, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
You're fine—go ahead.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Thank you. We need to move on; we've only got 10 minutes left. So, short questions and short answers, please. Altaf. You're on mute. No, you're not any longer.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. Back to Sarah.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Sorry, I beg your pardon. I do apologise. I put you on the spot; I thought then you were raising your hand.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Minister, Nicola Edwards wanted to come in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Sarah, before you go on, I think Altaf just wanted to come in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. Thank you very much. Could I now ask Sarah Murphy to come in with her questions?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. Thank you very much. Finally, Deputy Minister, I just wondered if you agree that a childcare system based on progressive universalism is eventually going to lead to a universal system of childcare for all.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
At what point might you be able to give us a note on what childcare is funded by the UK Government? Because I have to say, that was news to me.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
The Deputy Minister said the fine detail of the agreement with Plaid Cymru hasn't been worked out yet, so I'm pursuing the matter of what's already in the programme for government on which the Welsh Government was elected. How are you pursuing that? I…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. We've got a reasonably good idea of where the gaps are, because a lot of people have done an analysis of this, and it's mainly in the areas of deprivation where, obviously, people need to improve their skills in order to get a better job and then be…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Can I just come back to something that isn't in the Plaid-Labour agreement? The programme for government commits to fund childcare for three and four-year-olds whose parents are in education and training as well as those in work, and I wondered if you could…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. Altaf Hussain wanted to come in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
One of the issues that has been raised is that if you haven't got the childcare on the same site as the wraparound provision, you're moving children around from pillar to post, and particularly for children with additional learning needs. At what point do you…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
I appreciate that the particulars of containing COVID require particular public health provisions, but, leaving that to one side at the moment, how are we going to expand childcare at the rate required unless we move from simply encouraging schools to…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. I think one of the big issues that has come up in our earlier scrutiny sessions has been the lack of co-operation from some schools—that they're simply not allowing childcare providers to operate in schools, for example in the school holidays, or not…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Very good. I understand we can only deliver what we can deliver, but I just want to put to you the scenario raised by Rachel Thomas, the head of policy in the office of the children's commissioner, earlier this afternoon, when she says that if we're going to…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Thank you. Deputy Minister, I just want to welcome the agreement between Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour to expand childcare to two-year-olds, which has been announced since we started this inquiry, but clearly I think that's welcomed by all Members. Could you…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Thank you very much indeed. Sioned, back to you.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Okay. So, are you able to send us a breakdown of the numbers of two-year-olds who are attending full time, as opposed to those who are attending infrequently?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Sioned, before you move on to another subject, I just wanted to ask Julie Morgan if you could just explain something in your written evidence, which is that those who attend the Flying Start provision meet the expected outcomes in all areas of learning, but…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Thank you very much. Sioned, you were going to ask the first questions.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—scrutiny session
Welcome back to our final session on the importance of childcare and parental employment. I'd very much like to welcome the Deputy Minister for Social Services, for whom childcare is in your portfolio, and I wondered if you'd just like to introduce the…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Motion under Standing Order 17.42(ix) to exclude the public from items 4, 7 and 8 of today's meeting
So, I now propose that the committee goes into private session briefly for item 4, before we resume to hear the Deputy Minister at 2 o'clock, and also that we meet in private session for items 7 and 8 today. Is that agreed? Thank you. Can we go into private…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Childcare and parental employment—evidence session
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the depth and breadth of your evidence. We will send you a transcript, which—. It's very important you just check it to make sure that you haven't been misheard, and then we'll obviously be publishing that as a…
