Questions now from party spokespeople. Conservative spokesperson, Laura Anne Jones.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, since 2017, 40 per cent of school support staff registered with the Education Workforce Council have left. There's clearly a massive retention problem at the heart of Welsh education, which is causing the industry to lose experienced staff at this rate. Because of this, cash-strapped schools are having to put even more of a strain on their budgets, having to recruit and train more staff. Why have you allowed this issue to go on for nearly six years now, and just when will your Government fix this retention crisis, which has presented itself particularly under your watch?

Well, I recognise that we need to do everything we can to support in the system support staff, who deliver a very, very important service to our young people and are indispensable in our schools. The Member's question does not recognise the work that I've done since becoming Minister in relation to this matter. She will recall, because I made a statement in this Chamber last year, that I've commenced a programme of work to support the very people that she's referring to in her question. That involves a process of work led by teaching assistants in relation to the standardisation of roles and consistent deployment of TAs across local authorities and schools in Wales. It's also coupled with an entitlement, for the first time, for a programme of professional learning to teaching assistants. The professional learning grant will now be weighted to reflect the number of TAs in schools. Those are all new developments that have come into place over the course of the last year. I recognise that it's really important that we fully value the role that teaching assistants and other support staff play in our schools, and I absolutely am doing that.

Absolutely, Minister—it's an invaluable role, and it's better late than never, I suppose. It's not just a crisis with support staff though, is it? From my conversations with the Education Workforce Council and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, it's blindingly obvious that we have a crisis in recruiting and attracting core subject teachers. Last year, you hit under 50 per cent of your own target for mathematics teachers, and just under 30 per cent for physics and chemistry. You can't even attract Welsh-medium core teachers, fundamental to your roll-out of Welsh-medium education. Things aren't just adding up, are they? Since 2011, we've seen a 10 per cent drop in teachers' numbers, as they leave the profession in droves. Recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers is fundamental to ensuring that our children and young people in Wales receive the best education that they deserve. From these figures, it's blindingly obvious that you're failing miserably and worryingly in your objectives. Minister, just why have you and your Government allowed this persistent issue to turn into a full-blown crisis?

If the Member wants to know what a demoralised teaching profession that doesn't feel valued by its Government looks like, she just needs to look over the border at what's happening in England, which is cataclysmic in terms of retention and recruitment generally. So, that is what a Conservative education policy looks like. We can see it happening before our very eyes. 

What we have in Wales—[Interruption.] The Member is muttering; I'm happy to answer the question. What we are doing in Wales, as she will know—we've debated in this Chamber many times, and I know that she has strong, if sometimes perhaps not fully-informed, views on this—is we have a 10-year plan to recruit Welsh-medium teachers, working together with our partners across the system, and which is creative and tries new approaches to improve the numbers of Welsh-medium teachers coming into our profession.

We have financial incentives to encourage those in difficult subjects, where recruitment is a challenge not just in Wales, not just in the UK, but internationally. So, some of those are in maths, some of it is in some of the science subjects. We have arrangements in place to encourage young people into the profession to teach in those areas, because I want to make sure that, in the areas that I agree with her are key areas, we have a full complement of staff able to make sure that our young people get the education they need. 

Minister, education is devolved. You peddle out the same old excuses when you have levers at your own disposal. Even though the aims of the suggested new supply teacher central portal are the right ones—and I will credit you on that—even people like the Education Workforce Council have said, in practice, it's just not going to work, given there's no incentive, no driver, to make them move over to the central system, because they're not competitive financially with the private sector offerings, and it's purely dependent on local authorities and staff signing up for it; it's just not mandatory. It's yet another sticking-plaster solution, isn't it, that will not solve the critical problem of your own making that we're facing. 

Quite frankly, it stinks of 25 years of a stale old Government that has run out of ideas and is shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. You're not attracting core subject teachers. You are not retaining support staff, and your party, the party of the unions, can't even avert teaching strikes with levers at your own disposal.

