 Bwydda, and thank you for joining me this morning. Mae pobl ar hyd a lled Cymru ar dairnas unedig gyfan yn wynebu cyfnod heriol ti hwnt gyda chwyddiant eich hel ar cynnydd mewn prysiau yn ni cyfraddau morgeis i a choste bwyd. Trafod Llywodraeth dairnas unedig yn parhau i ddilyn polisiau economaeth byrbwyl sy'n perigliswyddi a bywolieth pobl. Mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn parhau uned pob beth o fewn yn gallu ni i gyfnogi tael ei oedd trwy'r argyfwng coste bwyd. Llywodraeth across Wales a'r whole of the UK are facing an incredibly challenging time with high inflation and energy prices, mortgage rates and food costs rising. While the UK Government continues to pursue reckless economic policies that risk jobs and livelihoods, the Welsh Government continues to do everything we can within our control to support families through the cost of living crisis. Our Cabinet Cost of Living Committee is meeting weekly and are working closely with partners to shape our response to the crisis. In Wales we are providing targeted help to those who need it most by supporting people through programmes that put money back in their pockets. As Education and Welsh Language Minister I know it's a concerning time for parents, carers and students of all ages. My commitment to them is that living costs should never be a barrier to education. We already have many schemes in place to support learners. From primary age children we continue to roll out universal primary free school meals as part of the cooperation agreement. We've made £60 million available to local authorities to make adaptations to school kitchens and we'll be providing £200 million of revenue to support this commitment. Not only does this ensure that no child goes hungry in school but it's a huge saving to family budgets. We've also made the decision that we will continue funding free school meals in the holidays to the end of the February half term next year. Our PDG access grant which I am looking to rename for the next round next year to make it clearer how it helps parents is the most generous support scheme in the UK helping 96,000 pupils with uniform and school supplies both in primary and secondary schools. The grant is £125 per learner or £200 for those going into year 7 to recognise the increased costs associated with starting secondary school. For this year a £100 uplift per eligible learner was applied to the grant in response to the additional pressures families are facing with the cost of living. The grant is awarded to families on lower incomes who are eligible to claim free school meals. As we continue to roll out our universal meal provision offer it is vitally important that families continue to apply for this additional support. The 2022-23 scheme is now open. Scrapt in England 2011 the education maintenance allowance remains available in Wales which provides weekly financial support to 16 to 18 year olds who live and are studying full time academic or vocational courses. For higher education students Wales provides the most generous package of student support for first time undergraduates and postgraduate students across the UK. Helping them to fund their day to day living costs during term time regardless of where in the UK they choose to study. The support is a mixture of grants and loans that is equivalent to the national living wage so that students can spend more time focusing on their studies and less time worrying about making ends meet. This week we are launching a school uniform consultation to examine how we can make uniforms more affordable in light of the impact the cost of living crisis is having in Wales. Schools across the country are already going above and beyond to support their pupils and their families and many schools have worked hard to keep the cost of their uniforms to a minimum. However there are still too many instances where families are being expected to spend too much money to send their children to school. I'm looking to make this cheaper for families and I want to hear people's views on a range of measures. The use of school branding and whether schools should even have a logo on their uniforms. Another option could be making iron on or sew on logos free for families to make the overall cost of a uniform cheaper. The responses from the consultation will be used to update our statutory guidance on school uniform policies. We also want to see what role schools can play in uniform recycling and exchange schemes. I know many schools are already promoting that sort of initiative which is good for family budgets and good for the environment as well. I believe a uniform very much still has a place in schools helping to create a sense of identity and also to remove inequalities. But the consultation will help us refocus at school uniform priorities considering the extreme financial pressures families are under and to make sure that no one spends more than they need to to send their children to school. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr. I'll now take questions from journalists starting with Abbey Wittig from Wales Online. Thank you, Minister. You've just announced a consultation aimed at helping parents and families with the cost of school uniforms. It's still going to cost money. Isn't it time now to scrap school uniforms altogether? Do they have a place? I think they do have a place, Abbey. I think they're important in terms of a school ethos, a sense of cohesion. I think they play a very important role in reducing inequalities and I'm really committed to making sure that we do everything we can to do that in schools. But I'm also really mindful that despite the best efforts of lots of schools to minimise the costs that parents have, there are still examples where that isn't happening. And I want to look at whether there's more that we can do. We renewed our statutory guidance in 2019, but I think there's more that we can do. The question is, for example, should we ask schools to provide free logos to iron on or to sew on? Should we be limiting the use of logos to particular garments, avoiding them on sports kit, for example? How do we support schools to make sure they can access supply arrangements which can best pass on the cost benefits to families? So there's a range of questions we're asking in the consultation, really keen to hear from families, from schools and from others who have an interest. And then we'll issue statutory guidance to make sure we're doing everything we can