The next item is a statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language—supporting the education workforce. I call on the Minister to make the statement. Jeremy Miles. 

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've made it clear that we cannot support the well-being of pupils and provide high-quality education unless the workforce feel that they are being supported. That means that workforce well-being must be at the forefront of everything that we do. Tackling workload must be a priority. The managing workload and reducing bureaucracy group, comprising key stakeholders from the education community, has identified and considered significant issues that have an impact on workload. The group is soon to sign off its recommendations, but I'm expecting proposals that will make a significant difference, such as ensuring that the term 'mock inspection' becomes obsolete, clarification around expectations for lesson planning and quality control particularly in primary schools, and ensuring all future communication and guidance is streamlined. I will also be establishing a new process within the education department, where all policies and reforms must consider the implications for workload.

An education system is only as good as the quality of its teachers. I am proud that we have such a dedicated workforce, and I know that they welcome the steps that we're taking towards a system driven by career-long professional learning. Later this week, I will be publishing the new national professional learning entitlement. This will bring together a package of professional learning for the entire education workforce so that anyone, wherever they are based in Wales, can benefit from it. This will be a live entitlement, curated as it evolves. It will make it easier for practitioners to access professional learning programmes, and it will set out our clear expectations on what every professional in Wales should be entitled to. If that entitlement is not currently in place, we will work at pace with partners to improve the offer.

Our national offer must be consistent and of the highest quality. I can therefore announce we will introduce a new validation process to ensure all national professional learning is quality assured and recognised. I am also pleased to inform you that a new cross-regional website has gone live today. The website will provide equitable access to information regarding professional learning provision for practitioners across Wales, together with open access to the Curriculum for Wales professional learning offer across all regions. The site will continue to develop so that it provides universal access to further professional learning opportunities and resources. The new validation process and the new cross-regional website are important steps towards ensuring that we have a consistent, validated, reputable offer that is available to all.

Recognising the additional burden on education staff, particularly following the pandemic, and to support the professional learning entitlement, I am consulting on extending the provision of an additional in-service training day for the next three academic years, and I would encourage everyone with an interest to respond to the consultation.

To strengthen professional learning and support we have made improvements to statutory induction, following a public consultation in the spring. From this term, we are providing funding for trained mentors to support all newly qualified teachers throughout induction. A national programme of professional learning has also been developed, regardless of whether NQTs are working on a contract or supply basis.

On curriculum implementation, we provided flexibility to secondary schools to commence in either 2022 or 2023. My officials continue to share early plans with teaching unions, addressing their concerns where possible, and in some cases, adjusting plans in response to wider workload considerations. Research on the early experiences of curriculum realisation will begin this term, allowing us to understand what is working well and what lessons we can learn moving forward to help us best support practitioners.

Similarly, I have continued to listen to concerns raised about the pressures facing the workforce to meet the timeline for moving children to the new additional learning needs system. Last spring, I announced an extra year to move the first group of children. With strong commitment across Wales to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people with additional learning needs, we continue to support the sector with £21 million annually over the next two years to boost capacity and implementation support. It is heartening to learn that families are reporting positively on their experiences so far.

The devolution of teachers' pay, terms and conditions presented Wales with an opportunity to forge a new path to support our workforce, and that is what we have done. We have taken a social partnership approach, working with the teaching profession to help provide higher salaries and allowances for both new and experienced teachers when compared, for example, to England. We will work with stakeholders on a comprehensive review of the structure of teachers' pay and conditions, providing further opportunities to develop a more distinct national system, not only improving and enhancing the system, but making it fairer and more transparent.

For too long supply teachers have not felt supported enough. Working with Plaid Cymru, we are taking action to address that. Over the coming months, I will be setting out significant reforms that will look at the system as a whole, and ensure that supply staff are fairly rewarded for the work that they do. Teaching assistants are also an integral part of our education workforce, which is why I have already set out a number of actions that we will take to support them, including addressing their specific workforce issues and professional learning.

As I've said, well-being support is vital, Dirprwy Lywydd. In the spring, I announced increased funding to support the mental health and well-being of the education workforce, with funding of £1.2 million this financial year, rising to £3 million by 2024-25. We continue to fund the charity Education Support, who provide bespoke, tailored support for mental health and well-being to the education workforce. Wider well-being support is also being scoped, working with stakeholders, employers and unions.

Dirprwy Lywydd, as a Government, we remain wholly committed to supporting the education workforce. We have made strong progress over the last year, and I am determined to keep up this momentum so that we continue to support our workforce in helping them to raise standards and aspirations in our classrooms.

