2. Will the Minister provide an update on Welsh Government proposals for Flying Start? OQ59206

Flying Start is delivering a phased expansion of early years provision to all two-year-olds. Phase 1 is nearing completion with services offered to over 2,500 additional children. Phase 2 begins in April and, over the next two years, will support over 9,500 more two-year-olds to access quality Flying Start childcare.

Can I thank the Minister for that response? I'm a vociferous supporter of Flying Start. It's not possible to overestimate the importance of a good start in life for a child. There are children starting nursery classes at three with a development age approaching four, whilst others have a mental age of just over two. How demoralising for them. Because of the way sensitive information is collated in lower super output areas, many children in some of the areas of greatest need miss out. Does the Minister agree that we need greater flexibility for local authorities to provide Flying Start for children, and is Flying Start's availability going to be changed following the 2021 census results?

I thank thank Mike Hedges for his question and for his enthusiasm for Flying Start. The Flying Start areas have been identified using the Wales index of multiple deprivation data from the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs, and are broken down by lower super output areas. I think that this high-level approach to targeting remains fit for purpose, but there is the opportunity to give more flexibility to the local authorities. Under the programme for government, and working with Plaid Cymru through our co-operation agreement, we're expanding Flying Start, and this expansion started in September with over 2,500 additional children who are living in areas of disadvantage brought into the programme already.

But Flying Start outreach is a key element of the programme, which allows local authorities to be flexible in the way that they deliver Flying Start, because it obviously needs to be based on local intelligence and need. Flying Start outreach enables core Flying Start services to be delivered to high-need children and families who are living outside the recognised Flying Start areas. But, as I said, our ambition is that Flying Start that should reach all two-year-olds.

Thank you, Minister, and we welcome that expansion of it, because at the moment, there is a postcode lottery when it comes to Flying Start, and there are severe pockets of deprivation in rural areas that are seen as affluent, such as Monmouthshire, and that can't be good when there are families in need missing out, and I'm sure that you would agree with that, Minister. So, will that programme of expansion go into areas just like the ones I've just outlined? Thank you.

As I said in response to Mike Hedges, eventually, we hope that all two-year-olds will have access to Flying Start, but of course this has to be done in a phased way. So, each local authority is putting in its plans for the expansion of Flying Start, so Monmouthshire will have put in a plan, which I think we are in the process of approving. From April, stage 2 expansion will start and in the areas of deprivation in rural areas, areas of deprivation in constituencies that haven't traditionally had Flying Start, like my own constituency, where there is no Flying Start provision, but, as you say, there are pockets of deprivation, our aim is to reach all those areas, and phase 2 will take this further. And of course, another important element of our expansion is that we want to have an emphasis on the development of Welsh language places.