Minister, I want to know what exactly you are doing to solve this urgent, self-made, teaching staff crisis.

Well, I'm not sure if the Member listened to the two previous answers that I've given, but I've outlined in great detail what we are doing. The question of retention and recruitment is a challenge in all parts of the world. What we are doing in Wales is specific to our needs in Wales. I've outlined a list of issues to her that she clearly has disregarded in her third question. What we are doing in Wales is making sure our teaching profession recognise that they are valued.

If we want to see how Conservatives treat this profession, we can look over our border. We are in the middle of a dispute with teachers in all parts of the UK. We will continue to work with our partners in a way that respects them rather than seeks to legislate to restrict their rights. If she thinks that's the right approach for encouraging teachers into the profession, I'm afraid I think she's very badly mistaken. 

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Heledd Fychan. 

Thank you, Llywydd. Minister, yesterday, during the debate on the draft budget, I asked the Minister for finance to consider the budget implications in terms of the target of a million Welsh speakers, and, specifically, whether there are any plans to support free entry for local families or low-income families to the Urdd Eisteddfod and the National Eisteddfod this year. Last year, you invested in free entry to the Urdd Eisteddfod for everyone in the organisation's centenary year, as well as 15,000 free tickets to the National Eisteddfod. Both schemes were a success, with the Urdd reporting an increase of 31 per cent in the number of attendees, with 20 per cent of visitors coming from 40 per cent of the most deprived areas in Denbighshire. Do you intend to continue with this investment, to ensure that local families on low incomes can continue to enjoy what both of these festivals have to offer, and to benefit from what they have to offer too as part of the target of reaching a million Welsh speakers?

Well, as the Member said, in 2022-23, we increased the core grant of the National Eisteddfod to ensure that it had the resources to stage future Eisteddfodau in a time of financial uncertainty. We are to allocate additional funding to the Eisteddfod in 2023-24 in the draft budget, in order to strengthen their community engagement structures, which are so important to their work as a festival. This will mean an allocation of £1 million to the Eisteddfod during the next financial year. We're also supporting a social inclusion pilot project to run alongside the next two Eisteddfodau in areas where we see great in-migration and great demand for second homes. 

In terms of our support to the Urdd, the Urdd does excellent work in the Eisteddfod and more broadly as an organisation. Officials across Government collaborate with the Urdd in order to ensure that the Eisteddfod continues to be accessible, to ensure that everyone can enjoy Europe's largest youth festival, and we support the Urdd in many different ways too.

Thank you, Minister. I'm still not sure whether that means there will be free entry for low-income families to the Urdd Eisteddfod and the National Eisteddfod this year. I would ask, if you're not sure of that yet, it would be good to have clarity as to whether that will be able to continue in any way. Because, as has been demonstrated, there is a whole host of benefits to the Welsh language from ensuring free entry, which means there's an opportunity for some people to enjoy a Welsh-medium event in their area for the very first time ever. That does encourage people to send their children to Welsh-medium provision in terms of their education. So, can I ask you to reconsider or look again at the question I asked?

Secondly, you'll be aware, I'm sure, of the proposed plans of some local authorities to close or scale back some cultural services, such as the Cardiff museum, and library services in various parts of Wales. A number of arts projects like this are under threat as a result of significant financial challenges. A key component of the new curriculum, of course, is the expressive arts, and the guidelines state that this is vitally important so that learners can gain an understanding and an appreciation of cultures and societies in Wales and in the world. With the future of a number of cultural and artistic venues at risk, are you concerned about what the impact will be on this element of the new curriculum, and have you asked local authorities to look at the impact that cuts of this kind will have on educational opportunities for our children and young people?

We encourage schools to look at all experiences available to our young people so that there is a diversity of experience, particularly through the medium of the Welsh language. As I mentioned earlier, we have a grant programme that supports, in terms of Welsh language policy, a number of organisations that provide a number of educational, interesting and attractive prospects for our young people. We are currently reviewing that grant, but I will refer her to the draft budget, which shows what we intend to do in this area.