Can I thank the Minister for his statement today? I think much of it is to be welcomed. But I think it would be remiss of me not to say that, at the beginning of your statement, you mention that workforce well-being must be at the forefront of all that we do, and yet, since 2011, we've seen 7,000 more pupils enter the classroom and 4,000 fewer teachers to teach them. And that teacher shortage is even more stark in the Welsh language education sector. And while that's in no way a reflection on the dedication and hard work of the profession that we've seen over that time, by consistently failing to recruit enough teachers in Wales, it's the Welsh Government that continues to let down that workforce. Surely, a way to let the workforce feel valued and motivated is to recruit more teachers, lessen the burden on their workload, which would ensure that teachers remain in the profession and we can attract the best from all corners of the country. Minister, can you outline what steps your department is taking to help with some of those pressures?

Another way we can get teachers and teaching assistants to feel valued is through their pay. So, Minister, can you provide an update on these reviews, particularly the one around teaching assistants' pay and conditions? As a former teaching assistant myself, and with a number of friends still in the profession, I know first-hand that a number of TAs go above and beyond their contracted duties for the benefit of their pupils and their school, and it would be useful for them to get the clarity that they deserve from that review.

The shift towards a system driven by career-long professional learning is one to be welcomed, and I look forward to seeing the new national professional learning entitlement. Could you just confirm that, where you say you'll work at pace with partners to improve the offer, professionals will not be disadvantaged depending on the school or local authority that they will be teaching in, and that this will be a consistent offer of professional development across Wales? Also, how will we know that this is having an impact on the profession? How will success be measured? And how will teachers, teaching assistants and pupils benefit from that? What clear guidelines will you be setting out for those groups, to ensure that we don't have a postcode lottery of access to that professional development?

I also welcome the fact that you've acknowledged the additional burden on educational staff, and the mental health and well-being of the workforce must be at the forefront of our minds when we consider that support for the professions. Therefore, in light of the consultation on an additional INSET day for teachers for the next three years, could you confirm when the profession should expect a final announcement on that? And given the additional burdens placed on educational staff that you mentioned, is one additional INSET day really going to be a substantial help to enable teachers and staff to catch up on the professional development required that you mention?

On NQTs, the national programme is again to be welcomed. But I wonder if the Minister had considered a potential buddy programme with more experienced staff, to help support them, helping them with their professional development and creating clear pathways for their career.

To touch on supply teachers, I welcome the acknowledgement that supply teachers are not supported enough, and I know that the profession would welcome swift action on that. So, could the Minister give an idea of what those reforms will look like, as the industry are looking for a degree of certainty to help keep people within the profession? Finally, on agency staff, they're often some of the worst affected staff members when it comes to work conditions.

I do think we need to set up a clear pathway for teaching assistants to learn and enhance professional development, so that we can get more teaching assistants to become teachers, as, often, it's those teaching assistants that are doing much of the job of a teacher in the first place, with little or no reward for it. Therefore, some action on ensuring that we attract people from all backgrounds into the profession, to ensure that not only teachers, but pupils and the sector as a whole benefit from some of those changes. So, finally, what action are you taking to simplify the pathway for teaching assistants to become teachers in their own right? Thank you.

I thank the Member for that range of questions. He will be aware of the increase in the number of teachers applying to ITE in recent years, and I'm sure he will be welcoming that. He will also be aware of the work we are doing to promote teaching as an attractive profession. We spend perhaps quite a lot of time in the Chamber discussing the challenges, but, in my experience, and I'm sure in his experience, teachers in classrooms will tell you about the fantastic experience they have as teachers, and the joy—. He will have had personal experience of that, given his previous career. And I think there's more that we can do to make sure that people also recognise the wonderful opportunities that teaching brings to shape the lives of young people and improve their life chances, which is the key motivator, in my experience, of people who take up teaching as a profession. We also have a package of incentives, which he will be aware of, which evidence suggests is bearing fruit in terms of recruitment, in particular into areas where it's been challenging to recruit into some subject areas.

On the point about managing workload, we have had for some time a process that has engaged teachers, teaching unions, Government and other partners and stakeholders in the education system to look at what we can do to remove those elements of workload that may have built up over time and to apply a fresh lens to them to say, 'Are they absolutely necessary? Do they add the value that justifies the level of commitment and hours that teachers and teaching staff will broadly have to put in to responding to those?' So, that work has—you know, it is challenging work. These things aren't randomly designed, they're generally designed for good reasons, but perhaps periodically we need to refresh that, look again at them. So, that work has been going on for some time, and I'm expecting to get advice very shortly about some specific actions that we've been working on with the profession to reduce workload. So, I'll be able to bring forward a statement, I hope, in the not-too-distant future that will give a bit more meat on the bone in relation to that.

