The next statement is on item 5, a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education on attendance and behaviour in schools. I call on the Cabinet Secretary to make the statement—Lynne Neagle.

Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about two of my key priorities here today: improving attendance and behaviour in educational settings across Wales. I want all children in Wales to have the opportunity to thrive, supported by an education system that has their best interests at heart. I'm committed to driving up attainment levels and standards of education, so that we can make sure every child in Wales has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Regular attendance at and engagement with education and learning is a critical part of achieving this aspiration. Attendance and behaviour in schools are closely linked. Poor attendance can lead to disengagement and behavioural issues, while behavioural challenges often contribute to persistent absence. In that context, I am pleased that the statistics on secondary school attendance for the 2024-25 school year, published in September, showed a clear improvement in average attendance on the previous year, with a rise to 90.9 per cent. I was also pleased that over that same period, overall absence fell from 12 per cent to 10.9 per cent, with progress also seen in tackling persistent absence.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

The percentage of secondary school-aged pupils missing more than 10 per cent of sessions fell from 37.1 per cent to 33 per cent. Similarly, the latest figures for attendance in this academic year show that, as of 18 November, overall attendance stands at 91.8 per cent.

However, we have to recognise that the pandemic had a huge impact on school attendance and attitudes towards learning. For some families, the idea of regular school attendance has shifted. There is now a greater expectation of flexibility, whether that’s remote learning, hybrid models or home-based education. This presents both opportunities and challenges for us as policy makers and for practitioners. It has taken a huge effort by our schools, the workforce and families to start to turn this around and to show a year-on-year improvement. I want to commend them for their ongoing commitment and hard work.

However, I also want to be clear that while this is encouraging, I want us to go further. I want to see levels back to where they were before the pandemic as soon as possible, and, ideally, higher than that. So, while we are moving in the right direction, we are not complacent, and there is still work to be done, particularly in relation to some of our more vulnerable learners.

The latest annual data shows that 58 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals in secondary schools were persistently absent during the 2024-25 school year. The difference in attendance by those eligible for free school meals and those not eligible for them cannot become acceptable. These learners already face significant barriers, caused by the impact of living in households with lower income levels. They cannot also continue to miss education at these levels if they are to reach their potential.

It is vital, then, that we continue to focus on addressing the barriers that prevent children from attending school regularly to ensure every child has the best possible chance to succeed. To support this, I have committed £7 million of funding this year to help children re-engage with school. Under this funding package, I've provided an extra £3 million supporting the work of family engagement officers, £2 million supporting the provision of enrichment activities, £1 million to further embed the role of community-focused schools, and £1 million to support our food and fun school holiday enrichment programme. But this is only the start of the support.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to tackling absence, and it will take time. The issues affecting non-attendance are complex, often requiring intensive action, and involving multi-agency support. We are seeing a significant shift in the external factors impacting school attendance across Wales. Increasingly, children and young people are presenting with more complex needs: mental health challenges, behavioural issues, physical health conditions and emotionally based school avoidance. These issues are not isolated, they are deeply interconnected and have a profound impact on attendance. Our response cannot be punitive. I want to continue with the partnership approach we have adopted. Schools cannot tackle these challenges alone. We need co-ordinated support across education, health, social care and community services to ensure that every child is seen, supported and able to thrive.

At the same time, we must strike a balance. We need to reinforce the importance of regular attendance for educational progress and social development, while also recognising and responding to the genuine barriers that some children face. I was honoured to host a national behaviour summit in May, working with key partners to explore positive solutions to ongoing challenges faced by practitioners and school leaders in Wales. The day after the summit, I announced five immediate actions outlining clear, decisive steps to improve behaviour in education settings and to give staff the support they need to turn commitment into action. These actions mark the start of a shared journey to create environments where every learner can thrive and every practitioner feels empowered. To deliver sustainable change, I prioritised strengthening multi-agency working, enhancing guidance and professional learning for practitioners, sharing best practice and standardising incident reporting to build a system that supports learners and empowers those who lead and teach.

