 A bod yda, a diolch am ymuno gyda fi y borema. Mae talio'r ledled Cymru yn rhanweineb i pwysau cynnyddol wrth i gos debyw barhau i gordi. Mae'r Llywodraeth Cymru yn gwneud popeth o fewn yn gallu ni'ch cefnogi chi yngwineb cynni. I know families across Wales are facing continued pressure from rising costs as a Government we are doing everything within our control to support you through this cost of living crisis. Rwy'n gwybod ffawr i eni gwyfalwyr am y fyrwyr o boboi ym plederu ac rwy'n rwymo'i chi nad ylai coste byw fod yn rwyster i ddysgu ac i dakl o'r rwystre hwnnw. Mae gallu ad y heiad fel Llywodraeth dyfodol plentyn neu berson i fangnid i'n cwm y rhiant. It's a concerning time for parents, carers and students of all ages and my commitment to you is that living costs should never be a barrier to learning and to tackle those barriers and that it should be ability and aspiration that should determine a child or young person's future not parental income. We are in favour of school uniforms but we are not in favour of costly school uniforms. So today I am publishing new school uniform guidance and asking schools to review their school uniform policies to make school uniforms as cheap as possible. The new guidance makes it clearer for schools and to school governors what actions they should take to keep costs down. I'd like the reviews to be undertaken as soon as possible and schools will wish to look at transitional arrangements so that families can benefit from a lower cost uniform as soon as possible. This would mean removing or limiting the use of logos on uniforms. Respondent to the recent school uniform guidance consultation supported having a uniform but the majority agreed that logos should not be required. Nearly 90% of respondents also felt that schools should avoid single supplier arrangements. I know most schools are already doing everything they can to keep costs down for families however we still see too many cases where families have had no choice but to buy expensive uniforms. School uniforms help unite a school community and limit peer pressure to wear certain clothes. However it's important that uniforms do not add further to the worries of families. The consultation also showed almost universal support that schools should operate a uniform exchange or recycling scheme. The new guidance calls for arrangements to be in place so that second hand school uniforms are available for parents and carers. I recently visited St Michael's Catholic Primary School in Pontypridd to see first hand their school uniform recycling and exchange scheme in operation. It was really good to hear how parents and carers within the school community have responded positively to donating school uniform but no longer fits their children. Many schools across Wales of course are already running recycling and exchange schemes and the new guidance builds on this fantastic work. I also want to take this opportunity to remind families about our schools essentials grant. This is the most generous scheme of its kind in the UK. For example an eligible family with a child going into year 7 in September would receive £200 to purchase school uniform and equipment and I'd encourage people to find out if they're eligible for the scheme. Money should never be a barrier to education at any level. Children and young people won't learn if they're hungry. That's why we've extended access to free school meals during holidays and that's why I'm pleased also to announce today I'll be extending support for free school meals provision during the May half term for further education students. We estimate this will support almost 4,000 learners. The cost of living crisis has hit learners at all levels including higher education students. Any long term cost of higher education should not put anyone off studying at university. Earlier this year the UK government introduced new student finance repayment arrangements. Though Wales's repayment system has historically been aligned to England, my view is that the new English system is not a good deal. England's reforms benefit the highest earners and worsen the position for middle and lower earning graduates. Women are also disproportionately affected. We certainly shouldn't be asking teachers, nurses and social workers to pay more while the very highest earners pay less. I can therefore announce today that we will not move to the system adopted in England but will retain the current system in Wales. This means Welsh graduates will continue to repay loans under the 30 year repayment period, not England's 40 year repayment period. Everyone deserves access to education. I want to pull down the barriers and give children and young people the happy education experience they deserve. Bethan Lewis, BBC Wales Y Llywodraeth, allwch chi hefyd atib y cwestiynau yn gyma gysgol ychydig? Yn rwy'n credu chi'n fyddech chi'n credu o'r skydd o'r cyfrifrau hwnnw? Criwch chi'n credu bod y cwestiynau hyn yn gwahanol am golygu hwnnw? should our school have uniforms and I think that they have clear benefits in terms of the cohesion on a community or sense of identity for specific school. Logos can play a part in that. What the guidance is very clear about where schools do select, do elect or have a logo should be minimised, and it should not be compulsory. So there should be school uniform available to young people who have Co yes is to buy Cyngoron ddod o'r logo yn ystyried, ac yn cael i'n gweithio'n gweithio, rwy'n gweithio'r opeth o'r ffaith i'n gweithio'r pwysig ysgolion o'r ddiweddau gwahanol a'r ffordd i'r byw yn dweuddiol. Mae e'n buysig bod ysgolion a folysig gwyscasgola bod gwyscasgola'n arbennwyr o'r busig, o'r sydd wedi'u hwnnw i'n an diff cymrydedd ysgol. Mae hefyd yn buysig o'r an profiad haffa li'n pobl i fenglu yn ysgolion i. rhan o hynny, ond beth mae'r cynllawiau heddiw'n dweud yw bod angen gwyscasgol sydd ddim yn cynnwys logo hefyd, y bydd pobl yn gallu dewis prynu gwyscasgol mewn amry o lefydd a'r gyfer y cyllideb sydd yn gweithio ddyn nhw. Ro ma heddiw teachers perspective, who might be dealing with a much smaller budget, dealing with the after effects of Covid, maybe on the verge of starting the exam period as well. Is this just going to be seen as tinkering and potentially undermining the uniform policy, which is often closely related to the discipline policy? I don't think that is the reaction that we've seen so far. I very much hope it isn't the reaction. This is an important step to make the cost of the school day more affordable for families at a time of significant cost of living pressures. In my experience, there isn't a school in Wales