He asked a number of points in relation to teaching assistants, and I want to echo his appreciation for the work that they do. He has personal experience of that, as he says. We have a pathway for professional learning for teachers, for teaching assistants. The national professional learning entitlement will also extend to teaching assistants. As he will know from the statement I made earlier this year, we've been undertaking work in relation to the standardisation of roles and the guidance in relation to deployment, advice to governing bodies and so on. I recommend he casts an eye over that statement, which will explain to him the steps that we are taking to support our teaching assistants.

In relation to the national professional entitlement, he will have heard me say in the statement that the whole point of it is to be a national entitlement. The clue is in the name. So, the website that is being launched today provides access to teachers in any part of Wales to the professional learning offer of consortia in any part of Wales. So, it's no longer limited to the particular consortium in which that individual teacher happens to practice. So, that information is now available on a national basis for the reason that he was asking about in his question, and we will be evaluating the effectiveness of the professional learning, the offer. We are in a constant process of evaluation in relation to professional learning because there is so much happening in the system at the moment. But, I can assure him that that will be part of our work there.

He asked for clarity about when a decision would be announced on the INSET day. Adding an additional INSET day requires regulations, and that requires consultation. We've minimised the consultation period consistent with what we feel is the appropriate time to give people an opportunity to respond. The consultation closes on 28 October, so I hope to be able to make a statement pretty shortly after that, so that schools will have the clarity that I know we all want to see. But, it's an inescapable part of the process, as I know that he will understand.

He asked about buddying. Mentoring is, as you will have heard from my statement, a key part of our offer for early years practitioners, so I hope that will have given him some assurance.

Thank you, Minister, for today's statement. It was good to hear clearly at the beginning of your statement that the welfare of the workforce is a leading consideration in everything, and I echo those sentiments in terms of its importance.

Like several other Members, I attended a lunch-time event here in the Senedd for the launch of the short guide, 'Tackling child poverty together', by the National Education Union of Wales and Child Poverty Action Group, and heard very powerful evidence about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, not only on children and young people, but also the workforce. The additional stress on teachers in terms of supporting learners and their families is an important matter for us to consider, and I would like to ask today what further steps are being taken by the Government to ensure more support for the education workforce in this regard. The impact of this on staff was supported by the teachers' union survey, which found that 58 per cent of teachers said that they had given food or clothes to pupils, that six in every 10 had sought support from external agencies for families, and that 35 per cent have supported a pupil's family to gain access to a food bank.

We heard clearly from learners at today's event how they consider the cost of transport to be a barrier to people getting to school. With schools being measured on attendance, and pressure on teachers to reach targets in terms of attendance, this is, certainly, a challenge. You know they are being measured in terms of attendance with pupils, and that's something that headteachers are working towards, because we know the importance of having children in school. But that is an additional challenge, when we need to convince families of the importance of that and support them to be able to afford to reach the school. 

But we also must also remember that the workforce not only supports people who have been affected by the cost of living crisis, but that they also face challenges themselves, with the price of fuel, for example, having increased, meaning that traveling to work is more expensive, not to mention an increase in other costs that all of us face. Furthermore, and you've already mentioned the importance of teaching assistants, we must also recognise that they are specifically affected by the cost-of-living crisis. A host of headteachers have shared with me that they have set up food banks in schools, not only to support learners and their families but also staff. What work is being done, therefore, by the Government to understand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the education workforce as a whole?

As I mentioned last week during questions, Scotland has started to place advisers in schools in order to provide support and ensure that everyone knows how to receive the financial support that's available for them, whether they are pupils or staff or part of the broader community. At the moment, this burden seems to fall entirely on teachers and headteachers. Have you had an opportunity to consider further the benefits of trying to emulate a scheme like Scotland's here in Wales? Because, as you've mentioned in your statement, there is a burden on teachers in terms of the new curriculum and ALN. The cost-of-living crisis is obviously another element of that, and I'd appreciate more information on that. 

I thank the Member for those further questions. I also attended the event earlier today, and listened to the evidence from a teacher, who happens to be from my own constituency, discussing her experience of being in school and providing that broader support, which is required because of the situation faced by many families. That's certainly something that's happening elsewhere too.

In terms of our work as a Government, what we are endeavouring to do is that we provide support in order to reduce the likelihood of that happening, perhaps through providing support to those families who are most in need of support, for example, in terms of cost of living, in terms of school uniform and events at school, but also, a she will be aware, the work that we are doing along with Plaid Cymru in terms of extending free school meals. So, there are a number of things that we are doing with the intention of reducing the pressures on those families who are having most difficulty. But in a situation such as the one that we see now, with the broader social pressures on families, the situation, as was described to us earlier today, is very sad indeed. So, what we're doing is ensuring that we're providing all the support that we possibly can to the families who need that most. 

