunity to access. Our existing funding has supported Flying Start settings to develop and maintain the infrastructure required to deliver the full complement of services to eligible children and their families. This has included high-quality childcare settings and venues suitable for delivering parenting and early language and development programmes.

The additional £70 million will fund major capital works, as well as a small grant to allow settings to apply for financial support for minor capital improvements and essential maintenance across the Flying Start and childcare estate in Wales. Guidance on the new application process will be issued to local authorities in the coming weeks.

This is a significant step forward. It is £100 million all together into the childcare sector, it is a result of the co-operation agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru, and I’m really very proud that we’re able to make this announcement in the Senedd today.

I would ask the Senedd to join me in welcoming this investment in supporting our children and young people. Thank you.

I thank you for your statement this afternoon, Deputy Minister, despite you announcing your plan to the media 48 hours before discussing the proposals on the floor of this Senedd, to where you're elected. But it was good to see you in north Wales on Friday, so that's a positive.

And turning to your announcement today, I'd like to start on a technical point, if I may. I’m very interested in the £70 million to upgrade care settings, Deputy Minister. So, how will this funding be weighted amongst the 22 local authorities—which is, essentially, a question to ask how much each council will receive? I also note that you'll be publishing guidance on the application process, but could you tell us today what the maximum bid is childcare settings can apply for and who is eligible for this funding?

Child poverty rates have actually increased in Wales, Deputy Minister. In 2020-21, Wales had 34 per cent of children living below the poverty line, which is the worst in the UK, with England at 29 per cent, Scotland at 21 per cent, and Northern Ireland at 24 per cent. I hope you recognise these figures, Deputy Minister, and are in a position to outline today which components of the extension will directly tackle these issues. And where I can welcome the principle of extra spending on childcare, you could have gone further than this if the Labour and Plaid Cymru coalition weren’t determined to create 36 more Members of the Senedd, costing in the region of £100 million, which, during a cost-of-living crisis, and winter on the horizon, would seem to be a plausible argument to make this afternoon, Deputy Minister.

Now, when introduced in 2007, the Flying Start scheme was seen as one of the Welsh Government's top priorities for tackling poverty. So, does the Deputy Minister believe it has worked, and how will this extension improve chances for the most deprived children in Wales? And I'd like to also address geographical and postcode-lottery concerns, particularly when it comes to cases where more affluent families can qualify for the Flying Start scheme, and families in need of the support can't qualify, just because of where they live. So, can the Deputy Minister give less-well-off families any assurances today that the extension will go some way to tackle these problems? And if not, what future plans will the Welsh Government adopt to make sure that extra spending is focused on the people who need it the most?

And this is the true cost of 25 years of Labour in Wales—years of economic mismanagement have seen Wales's in-work poverty grow alongside rising child poverty. Is it any wonder when, under Labour, Welsh workers take home the lowest pay packets in Great Britain, with hard-working people missing out on £3,000 compared to other parts of the UK? Labour Ministers need to stop playing politics with the real pressures that people are facing, and stop wasting money on their vanity projects and provide the targeted support that hard-working people and businesses are crying out for. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that contribution. Well, you said one positive thing at the beginning—that you were pleased to see me and Siân visiting the cylch meithrin in north Wales, and I’d like to say that we had a very good visit and it was very pleasant and very stimulating and I think shows what we're able to do to work with children.

I don’t think, probably, the rest of the points you made were exactly positive, but you asked some questions. So, the £70 million, how will it be weighted amongst the local authorities? The local authorities will have the opportunity to bid for that money and, obviously, it's going to cover a huge range of provision. Some of it will be for fairly small improvements to existing provision. We will need some new provision. We may need some totally new builds. So, the range of money that local authorities will bid for will be quite wide.

Then you went on to mention child poverty rates, and this £100 million investment is directly addressing child poverty, because, if you provide a warm, safe place for children to go, free childcare for 12.5 hours per week for two-year-olds, that is a huge step towards giving the parents the opportunity to have somewhere for their children to go in that sort of way, and is directly addressing the cost-of-living crisis that we're in. So, I think childcare is one of the most important things we can do, and one of the most important things that we can do to help the economic difficulties of the country as well. So, I see it as a direct contribution towards addressing child poverty, which we all want to see fall.

