Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 25 October 2022.
Good afternoon, Trefnydd. I would like a statement from the Minister for education on the fact that some primary schools now are in urgent need of support to extend their kitchens and employ more staff to manage the free school meal policy. Indeed, in a response to a written question, the Minister for education advised me, and I quote,
'further work will take place during October to understand whether any additional kitchen upgrade works are required to deliver the next stages of universal primary free school meals.'
He was then, however, unable
'to confirm the number of primary schools in Wales requiring upgrades to their kitchens.'
Without the staff that are employed to work in our school kitchens in Aberconwy and across Wales, the delivery of this universal offer is not going to be possible. I met one of those teams—a school kitchen team, the other day—and they were working incredibly hard, but they themselves now are beginning to panic about how they're going to take this policy and do it properly, with the number of pupils in various schools. So, could we have a statement from the Minister? Will he update the Chamber on the outcome of the work this month so that school kitchen teams themselves can find out whether they're going to be receiving this help? And, in the main, it's finances as well they're looking for. Thank you.