In terms of attendance targets, there are no statutory targets at the moment, for the reasons that she outlined, in terms of the pressures currently on schools. But it's also important that we do support our teachers in ensuring that pupils do return. We know that over COVID that's been very challenging for many schools. We've provided specific funding to ensure that we can support schools that need that support to remake connections with families, where perhaps children aren't attending school. So we're doing our best to support teachers to ensure that that happens, rather than putting in place statutory targets at the moment. But it is right that schools do look at that. It's an aim of the education system to have our children in the classroom, so that is important work that teachers are doing. 

In terms of her final point, in terms of teaching assistants, I perhaps responded to some of that in answering Tom Giffard. I attended a meeting yesterday and this morning with the schools social partnership council discussing the pressures on school staff, in light of the cost-of-living crisis. So, it's an issue for families, as well as teachers and TAs. This was a theme of a meeting that I attended yesterday that the EPI had arranged to hear what's happening elsewhere in the UK, and it's a debate that's being had elsewhere too. So, it's priority to ensure that we enhance the terms of TAs. We do have some of the powers, but other powers rest with local authorities and there’s a lot of work to be done in order to ensure that we do improve the situation in this area. We’ve started that work; it’s going relatively well, but there’s more to be done.

Finally, Jayne Bryant.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I fully welcome your statement this afternoon, Minister, and your personal commitment to supporting the education workforce.

We expect so much of teachers and school staff; their roles extend to being so much more than educators and we know they go above and beyond what is expected of them. This often extends outside their working day, and so many continue to support students and families in their own time. They help with community events and they’re asked to support the police; often being at the forefront, they can be in the firing line for many unpopular decisions outside of their own control, and they really can feel the brunt of opinion on social media.

The work that they provide is invaluable to our children and young people in Wales and they really should have the best support possible. Some of those that provide vital support are the teaching assistants and the learning support assistants, as you touched on earlier. I know a current review is in place to look at ways we can incentivise more people to join and remain in these professions, and I’d urge the Minister to do everything that he can to provide that help. These roles are crucial and they require dedication and a huge amount of patience and commitment. They again go above and beyond their responsibilities.

I’d just like to ask what work is being done to support those teachers and teaching assistants perhaps later on in their careers, or those who are approaching retirement, and how we’re looking to support those, perhaps if they want to stay in the workforce a bit more flexibly than they have done, and also to use their incredible skills and experience that they can pass on to others who are new to the role, because they are really, really important.

Finally, we know that the UK Tory Government is really determined to prioritise bankers’ bonuses rather than properly funding our public services. What more can the Welsh Government do to show our education workforce that we value their skills, dedication and professionalism?

We do value their skills, their dedication and their professionalism. The contribution of teachers to the well-being of our young people and the well-being of our nation is immense. The amazing work they do to shape young lives and make sure that every single young person has the best start in life, the best opportunity to fulfil their potential, is extraordinary. I will take any opportunity to pay tribute to them for the fantastic work that they do.

In relation to the support that we provide for teaching assistants, there have been a number of work streams under way since the statement that I made earlier in the year, and some of those work streams have been led by teaching assistants themselves. For example, in relation to the work under way to look at the standardisation of job roles, which is very varied in different authorities across Wales, the initial stage of that, which is already under way, is being led by teaching assistants looking at job specifications. The next stage then will be working with local government partners.

The advice that we’ve been providing in relation to the deployment of teaching assistants to make sure there is a consistency in approach is also being led by teaching assistants. The professional learning offer that I mentioned earlier, which launches this week, has a specific component for teaching assistants that will enable them to know what their entitlement is, where they can find it, and to give a sense of what the validated resources available to them are. I’ve also written to governing bodies in Wales recommending the appointment of a governor responsible for teaching assistants specifically, to make sure the voice of teaching assistants is heard in the governing body when decisions are being made across the school.

So, in each of those areas, there is significant progress under way. As I mentioned in my answer to Heledd Fychan, there’s obviously more to do, but I was keen to make sure that the approach we take to it is one that has teaching assistants at the heart of that work, in partnership with us.

The Member made some specific points about what more we can do in relation to those in the latter parts of their career or who may wish to work flexibly. I was pleased to see—it was published last week, I think, or perhaps the week before, at this point—comparative research looking at the approach to retention in different nations in the UK, and I recommend it if she's interested. In two particular areas, as it happens, late-stage career and part-time teaching, actually Wales is doing very, very well in terms of retention of people, of practitioners in that part of their career. So, I'm pleased with that. There's obviously more that we can do, but it does show that with effort and with focus, we can make sure that teachers have those opportunities to make sure they can teach in a way that works for them and that we don't lose, as she was saying, the expertise, the insight and the experience that teachers can bring.

I thank the Minister.