I'd like to start off by giving thanks to our excellent Chair, Jayne Bryant, and also my fellow committee members, of course, and the clerks, staff and people who gave evidence and who made this vital report a reality—and, of course, the Minister for his co-operation as well. It is critical that we address soaring pupil absence, the problem having been exacerbated, as we’ve already heard, by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. The report, I believe, is a thorough one and I’d like to focus on just a few key issues from it today.

We have seen that additional learning needs pupils often do not get the right, timely support, which results in persistent school absence. The National Autistic Society Cymru found that 43 per cent of autistic students were persistently absent, which is a worrying statistic. We also see that students in poverty, as has already been said, make up a high proportion of those absent from school, and this was very, very clear throughout the report.

The annual child and family poverty survey 2021 found that 94 per cent of practitioners in Wales said that poverty had an impact on a child’s school experience, which of course has now been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and the pandemic. Current trends are a cause for alarm, and we need to ensure that we make it as easy as possible for students to attend school, and that we are as supportive as possible to individual learners for their individual needs, to ensure that they don’t miss out on the education that they all deserve.

It’s clear from the recommendations that we need a multi-pronged approach to ensure that we stop this worrying trend. Recommendation 3 of the report says that Welsh Government should ensure that local authorities have sufficient funding, as our Chair has already outlined, to ensure that children and young people have that access to appropriate school transport options to get them to school safely. This is absolutely vital, particularly when local authority budgets are so tight in the current climate.

However, the Welsh Government’s approach is only to accept this in principle, and bundle it in with the ‘One Network, One Timetable, One Ticket’ White Paper, which in my view diminishes the importance of this issue and only delays real action being taken. As I said in committee—and I see these issues in my own region, as we all do, far too regularly—we need this pupil-first approach that has been put forward by the committee. It needs wholesale reform, and not just tweaks.

But we must remember that there are children now who need help with school transport, and we cannot wait for the White Paper to turn into implementation years down the line. We need to see immediate action in expanding the offer of school transport, whilst reducing the cost for parents, as, for now, many can’t afford school transport, and they can’t afford to drive their children to school either. This creates a situation of despair for parents, and of course affects the learners and affects the level of absence that we are seeing. I completely agree with Jayne Bryant that this should not be a barrier to learning in this day and age.

Recommendation 4 looks to address the students who are most likely to absent, and why. As we know from the report, it can vary from ALN needs to mental health issues, and mental health issues that are not being addressed adequately and supporting learners to be able to stay in school. Whilst I'm pleased that the Welsh Government has accepted this recommendation, and that they'll consider absence and exclusion data to inform the support of the well-being of learners, it is essential that, where the support is needed, it’s urgently delivered on the ground to where it is needed. The data is meaningless without the proper support following it, and I’m disappointed that Welsh Government have committed to this without accepting the recommendation.

We also need to know how the Welsh Government will monitor the delivery and its success or failure. I’d also like the Minister to address how the Welsh Government will ensure that this generation of students are able to access school transport, not just focus on the next generation, and explain how he’s ensuring that home-schoolers aren’t being conflated and bundled in with school absence, as it’s crucial we ensure this medium of education is kept open and untarnished. But it is important that Welsh Government—. We do need to understand why there has been such a significant rise in home schooling since the pandemic began.

The report before us highlights the urgency in addressing this, as our Chair has outlined, so I’d like to hear from the Minister how he is working now with local authorities and school leaders to ensure that we reverse this worrying trend of pupil absence. Yes, it’s come down slightly, but the figures are still far too high. Thank you.