Diolch, and thank you very much for the opportunity to update Members about the childcare offer for Wales, including the expansion to parents in education and training. Affordable, available and accessible childcare helps parents to work, supporting our drive to increase economic growth, tackle poverty and reduce inequalities. That's why we are committed to funding childcare for more families where parents are in education and training or on the edge of work.

In September, we expanded the childcare offer for Wales to include parents already enrolled or planning to enrol in higher and further education courses of at least 10 weeks in length. This reflects the value we place on supporting people who are seeking to improve their employment prospects by gaining qualifications, retraining or changing career path. It also means we can support healthcare students, who are not always eligible for childcare support under existing schemes.

The expansion is already showing its potential. In one local authority, a family got in touch to express their thanks for the '10 out of 10 service', the mum being supported while she studies for a Bachelor of nursing degree. In the first term since the expansion, we've been made aware of 168 families now benefiting from the childcare offer, with more expected over the next few weeks as the applications for the January intake are received. Supporting parents in education and training with childcare costs means that more families, and especially women, will be able to benefit from improved employment prospects.

Dirprwy Lywydd, alongside this expansion of the childcare offer, we've also been scoping the support that is available through our higher and further education support programmes and our employability programmes, such as Communities for Work, Parents, Childcare and Employment and ReAct. This cross-portfolio work will identify the most appropriate way to provide additional support for parents, particularly those in adult learning, work-based learning, community learning, those undertaking English for speakers of other languages courses and those on short-term courses. It will make sure that we can provide maximum support to parents.

The latest independent evaluation findings, which were published earlier this year, once again showed our childcare offer has been supporting parental employment. As of June 2022, there were more than 18,000 children accessing childcare funded by the childcare offer. We expect this number will increase as more parents consider the options available to them in this cost-of-living crisis.

Almost one in 10 parents accessing the childcare offer said they wouldn't be in work if it wasn’t for the offer. A further 6 per cent said they would be working in a job with lower pay if the offer had not been available to them. For those families, the childcare offer is making a significant difference to their lives. But the childcare offer doesn’t just play a vital role in these families’ lives, it also supports many childcare providers as well. And to ensure it continues to support childcare providers, we've agreed a rate increase to £5 per hour following a review, and this represents an increase of 11 per cent.  

The amount childcare providers can charge parents for food under the offer has also increased, from £7.50 to £9 per day. This reflects the significant rise in both food prices and utilities, but it is a careful balance between what is affordable for the provider and, of course, what is affordable for the family to pay.

To help improve the process of delivering the childcare offer for providers, as well as making it easier than ever for parents to apply, we've recently launched our new all-Wales digital service. I wrote to Members last month, ahead of the launch, about this. Last week, I visited the Darling Buds Nursery in Cardiff, just over the road there, to hear directly about what the new digital service means for them and their parents.

The new digital service will make accessing the childcare offer even easier and provide a more consistent experience across Wales. It'll simplify the processes childcare providers have to follow to claim payments and will streamline the data-collection process for all, to further refine our understanding of take-up. The new service will be available online, with a range of offline support options available to users. As the service is available on any device connected to the internet, people will be able to access the service through free-to-access devices in public libraries, bearing in mind the pressures on people's budgets.

The new service has been designed with the Welsh language standards and security needs as top priorities. It'll be fully live from January 2023 and will completely replace the current systems by September 2023.

So, I'd like to ask the Senedd to join me in welcoming this expansion and the new national digital service, which is supporting those parents who have chosen to pursue their career goals through higher and further education. And of course, we are continuing to extend provision for two-year-olds via Flying Start as part of our co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru. Diolch.