First and foremost, every practitioner and learner deserves a safe, respectful environment. We are accelerating the round-table and summit actions, working with partners to strengthen multi-agency approaches and applying lessons from innovative violence prevention strategies being tested in schools to safeguard well-being across our school communities. Building on this momentum, I established two dedicated fora to fast-track collaboration and drive solutions with key stakeholders, experts and practitioners. The fora are tackling two priority issues: the use of mobile phones and social media in schools, and the challenges surrounding exclusions and detentions. Bringing diverse voices to the table will ensure that evidence-based insights shape next steps. I also discussed the use of mobile phones in schools with my counterparts in the other nations of the UK recently. This is an issue that we are all concerned about and grappling with, and sharing our evidence and evaluation data helps us all to better understand what works. Based on this work, new national guidance on mobile phone use, along with practical resources for schools, is being co-produced and will launch early in the spring.

At the same time, our exclusions and detentions forum is moving at pace to review current guidance and strengthen approaches for sharing best practice, including preventative measures that will make a real difference. The forum will also review national data to identify ways to reduce exclusion rates. To complement this work, we are working with schools, local authorities and partners to extend targeted interventions to minimise exclusions and improve learner engagement. This reflects our long-term commitment to an inclusive education system.

To enhance professional learning, a new behaviour toolkit launched this term, providing a rich resource of research and practical guidance for schools to respond to ongoing challenges. This is just the beginning. The five immediate actions clearly set out my commitment to ongoing, open dialogue with practitioners, parents and children and young people. And I am driving a wider programme of engagement on behaviour to amplify these voices. The most effective solutions come from those who experience these challenges every day and, together, we will shape approaches that deliver meaningful change.

I'm pleased that Estyn’s recent 'Early Insights 2024-2025' report highlighted that, overall, behaviour and attitudes to learning remain positive across sectors, with teachers maintaining constructive relationships with pupils, managing behaviour effectively and creating supportive learning environments. Building on this encouraging snapshot, I plan to work with schools, local authorities and third sector partners to bring forward a suite of pilot projects across Wales in the coming months to test and showcase innovative, early and restorative approaches to supporting behaviour in schools. In addition, working with university partners across Wales, this autumn, we will launch an engagement programme with schools, exploring practical solutions to tackle behaviour.

Children and young people are at the heart of this work, with their voices championed by key partners, including the Welsh Youth Parliament, Children in Wales and the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. I was delighted to attend the Welsh Youth Parliament on Saturday to hear from their Crime and Safety Committee about their recent consultation and to hear about their recommendations from their powerful report. Their survey attracted almost 2,000 responses from children and young people. I very much welcome the committee's recommendations on a number of clear themes, including around consistent policies, mental health support and the importance of positive relationships and listening to young people. The committee made eight recommendations, and I am very pleased to accept them all. The committee’s report is an outstanding example of pupil voice, and I will respond formally and fully to all of the recommendations in writing in the new year. I am also very keen to work closely with the Welsh Youth Parliament on all of the important areas they have highlighted.

As I have set out, improving attendance and behaviour in educational settings across Wales is essential to support our young people to thrive. We are not complacent. I look forward to continuing to build on the priorities and actions I've spoken about today to ensure that we can make sure that our schools are engaging places, where everyone is safe, included and heard. These actions are grounded in a strong commitment to listen, learn and co-create solutions with those who matter most—our practitioners, learners and families. Diolch.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for this afternoon's statement. Poor behaviour and attendance are a major cause of concern to us all, and I'm afraid that there has been a complete lack of action from the Welsh Government on this, despite the rosy picture that we've all heard here today in the Chamber. Violence within classrooms is at a worryingly high level, teachers' time is being taken away from delivering lessons to deal with incidents, pupils' learning is being impacted by distractions and absenteeism remains stubbornly high, yet the Welsh Government seems either reluctant or incapable of dealing with the big issues.

More than six months ago, the Welsh Government held its highly billed and highly anticipated national behavioural summit. We were told time and time again here in the Chamber that this would be the answer to all of our prayers. Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, it looks like the Cabinet Secretary well and truly led us up the garden path on that one, because the Cabinet Secretary says that she set out the five immediate actions following the statement, but, in reality, I feel that they just tinker around the edges, if that.