which isn't doing its best to find opportunities of reducing the costs of the school day. This focuses on the school uniform and it asks heads to review the policy with the governing bodies and to take account of the guidance that I'm issuing today. There will be schools that will bring in transition periods and those practical things which need to happen on the ground, which suit the arrangements in that particular school, but the message from the guidance is very clear that every school should be doing everything it can to make the school uniform as affordable as possible for as many young people as possible. And alongside that, of course, in Wales we have the school essentials grant, which is supporting around 98,000 young people in Wales with the cost of their school uniforms. And I'd encourage anyone who feels they may be eligible for that to make contact with their local authority. Dan Devon. Thank you Minister. Good morning. Just to pick up on a point that you made a little bit earlier regarding still having value in school uniforms, it is not the logical conclusion, albeit further down the line, for school uniforms to be done away with entirely. Is it not the case that this is the beginning of the end, if you will, of a school uniform? Well, I don't think it is at all. I mean I'm very clear and I said during the speech that I think school uniforms are a good thing, but costly school uniforms are not a good thing. There are real benefits to a school uniform in terms of that sense of identity within the school, that sense of a school community. It reduces the peer pressure between pupils. It also means that that pressure isn't there to be looking at sort of branded clothes, very expensive clothes, which some young people will be able to afford and others will not. So I think uniform has a very important role to play, but the point of the guidance today is to make sure that uniforms are as affordable as possible. Rwy'n bwysig bod ysgolion a folysi gweisg ysgol a hefyd bod gweisg ysgol yn chwarae rhan bwysig o rhan creu hynna nieth yr ysgol, sy'n wir o gymuned yr ysgol. Mae hefyd yn llai hai pwysau ar ysgoblion wrth i gilydd, os o ffoch chi ar pwysau sy'n dod o edrych ar rhai pobl i fynd i gael eu fforddio, felly dylaid gyda'r brandiau mwy adrid ac erill ddyn, felly mae gan wysg ysgol rwy'n bwysig iawn i'w chwarae, ond byth mae'r cynllawiau hefyd i'n dweud i'w bod angen i bob ysgol edrych i sicrhau bod i gweisg ysgolion fforddadw i bawb. Can I also get the answer to this next question in Welsh in English as well? I'll be appreciative. Moving, albeit outside of your brief, but to an important topic nonetheless, the British Association of Social Workers has told us that children like Logan Mwangi and Lola James were failed by the system. Do you agree with that assessment? Well, those are very, very tragic situations that you're referring to in your question, and the families of those young people are very much in our thoughts. We'll wait for the outcome of the child practice review. We'll look carefully at all the findings and recommendations, which that makes. As you will know, we are already looking at ambitious transformation of children's services in Wales based on independent research and evaluation, and we will be taking the results of the child practice review into account in that important context. Mae'r eich rhaifftech i'n sôn y cwestiwn hefyd i'n rhaid dydynol o odryst ac mae'r teulu o ddyn yn meddwl i'n ei fel y golyio o'r fel Llywodraeth. Newn i aros i wel byddwch anlyniad y child practice review, a byddwn i'n edrych yn ofalis iawn ar hyn bydd yr adylagied yn argymell. Felly chi'n gwybod mae ganddon i waith eisoes i draus newydd mewn ffordd i chelgeisio iawn gwasanaethau plant yng Nghymru, i'n selu edrych ar ddystiolaeth a chyngor anu bynol, a byddwn i'n edrych ar ganddlau niadau'r review yng Nghyrraestyn hwnnw. Abu wytig. Morning Minister. Obviously, talking about uniforms, you're talking about the cost of living crisis, and schools are also stuck in the cost of living crisis. A lot of heads are saying they don't have very much money. They're cutting staff, they're cutting teachers, they're cutting subjects. Is the fact that teachers are being made redundant, not the clearest sign that we could have, that schools are being underfunded now? Well Abu, there are pressures, very real pressures in schools as you say. One of the pressures which we've been talking about recently are the new pressures from the pay settlement. Obviously we've provided funding in order to address that, but there are a range of other pressures from inflation and cost of living which schools are facing. Our commitment as a government has been, and continues to be, that within the very, very real constraints of the budget that we have here in Wales, that we will prioritise education and we have done that. You will also know that in my own budget I've been able to maintain the funding which we provide to schools to deal with the aftermath in schools of Covid which is still a very real experience in schools right across Wales and that we've also increased the funding available through people development grants so finding as many ways as we can to put additional funding into school budgets but there are, as you say, very real pressures in schools certainly. So you mentioned the pay settlement. Governors in one LEA, the Vale and a union in another LEA in the RCT say that they don't believe that schools have yet got that money to cover the pay increase that was awarded at the end of the strike. Can you explain when that money will be coming to schools and whether it's already been given to LEAs? So I think from memory, the day in which I saw the press coverage of the response of Governors I think in the Vale, I think on that occasion, as it happens on that day we had already sent an indication to local authorities of the additional funding that we, as a Government, are providing to authorities in order to meet those pay pressures. So just to confirm, so all 22 LEAs now have that money and that money is ring-fenced and will definitely go to schools? The money has been provided to local authorities or has been notified to local authorities. I can't quite remember where we are on the payment chain if you like but local authorities will know now what additional funding Welsh Government has provided to them for that purpose. And that will definitely go to schools, they can't use it for anything else. It's been provided to local authorities and local authorities have committed to use that to fund the pay pressures. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr, thank you.