Anna Brychan MS, Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
I am pleased to announce a £200,000 Welsh Government investment in a series of Community Focused Schools pilots looking at approaches to tackling behavioural issues and supporting engagement with school. This delivers our First 100 Days Plan commitment to begin work to provide a wrap-around approach to mental health, wellbeing, and behaviour in schools.
This investment is about ensuring learners receive the help they need to engage, participate and succeed in school.
We know that factors outside the classroom can have a significant impact on a learner's ability to attend, engage and achieve. Cost of living, concerns around mental health and wellbeing, family pressures and increasingly complex support needs mean that schools are often responding to challenges that affect every aspect of a child's experience and development.
The pilots will engage with all these factors and explore how services can work more effectively together around the needs of children, young people and their families. By bringing specialist expertise closer to schools, we can provide earlier support and prevent challenges from becoming barriers to learning, wellbeing and achievement.
Community Focused Schools will be central to this work. By strengthening links between learners, families, communities and services, schools can act as community anchors that promote wellbeing, improve engagement and attendance, and help children and young people to thrive.
A key objective is to ensure that the education workforce has access to the expertise and practical support needed to respond confidently to increasingly complex learner needs. Stronger collaboration across services will help identify concerns earlier and create more effective pathways to support.
At the heart of this work is a simple ambition: every child and young person should have the opportunity to participate fully in school life, feel a sense of belonging, and achieve their potential. This investment complements our other First 100 Days Plan commitment to develop an integrated framework for attendance, behaviour, and mental health and wellbeing. By taking a more preventative approach, it will help ensure learners receive the right support at the right time.
Work on the framework is underway. Developed with key partners, the framework will strengthen early intervention and improve support for children, young people and their families.
This represents an important step towards creating a stronger system of support around children and young people. By working in partnership with schools, families, communities and public services, we can remove barriers to learning, strengthen opportunities for success and help ensure that every learner can thrive.
This statement is being issued during recess to keep Members informed. Should Members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Senedd returns I would be happy to do so.