Cabinet Secretary, am I right in saying that this was nothing more than a box-ticking exercise? I'm sure that you're going to try to spin it another way when you respond to me here, but I'd like to know what specific—and I mean specific—robust actions the Welsh Government will be taking in line with this summit, because to me it looks like things are just being kicked further into the long grass, with new forums created and guidance dished out to teachers. How confident are you, Cabinet Secretary, that this will actually go ahead and make a difference to the problems that we have here in Wales?

It’s a fact that the number of violent incidents in schools has risen by 37 per cent, at a total of 6,446 reported in 2023-24 alone. The toll this takes on teachers' well-being is massive, Cabinet Secretary, with the NASUWT finding that 92 per cent of teachers experience verbal abuse and 35 per cent have experienced physical abuse. Cabinet Secretary, 79 per cent of teachers said that verbal and physical abuse affected their morale, 65 per cent said that it increased stress levels and 52 per cent of teachers said that fighting is a daily or weekly problem in their school. All of this is resulting in 55 per cent of teachers admitting that it is making them think about leaving the profession as a whole.

These are incredibly sobering statistics, Cabinet Secretary; I’m sure you come across them all of the time. So, I’d like to know what steps the Welsh Government is taking to protect teachers' safety and well-being, as failure to tackle poor behaviour in schools may result in an exodus of teachers leaving the profession, exacerbating the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis that we have here in Wales. In this afternoon's statement, you’ve mentioned an incoming suite of pilot projects when it comes to behaviour in schools, but in-depth detail is, unfortunately, a bit sparse. So, can you please elaborate on some of the projects that you've mentioned here today, Cabinet Secretary?

You mentioned mobile phones in your statement. The Welsh Conservatives have been clear since day one that one quick win to turn our problems within our schools around is to ban mobile phones. More and more countries around the world are waking up to this, but, of course, the Welsh Government is refusing to implement such a ban. Mobile phone usage within schools is a growing problem, with 77 per cent of primary school—yes, primary school—pupils taking a phone into school; that figure rises to 94 per cent when we look at the number of secondary school students. The evidence about the damage of mobile phone usage in the classroom is crystal clear, Cabinet Secretary, for us all to see.

You’ve talked about bringing in a new form of guidance in spring 2026 on mobile phone use. Can you give us some sort of explanation as to what that’s going to look like, because we are heading into an election, so I want to ensure that this guidance is clear for us and the electorate out there? What’s going to be shared amongst the schools out there as well, because we need to go further here in Wales?

School attendance—I’m glad you touched upon that today—is another big issue facing our education system, with more than 2 million school days missed in 2023-24 due to unauthorised absences in Wales. Not only that, but Estyn found that the percentage of secondary school age pupils who were absent for more than 20 per cent of sessions more than tripled, from 4.6 per cent to 16.3 per cent, between 2018 and 2019. I appreciate COVID, so then I'm going to compare the figure to 2022-23. Average attendance for schools in Wales was 90.9 per cent for the 2024-25 academic year. The impact of absence from the classroom can have a serious effect on a child's learning—we all know that here. I really do welcome your ambition to get attendance levels back to pre-COVID levels, Cabinet Secretary, but have you got a target date for this? You know I like my dates, so I'm going to ask you for that.

According to headteachers, there are two main reasons for low attendance rates. No. 1 is a substantial increase in the number of pupils who are refusing to attend school or are now frequently absent due to mental health problems, and the second is a change in culture amongst parents, who place less importance on their children attending school regularly. This additional funding to help children re-engage with school is most certainly going to be welcome, but are you confident that it will lead to a big boost? And if it does, what will the Welsh Government's next steps be?

