Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 8 February 2023.
Well, it's very important, isn't it, as well as being able to allocate significant funding, that we make sure it's being spent in a way that is both effective and also provides good evidence to others of how to best spend that money. Of course, the funding is being made available in this financial year, so the assessment of impact clearly will follow from here. But the kinds of things that we've seen investment in include—this is the capital grant—improving external lighting in sports areas, providing storage for equipment for extra-curricular activities, outside shelters, security measures to segregate school and community-use areas, and then modifications to changing rooms, to toilets, and so on, to facilitate community use.
In relation to how that money has flowed through the system, obviously the responsibility for distribution lies in the hands of local authorities, but we expect them to focus the funding on small to medium-scale projects and to take full note of the guidance that we've issued in how they go about doing that. That, we think, is the best way of making sure that schools can adapt and effectively open their premises outside traditional hours. In terms of how it was funded to local authorities, it was distributed on a formulaic basis, dependent on schools and learners in each individual local authority and, as I mentioned at the start, we'll be evaluating the outcomes of that funding in due course.