, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
That's fine, Chair. Thank you, Chair.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Thank you, Chair. Minister, Universities Wales warn that the 2026-27 budget does not reflect the continued financial pressures that are facing universities. Can you explain to the committee how this can be justified given the significant financial pressures…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Okay. Thank you, Chair.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Okay, great. The panel itself has received a lot of criticism, particularly surrounding the chair of Reading Reform Foundation UK, which has come from Elizabeth Nonweiler and her warning that the CAL:ON initiative risks wasting £8.2 million in the future and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Thank you so much. Well, Cabinet Secretary, you talked about literacy in your previous response to me, so I'd like to bring the questions towards your literacy panel. I know I've asked you many times about this in the Chamber, but I'd like to talk to you a…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Okay.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
So, out of all the bodies that I mentioned—Estyn, the school, Dysgu and you, but, obviously, we'll wait to see what happens after May, but the Cabinet Secretary for Education—where does the buck stop if standards do not improve?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Thanks for your response, Cabinet Secretary. I appreciate you mentioning Estyn, actually, because I wanted to touch upon them as well. I appreciate that Estyn gave an early insight report in 2024-25, and in that report they mentioned some fundamental…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Okay. Thank you. I'd like to move on to school standards now, because it's a really important issue as well. What is the latest position regarding school improvement services, according to you? Are the new local authority partnerships fully established now?…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Okay. Great. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. How concerned are you by the increasing rates of school exclusions, particularly for those that are five days or less, particularly in secondary schools, which have increased from 75 per 1,000 in 2018-19, and have…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
That's fine. I appreciate it. No worries.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny session with the Welsh Government - Education
Thank you, Chair. Good morning, everybody. Cabinet Secretary, last year in May, you held a behavioural summit, which I'm sure we, alongside many others, have heard about in quite some depth and detail. I'd just like to know, can you update us on the work that…
, Plenary
Debate on the Children, Young People and Education Committee Report, 'Routes into post-16 education and training'
I'm delighted to be able to speak today on the Children, Young People and Education Committee's report into routes into post-16 education. Can I please take this opportunity to thank the committee clerks, the Chair, as well as all the committee members for…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
First Minister, thank you for your response, but I'm going to have to disagree with you, because, in my view, our NHS is on its knees thanks to decades of mismanagement and incompetence by your party. A constituent of mine has been on an NHS waiting list for…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
8. Will the First Minister provide an update on the steps taken by the Welsh Government to reduce NHS waiting lists in South Wales East? OQ63773
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
First Minister, it comes as no surprise to me that the number of university applicants across Wales is certainly dropping. Now, currently, we sit at the bottom of the league table for university applications, with less than a third of Welsh students applying…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2026-27
I will. I'm just concerned with the budget as a whole. A lack of basic budgeting by failing to cut waste, while spending more on pet projects and a lack of basic decency by hardly mentioning women within your spending plan, shows a lack of vision, and what…
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2026-27
—a childcare system that remains unaffordable, inaccessible and disjointed. So I'd like to know, Cabinet Secretary, when will your Government match the child care offer in England? And I'm proud that the Conservative Government introduced it at the time—
, Plenary
Debate: The Final Budget 2026-27
Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for presenting the final budget to the Welsh Parliament. Extra funding, no doubt, will be welcomed by many schools across Wales. That's my praise out of the way. For me, it's quite funny; we are being told in the run-up to the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Thank you for your response, Cabinet Secretary. Despite a lot of warm words from the Government, the shamefully high NHS waiting lists remain, with residents across Wales, including my own constituents, forced to wait in pain. It's shocking, but perhaps not…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
7. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to reduce NHS waiting lists in South Wales East? OQ63689
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
Cabinet Secretary, my colleagues and I are firm believers in social enterprise, and I find it interesting that the Perthyn project, which you launched in north and west Wales, includes helping communities to save local assets, such as shops and pubs. That…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Thank you for your statement today, Minister. Overall, I have been very supportive of the introduction of women's health hubs as a way of ensuring that women's health conditions are taken seriously and that every woman can receive the help that she needs…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Annual Scrutiny of Medr
Brilliant. Thank you so much.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Annual Scrutiny of Medr
Okay. A final question from me. Previously, it was suggested that Medr may encourage institutions to, and I quote, 'play to their strengths', which aligns with the approach set out by the UK Government's White Paper on post-16 education and skills. So, how…
