Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 8 March 2023.
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.