Aside from the funding, how else is the Welsh Government working with parents and school leaders to combat the change in attitude, which has led to less importance being placed on children attending schools? Cabinet Secretary, you say that improving attendance and behaviour in schools remain essential, and that this Government is not going to be complacent. However, I'll be honest—I'm not convinced. And that, sadly, is the case based on the lack of robust and tangible actions coming from this administration so far. So, instead of running down the clock until next year's election, the Welsh Government must do more to ensure all children are receiving the education here in Wales that they so rightly deserve. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thank you very much, Natasha. I couldn't disagree with you more, really, that there has been a lack of action. And I never said that the summit would be the answer to all our problems. The summit was a very important step in bringing together all our stakeholders to try to tackle what are really complex issues. And I really think, Natasha, that you don't have a good understanding of how complex the issues around behaviour are, because, if you did understand it, you wouldn't be looking for a silver bullet in this space.

I set out the immediate actions following the summit—and, again, it couldn't be further from the truth that there hasn't been action on each of those areas. First of all, a really strong theme from the summit was around the need for better multi-agency working to support schools. Schools feel that they are picking up the pieces from a variety of other organisations who are maybe pulling back from supporting them. So, I took a paper to Cabinet a little while ago, which was all about the societal pressures on schools. Officials from teams right across the Welsh Government are working now to ensure there is alignment of cross-cutting policies in relation to our work on behaviour. We're also working with the four police and crime commissioners and police forces in Wales to support better collaboration between police, local authorities and schools. And we're doing that through the ethos of our community-focused schools programme. And I see that programme as not just opening up halls and playing fields and things like that; I see that as a genuine two-way street between schools and the community. And the work that we're doing to map these policies will be completed by the spring.

In terms of updated guidance to ensure there's more clarity and consistency across Wales, that work is being taken forward at pace. I mentioned the mobile phone forum. We've got one on exclusions as well. We have already published a new behaviour toolkit—you must have missed that, Natasha—in September 2025. Our guidance on mobiles will launch in February 2026, and our guidance on exclusions and detentions will follow in March 2026. Because that's the way we do things in Wales, you see. We work with partners to co-produce things, because that's how we believe we get the best policies.

In terms of sharing best practice between schools locally and nationally, we've got a programme of work led by HEI partners now with schools. Our professional inquiry approaches that they are leading on will launch in November, with initial outputs by March 2026.

In terms of the professional learning commitment I made at the summit, as I said, we've already published the behaviour toolkit, and we're working with a number of HEIs in Wales who are working with schools on developing professional learning, and we’ve also asked Dysgu, our new professional learning body, to take this work forward for us.

We’re also taking forward the work around consistent definitions and reporting of incidents, so that we’ve got clear data at local authority and national level. That was the fifth commitment, and that is obviously aligned to our school improvement partnership programme, which will give us an opportunity to have that better data. We are looking at a series of pilots. One of those pilots is around restorative practices. I was able to go to Islwyn High School a little while ago, where I saw those practices in action and was very impressed by those. We’re also looking at pilots using the youth service.

In terms of attendance, we have seen progress. I think that’s very clear, and I’m sure you’ll want to welcome that. But I’ve also been clear that there is more work that we need to do. You’re right to mention mental health as a factor in problems with attendance. I think our record on mental health support for schools is first class. We have a whole-school approach to mental health in Wales, which is statutory. We continue to commit £14 million a year to that, and we’re doing everything we can to support our learners.

But one of the big tools in our arsenal on this is the work that we do with family engagement officers, and this year we are investing an additional £3 million in the work of family engagement officers. Next year, that money is going to increase by a further £1 million. Those family engagement officers work with some of the families who are experiencing the most barriers to children attending school, and they work with them on a really granular level, whether it is issues around poverty, not having a school coat, issues with transport, issues with mental health, physical health problems. The evidence that I am seeing—and we have a forum now where we bring all the family engagement officers together, and they are doing really brilliant work—is they are making a difference, because they do that by building trusting relationships with families.

I want to get back to pre-pandemic levels of attendance as soon as possible. That’s why we are continuing to invest such substantial sums of funding in this work.