Then he went on to political points, from what I could see. In terms of the 36 new Members of the Senedd, perhaps he could take the view that investing in strengthening Wales's democracy through expanding the Senedd is really a guaranteed way of making sure we've got a Government in Wales that is absolutely committed to public services and to protecting the most vulnerable in society. That is the purpose of our plans to expand the Senedd in Wales. So, I really see that that is a political point, and I want to emphasise today that this is a great announcement and it is a great move forward and it's something that we are so pleased that we are able to do.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for today's statement. Obviously, we are pleased to see a further commitment from the agreement between the Government and Plaid Cymru being realised, not just on paper but also delivering for the people of Wales. And for Plaid Cymru, free childcare for two-year-olds is an important first step in our vision for free childcare for all. It shows that we can do things differently here in Wales, and that, even with the powers that we have, we can put in place measures to give our children the best possible start while also implementing measures to tackle poverty. Certainly, these are important measures in terms of that.

In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis, this will provide a lifeline for many families, by eliminating costs and also by eliminating a barrier for parents who may wish to return to work. But this is only a starting point. The Welsh Government's progress on free childcare must be ambitious, and continue to be so, in order to ensure that as many children as possible in the coming years can benefit from childcare settings from a young age. We have to move as quickly as possible to make the policy a reality, and ultimately we would like to see free childcare provided to all children over the age of one, and I hope that we can agree that this should be the ultimate goal.

Alongside acceleration and expansion is the need to ensure that the expansion of Welsh-medium provision is central to this and that it is seen as a core part of today's statement—not as something separate or something that is happening alongside that, but something entirely central. This is the only way to ensure that every child in Wales has the opportunity to learn the two official languages ​​of our country and reach the target of a million Welsh speakers and ultimately increase the use of the language.

Of course, as you outlined in the statement, a major challenge is developing the workforce so that we can offer childcare services throughout Wales in the Welsh language, and it is good to see investment in this. Could I therefore press on the Deputy Minister to confirm today that expanding provision as a matter of urgency is a priority for the Government, and that the Welsh language is a central, rather than supplementary, part of these plans?

Diolch. Thank you very much for those comments and question. I really welcome the commitment to childcare in Wales, and I'm very pleased that we've been able to take these steps forward. I absolutely agree that childcare is a lifeline for families, for all families, and for struggling families in particular it's a huge boost. I think we are ambitious. The co-operation agreement says that we will reach all two-year-olds by the end of the co-operation agreement. That is a three-year agreement and that is very challenging, but both myself and the designated Member are determined to do all we possibly can to achieve that. Our long-term policy for childcare, over a 10-year strategy, is to look at a much wider group of children and, ultimately, we would like to move to the position where we have got childcare available for all those who want it and need it. But that is a 10-year strategy. But, during these three years, we want to reach all two-year-olds. That is ambitious, I know, and the workforce is one of the areas that we are working on most strongly. 

I just want to reassure the Member that Welsh-medium education and care must be seen as an integral part of the whole thing, that, whatever we do, we must see it as part of that, as integral, not an add-on. And we want to use this opportunity to give families and children in Wales the huge benefit of being able to, as you say, use the two official languages of Wales, and we want to make that easy to happen and we want to make it part of the whole system. So, I can assure her that that is our aim and that's why we have specifically allocated money in this announcement today to strengthen the Welsh-medium provision, working with Cwlwm very closely, and ensuring that there will be opportunities for existing members of staff to develop and learn confidence in the Welsh language, as well as attracting new members of staff and offering wide opportunities, and also putting in a development officer to develop the Welsh language provision in each of the Cwlwm partners. So, we have got specific costed plans to use the money that we've got. We know that the workforce is one of the issues that we have to tackle for both English and Welsh-medium settings, but we're well aware of that and are doing all we possibly can to follow that up. 

I thank the Deputy Minister.