to remove those barriers to children coming to schools. Thank you. As you know, teachers are balloting or about to be balloted on possible industrial action over pay. You've written to them saying you think that's a reasonable request to ask for an above inflation pay rise, but the money just isn't there. We're about to face the biggest cuts that we can imagine. Can you tell us where those cuts might fall in education and what you're going to do to fight for education funding? But what kind of cuts might education be looking at in Wales? Well, I just want to say at the start that I absolutely understand the disappointment that teachers are expressing. It's a reasonable expectation that your pay shouldn't be eroded by inflation. So that is my starting point. That is our starting point as a government. But the Welsh government is not in a position without significant additional funding from the UK government to be able to meet that sort of pay claim. So the sorts of figures we are looking at is the equivalent of around £100 million from the education budget every year. That's basically what we invest in PDG, which is the People Development Grant. It's about three times next year's COVID funding. So that's the sort of order of funding that we're talking about. And if that's not funded, then the burden falls on local authorities and it's the equivalent of about 1,600 teachers across Wales. So it's an impossible situation for us to be in. And we need the UK government in the middle of the economic chaos which it is causing to take the opportunity of the budget on the 31st of October to protect public service budgets across the UK so that we in Wales can have our fair share and support public services and public service workers in the way they deserve. So you've expressed that there will be serious cuts. Where might they fall in education and what will you do to try and fight for that funding? Well, I spend every day fighting for the funding. Our government is making the case consistently to the UK government for additional funding for public services in Wales. I've given you a sense of the equivalent value of what the pay increase involves. And that is why the choices that we face are invidious. Nobody wants us to be making those sorts of choices. And that's why my response to the pay claims has unfortunately been what it is. Brad Williams, ITD Wales. Thank you, Minister. Should the consultation go further to ask parents and guardians if school uniforms are necessary at all? Well, I start from the point that school uniforms play an important role in the life of the school. We've just been talking about the role they play in terms of cohesion but also in terms of reducing inequalities. But the consultation asks a range of things. Should there be logos at all? Should they be used in a limited way? Should they be provided free of charge? I'm really keen for us to hear from families from schools and others. And if there are other ideas that people want to contribute to that discussion, I'd be very keen to hear that. The Welsh Government and parents we've spoken to all want this to happen. So why delay with the consultation? Why not just do it now? Well, it's really important when you're making significant changes to make sure that you've taken into account the range of opinions. And we like to proceed in Wales on the basis of consulting, taking account of the evidence and then acting in that measured way. But I have actually limited the period for consultation to six weeks. We try and consult for around 12 weeks whenever we can. But it seemed to me that the pressure on school is significant and on families is significant. And so the consultation will be briefer than perhaps it sometimes is. But there's a real opportunity for people to contribute now and then we will be issuing new guidance in light of what we're told. Dan Bevan, LBC. Thank you, Minister. There's no hiding from the fact that school attendances are struggling at the moment to recover to pre-pandemic levels. I'm sure they're not at the level you want them to be. School leaders, I speak to, say it's certainly not the level that they want it to be. Why do you think that is? And is the cost of living having an impact on that with regards to perhaps school uniforms or travelling to school? Well, I think there are a range of reasons. And I think that the experience of the last two years of COVID has exacerbated that. And there will be cost of living pressures that are also coming to bear on families' decisions, including cost of uniforms, as we've been talking about, but also school transport, as you were suggesting. Attendance isn't where I want to see it. It's not where any of us want to see it across the school system. And we still face a situation where those learners who are eligible for free school meals are less likely to attend than their peers. It's clear to me that children are best off in school with their peers having face-to-face learning with their teachers. That's best for their education and it's best for their well-being. What we are doing at the moment is working on refreshing our guidance to schools across the piece, inclusion guidance, effectively. So looking at attendance, exclusion and behaviour policies in the round to support schools to be able to encourage pupils back to school. We're also looking at the definition of persistent absence. And the reason that's important is because once you reach that threshold, there's additional support that becomes available from schools to families. So we want to make sure that's in the right place. I think it's said too high, but we're looking at what we can do to change that. I was talking this week to a family engagement officer in my own constituency about the work that they were doing in that school to re-engage with families, re-engage with learners. And it's clear that in some schools that is still obviously a significant challenge. But I hope and expect that the funding we've made available to schools to recruit further family engagement officers will make a difference. Can I get that answer in Welsh as well, please? Benderfyniadau'r rhai taelioedd yn hynny o beth. Yn ni'n edrych ar hyn o bryd ar adnwyddi'r canllawu'n i'n derparu i ysgol, ar cyngor i'n derparu, ar sicrhau bod plant yn y dosbarth, ond hefyd o ran ymddygiad yn yr ysgol. Felly byddwn ni'n edrych ar bobeith ar y cyd. Yn y broses honno, byddwn ni'n edrych ar y level o absynol ddeb sydd yn gymwys ar gyfer cyfnogaeth ychwanegol gan