Plaid Cymru believes in tackling the root causes of poor attendance and behaviour, such as poverty, transport barriers and family support, not just sticking plasters. Of course, we all agree on the principles around increased attendance and improved behaviour, and agree on the need for every child to have a safe, supportive environment where they can learn and thrive.

But the reality does not match the rhetoric we’ve heard from Welsh Government on these issues. Attendance has been well rehearsed in the Chamber already this afternoon, but just to reiterate, between September and November this year, attendance in our schools continued to fall in 2024-25. Average attendance was just 90.9 per cent compared to what it was before the pandemic, at 94.3 per cent. I acknowledge, you realise, that the situation is improving slightly, but for pupils who are eligible for free school meals, the picture is even worse and more challenging than that. It is 85.2 per cent, down from 91.2 per cent.

You did tell school leaders at the boosting standards conference a while back that it is your aim to see attendance return to pre-pandemic levels. So, my first question is: do you expect to meet that target or is it going to be another failed ambition?

I welcome the additional £1 million that you are giving to the family engagement officers. That is a welcome initiative. So, what I'd like to know is: around these officers, what assessment has been made of their impact so far? Is there a direct correlation between slightly improved attendance levels and the work that they do? How many schools will benefit from this £1 million additional funding?

And what about transport? Estyn's report earlier this year highlighted transport as being a major barrier to attendance. It remains a persistent challenge, particularly for pupils living within three miles of school who don't qualify for free transport. Yet, instead of acting decisively, what Welsh Government has done is kick the consultation on learner travel guidance into the long grass, and refuse to make this a priority in the Bus Services (Wales) Bill. Last year, Ministers seemed to be playing pass-the-parcel with this issue, but now they don't even want to deliver the parcel at all because it's not there in the bus Bill. So, will anything change on learner travel before May's election?

Let's move on to behaviour, which again has been touched upon. Promises have been made, but not translated into progress. The behaviour summit, which again has been referred to, revealed what teachers have known for years: the situation is not improving; if anything, it's getting worse. Forty-nine actions were suggested, including five immediate steps. So, what impact have these steps had, and how many of the 49 suggested actions will be implemented and by when? Because I recently met with a teacher who was seriously injured in a violent incident in her school. She fears returning to the classroom because, as far as she knows, no new guidance has been issued on handling serious physical or harmful behaviour.

The summit report also highlighted poor communication between stakeholders. What lessons have you learned from that and how can we improve co-operation between stakeholders, particularly sharing information? Because Scotland has shown leadership on behaviour issues by surveying its workforce regularly on behaviour and abuse trends to target resources effectively.

And finally, much of this comes down to funding. In the 2026-27 budget evidence paper that you submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee, you mentioned £900,000 for behaviour work being spent in 2025-26, but nothing allocated for 2026-27. So, what's the plan beyond that year?

Finally, have we had any money from the UK Government decision to change the valued added tax on independent schools? Has that money come to Wales to support our schools? Diolch. 

Thank you very much, Cefin. I do agree with you about tackling the root causes of the reasons for children not attending school as much. You mentioned poverty—that is a key one. Some of those levers are not with us. But I think as a Government we have a strong track record of supporting children who are living in poverty in our schools. We have our school essentials grant. We have universal primary free school meals. We've currently got poverty proofing pilots that are happening in schools across Wales, and we have supported materials for schools on removing the stigma around poverty.

You referred to transport. As you've highlighted, the consultation on the revised learner travel operational guidance began on 11 June, and that has been extended until 28 November. As you're aware, the learner travel Measure sits with my colleague Ken Skates, but we do discuss those issues very regularly. Back in the summer, we held a summit on learner travel, which was really positive in terms of trying to tackle some of the very complex issues that exist around learner travel. And it's not just about funding, as I know you're aware; it's also about access to buses, to drivers, and things like that that are causing challenges. You'll also be aware that we've announced the £1 bus fare, which is hopefully going to be a big help for families and for young people.

In terms of family engagement officer impact, obviously we're currently in the first year of substantial investment in FEOs, so we haven't got any official evaluation as yet. But, as I said to Natasha, the FEOs come together regularly as a national forum, I have met with the forum to have feedback on the work that they're doing, and all the feedback that I get from schools is that they are worth their weight in gold. Because it also takes some of the burden off teaching staff who would otherwise be having to focus on trying to get children into school.

