Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:36 pm on 15 November 2022.
Thank you very much, Heledd, for your warm welcome for these steps forward. I was interested to hear about the experience of people who were in education and weren't able to access the childcare offer, because I've had the same experience in my own constituency work, and I think it will make a significant difference to people who need to access that. I'm also very pleased that Heledd mentioned the wider benefits of tackling poverty and how absolutely crucial providing free, accessible childcare is for progress. And obviously, we are only a step on the way—I absolutely acknowledge that, that there is a long way to go—but I'm very pleased to be working with the designated Member to ensure that we do spread childcare as far as possible.
So, there are shortages. I absolutely accept that there are shortages in the system and I'm very pleased that we've been able to give support for developing Welsh-medium education, because I think that's absolutely crucial. I think, if we can get that embedded in the early stages, when children first start to attend anywhere—the one and two-year-olds—then I think we will be really moving ahead in terms of the Welsh language. So, it's really great that we have got this opportunity and, of course, we're being helped by Cwlwm to take this forward.
On disabled children, I know the childcare offer does take account of the needs of children and families with disabilities. And I believe there is extra help, actually, put in financially for that reason.
The points that you've echoed in terms of some of the things that Gareth said, about digital exclusion, that has absolutely been recognised in these proposals. And as I said, it will be possible for people to be helped to do it in terms of telephones and face-to-face contact—that has been specifically included. And of course, this won't be something that people will have to be doing all the time. Hopefully, they'll get it all set up and it won't be necessary for the parents, in particular, to be using this the whole time, but it will be necessary for the providers to be using it constantly, because they'll be claiming for the money, so it's really important that the providers are able to access it easily.
There was an evaluation, and this was done—. There was a group who prepared for the bringing in of the digital service, and the group included parents, providers, and it was very co-produced, and I'll have to get to you where you can actually access that.