yr ysgol. Felly byddwn ni'n edrych ar y level sy'n gorffod galeddangos yn rhi i chel ar hyn o bryd, mae achos i dynnu hynny lawd, efo mwy o gefnogeth ar gael. A hefyd rymgweithio cynddysgol bydd yr adnid i'w derparu i ysgolion i'r recrwtio athrawon i ymnoed grataelioedd yn cyfrannu at yr etyr hefyd. Diolch. Picking up on something that you mentioned there about it being clearly the best course of action for children to be in school. There's no doubt that there's going to be severe pressures in the winter on the school system, namely potential rise of COVID cases once again, but also the cost of energy. Can you rule out school closures for either of those scenarios? It's been our priority at every single point to maintain schools open to serve our learners, so that remains an absolute priority. You're right to say that there are pressures in the school system over winter. We know that COVID hasn't gone away. We are working with local education authorities with teaching units to make sure that the planning is in place and that we are able to continue our commitment to make sure that schools being open is the priority. They've been your priority before, but they have still closed though. Does that mean that... They've been extremely exceptional circumstances which none of us want to see happening again. What I will say as Education Minister, it has always been our priority to make sure schools remain open and that will continue to be the case. Dan Davies, BBC Wales. Diolch. Cynidog. You say that the £100 million a year that you're looking at having to find is an impossible situation for you to be in. Can I put it to you? It's not impossible. It's very, very difficult, I'm sure, but the government could find that money or some of that money through its tax powers. The finance minister has already made one tax cut in the last couple of weeks. Well, the funding that we have available to us to make the choices that we make, and I accept that there are choices available to us, I think are invidious. The level of investment that we need for public services in Wales to meet pay claims, not just in education but beyond that as well. Both the local government and in the health service as well are very, very significant sums of money which we are not able to meet from our budgets and resources. That's why it's really important that the UK government steps up to the mark to make that funding available across the UK, including in England where public services are in challenging position as well, to make sure that funding is available across the UK so that we can make sure we have our fair share in Wales to support our public services and those who work in them. Okay, it didn't address the point really about using tax powers, but anyway, you mentioned two policies in your speech, free school meals for all primary school children and targeted support for people to help them with their energy costs. Why are some policies, services universally available and others effectively means tested by the Welsh government? It's a balance of looking at the resources that we have available and our ability to support individual families with the powers and the levers that we ourselves have. Some of those interventions are to scale or require powers which we simply don't have as a government, but this year we've committed over £1.6 billion on schemes that target the cost of living and put money back in the pockets of individuals. We as a government will continue to do everything that we can within the resources and powers that we have available to us, but looking at the sorts of cuts which the Chancellor is contemplating, which I believe he himself described as eye-watering, we are not in a position to be able to protect people from the effects of that level of cut, which will be significantly greater than anything else we've seen during the period of devolution. Diolch Dan, and finally Petra Kotkova from That's TV. Hi there, good morning and thank you for having me minister. I just wanted to ask, you said that every primary school children will have free school meals by 2024. Some parents might be worried that this is not fast enough and that their children needed now. What would you tell parents that are worried with the cost of living crisis about this? Well, we have been very clear that we want to make sure the roll-up of universal primary school meals happens as fast as physically possible. So we have moved from the point at which the policy was agreed to the point at which the policy begins to be rolled out in schools in around nine months. I think when that happened in Scotland it took about twice that time. So, you know, clearly there are challenges in moving that quickly. Some of the challenge has been around making sure the infrastructure in schools is able to respond to the additional call on the additional demand. And so that's why we've agreed a two-year period over which to introduce the scheme already. Some authorities are able to move faster than we had asked them to do and we would encourage authorities to do that whenever they can. Schools in different parts of Wales have different configurations in terms of their kitchens and infrastructure, but we are pressing that programme together with our partners as quickly as possible. And I will take this opportunity of thanking local authorities and schools for what has been a mammoth undertaking in getting us to a place where we've been able to start that process this September. Thank you very much for that and just one last question. On top of three school meals and this uniform reform, what else can the government do to help bring the cost of living down? Well, as I mentioned in my earlier response, these are some examples in the education space, but they're part of a much, much broader programme of support which is worth over at this point in time, over 1.6 billion, which is a significant element of the Welsh government's overall budget, and that's designed to address a number of different pressures. The PDG access funding, which I also spoke about in my comments earlier, but support for energy costs and other support. As I say, as a government we will do everything that we can in the context of our resources and powers, but we absolutely need the UK government to take radical steps in the budget at the end of this month to support public services, to support families, support individuals right across the UK in the very, very challenging circumstances that they face. Diolch.