Now, the funding for the FEOs—and you highlighted the fact that that funding is going up in the draft budget—that currently goes out via the local authority education grant. What I am aware of is that there is variation in how that money is allocated to schools across Wales. So, there are different approaches being used by local authorities. For example, I spoke to some headteachers in one authority, and they were only getting access to their FEO on a cycle of every few months. Well, clearly, the role of FEOs is to build relationships with families, so I have asked officials, and they're doing some work for me on reviewing that guidance, so that we can make sure that all schools can benefit from that as far as is possible.

In terms of the behaviour summit, I've set out in some detail to Natasha the work that we're doing following up that work. I would reiterate that none of this work is a silver bullet. All of this is complex and about tackling the multifaceted issues around problems with behaviour. I'm sorry to hear about the teacher. I want all our schools to be safe, happy places for our staff and for our pupils. We already have guidance on weapons in schools, and schools can already make exclusions in the event of a child being found with a weapon. They also have powers to search pupils. So, that's our existing safe and effective Intervention, and that deals with the use of reasonable force and searching for weapons guidance.

We are also looking at what more we can do in this space at the round-table that we had on violence in schools, which was really positive. The police were not painting such a bleak picture as Natasha around actual violence in schools. Fortunately, these terrible incidents, such as the one you referred to, are fortunately rare. I think it's important that most people have a positive experience in schools. But Cardiff, for example, have just launched guidance on weapons in schools and educational settings, and we're looking at that and how we can have guidance that might apply for the whole of Wales, but, obviously, taking into account the fact that a city may have different issues.

You talked about Scotland, and I met with the Scottish Minister a couple of weeks ago. She came down for the summit we hosted. I had a discussion with her about many things, but including behaviour, and I don't think we're in a very different place to Scotland. They're also having challenges with behaviour. We also surveyed our workforce ahead of the summit. We did a comprehensive survey. It had really good engagement. I can send you a link to that. The findings were sobering. I'm not going to hide from that. But I can send you a link to that.

With behaviour, it's not just about money, in terms of your comments about the budget; it's about changing practice, isn't it, and working together to do that. We have received money from the UK Government as a result of the changes to VAT on private schools. You'll see in the same budget paper that some of that money is protected for post-16 specialist placements. We also received very substantial consequentials for education from the UK Government in the spring statement. Obviously, you're well aware that, at the moment, we have an uncommitted pot of £380 million, and I will be making the strongest possible case for the maximum amount of that money to be spent in education.

We've taken 39 minutes, and we've had the two spokespeople. I would hope that we have succinct questions and answers from the remaining three people, please, so that we can get everything in. Julie Morgan.

Diolch. It's encouraging that the absenteeism figures are moving in the right direction. I think that's in response to the great work that's being done in the education sector.

I was very pleased to attend the food and fun awards with the Cabinet Secretary a few weeks ago, where the great work that is done during the holidays from school was recognised. I think it was wonderful that the people there had this recognition. There has been anecdotal evidence that when children attend food and fun sessions or similar activities in the school holidays, where they go into the school voluntarily and have a good time and have some very positive experiences, that does result in a drop in absenteeism. I just wondered whether there was any evidence for that, or whether you've been able to do any follow-up research, or indeed whether any other such activities did result in an improvement.

Thank you very much, Julie. Can I thank you as well for the work that you did in reviewing our food and fun programme for us? That led to an additional £1 million in funding, taking the total amount of money on food and fun to nearly £6 million. I'm glad as well that one of your recommendations was to have the awards for the food and fun workers. We don't recognise people enough for the good work that they're doing. It was great that you did that, and great that you were on the judging panel. It was great to celebrate the difference they make in the lives of children and young people.

