Early Years Childcare

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 9 November 2022.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:07, 9 November 2022

Okay. My understanding is that it is within your portfolio to look at the equality impact of all Government policies, and that, obviously, includes Flying Start, while I appreciate that you're not the Minister who actually carries responsibility for that programme.

So, I'm interested in looking at how the phase 1 expansion for £20 million, which increased the numbers of children benefiting from that additional support by a further 2,500, compared with phase 2, which is £26 million for 3,000 additional two-year-olds to get free Flying Start childcare from next April. But, as raised by Cardiff Council, the concerns they have about this phase 2 are that those additional children getting the additional childcare earlier on doesn't include them in the important increased support for health visitors, speech and language, and other parenting support. And I'm interested in exploring why we've done that, because it's all about the evaluation of how much impact the childcare has if it hasn't also been accompanied by that additional health visiting and other parenting support.