I'm not aware that we've got any sort of quantitative evidence, but I think there is lots of anecdotal evidence that this does make a really big difference to children and young people. The food and fun scheme that I went to see this year was in Pantside in Caerphilly. The staff there were saying to me that they start as soon as the school term finishes, because they said if there was a gap, you'd lose those kids for the summer. I think things like that show that it is about holding onto those children and young people. I'm really pleased that we've been able to increase the investment, thanks to the work that you did.

It's about a wider picture of enrichment, isn't it? We're also investing in enrichment during term time as well, because we're seeing growing evidence that if there are things that children want to do when they get to school, they're more likely to come to school to try out different things. It's also part of building relationships, and that was a point made by the Welsh Youth Parliament on Saturday.

I prefer to confidently talk pupils up. For the last eight years, for two days every week, I have been attending two schools in my Constituency with a literacy project. I'm sure, Cabinet Secretary, you'll agree with me that we must send llongyfarchiadau mawr to the pupils, parents and teachers at Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili for achieving an outstanding 98.2 per cent attendance rate in September, well above the national average. It's a remarkable achievement and a testament to the dedication of pupils, families and staff working together. What we see there should inspire, I believe, all schools across Caerphilly and Wales. Strong relationships with families and a welcoming environment really does make a difference. Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili shows that it's possible when the investment is in the right place. Whilst I appreciate it's for local authorities and schools to decide how best to use the family engagement officer funding, can the Cabinet Secretary confirm how much of the £7 million announced today will be allocated—naturally, I will say this—to the Caerphilly county borough area, or is it subject to a bidding process?

Thank you very much, Lindsay, and thank you for the work that you're doing in schools on literacy. I really welcome that, and I'm very happy to add my congratulations to Ysgol Gymraeg Caerffili. It's great to see them having all that positive media coverage today. I understand that they have made this progress not just through strong relationships, but through excellent enrichment activities, which proves the point, really.

In terms of FEOs, the £7 million is money in this financial year—that's £3 million for FEOs, and that will go up to £4 million in the next financial year. The money does go out via the LAEG, and that goes out on a formula basis. They won't have to bid for it, and I can write to you at a later date when we know what the allocation for Caerphilly is going to be.

And finally, Jenny Rathbone.

Thank you very much. I'm keen to hear more about the food and fun awards another time.

I want to talk about the clear link between poor behaviour and poor nutrition. Kevin Morgan highlighted in his book, Serving the Public, that the blind randomised control trial in the youth offending institution in Aylesbury led to a very significant improvement in the behaviour of the worst offenders who received extra nutritional supplements, by 38 per cent. The prison service completely ignored it, even though it was supported by David Ramsbotham, who's probably the most illustrious inspector of prisons.

Similarly, more recently, Patrick Holden, the organic farmer in Carmarthenshire, in an online seminar, showed a child's handwriting well behind his chronological age, and massive and noticeable improvements in his handwriting when he received much better food.

I wondered if this was discussed at all at your national behaviour summit. Also, what impact, if any, has universal primary free school meals had on attendance? And lastly, will you consider a pilot project to test the impact of nourishing food on improving behaviour amongst pupils as one of the ways in which we can tackle what is a really serious problem?

Thank you very much, Jenny, for those points. I wasn't aware of that research, so that's really interesting. I do agree with you, obviously, about the importance of high-quality nutrition. You'll be aware that we are changing our regulations that govern healthy food in primary schools. I hope that you'll be pleased when you see the outcome of that.

We're also doing work on secondary schools, where it is a little bit more complex because of the amount of agency young people have and that grab-and-go culture. But we want, especially where we're investing substantial amounts of money, children and young people to have the healthiest possible meal. I'll take away what you said about a pilot project, because I'm not a data scientist and I think that might well be quite a difficult thing to measure. But I'm very happy to take that away.

What I've seen with the universal primary free school meals is children enjoying having their healthy lunches. We will make those more healthy. We've still got more work to do in terms of the children who bring in packed lunches, some of which aren't particularly healthy, so there's more culture change there. But I will certainly talk to officials about whether there's anything to be done that could measure the link. But I think it's well established that high-quality food is better for us in a range of ways, isn't it?

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.