Do the little things….and do the big things too.

9th March, 2023

Do the little things….and do the big things too.

St David’s Day – Dydd Gwyl Dewi, the day of our national patron saint, gives us all a chance to take stock, to celebrate our Welshness, our culture, our history – and our future.

I have fond memories of going to school in an itchy woollen waistcoat, and sporting a spring onion representing an infant-sized leek, which got progressively smaller during the day as I chewed on it.

I always enjoyed the stories of his life – the miraculous rising mound of earth, restoring the sight of a child – but more practically perhaps, I was always really drawn to the three pieces of advice he set out for us, which I think are an excellent set of principles for daily life: Be joyful, Do the little things and Keep the faith.

Optimism, practical help, and a commitment to values even in the tough times. Or at least that’s how I have interpreted them. Be joyful, do the little things and keep the faith – whatever faith means for you, of course.

And in the increasingly complex world we live in, holding on to some simple guiding principles has an obvious appeal! But you will be pleased to hear that I am not here to give a sermon this evening, I am here to talk about politics!

In politics, optimism and keeping the faith are definitely qualities which we all need to hold on to! And though doing the little things is a very good rule for personal kindness and a useful thing to teach our children in school – we are in politics to do the big things, not just the little things.

But for me at least, school is where my politics started.

I went to a Welsh medium comprehensive school in the 80s where the sons and daughters of miners from Cwmgors or a painter and decorator from Pontarddulais like me – mixed with the children of consultants and academics from Gower. It was obvious that not everyone was getting the same start in life. Many of us will remember what the 80s were like – and plenty of kids were struggling.

And I was also a gay teenager in a time when not a single thing in the life of the school – in any part of my life in fact – affirmed my identity, or told me it was ok to feel the way I did. No positive messages, no role models, nothing.

So my commitment to making sure every young person gets the very best start in life whatever their background, and that schools should be inclusive places, reflecting the diversity of modern Wales and where no one feels on the outside, like I did – that commitment is personal. It’s absolute and I will not compromise on it.

So in LGBT+ History Month, i am really proud to have introduced our LGBT+ inclusive Relationship and Sexuality Education Code. As a young gay man, the Tories’ attempts to demonise people like me with Section 28 was one of the reasons I got into politics.

We have brought in these changes despite an organized misinformation campaign involving hard right elements. And I promise you I will stand up to them – I will never be deflected from our efforts to protect young people and help them to be safe and healthy.

Ensuring our school life is inclusive and reflects the diversity of modern Wales is vital in other crucial ways too. In our new curriculum it’s now mandatory for our young people to be able to learn about the histories and experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people – we should be so proud of this.

I recently launched our new diversity and anti-racist training programme and our bursary to encourage Black Asian and Minority Ethnic students into teaching – I have got to tell you in all honesty there is a long way to go before we have a school workforce which reflects the diversity of the young people in our classrooms — but I am totally committed to it.

But the other part of my mission is based on my simple belief that the purpose of the Labour party is to give working class children the same chance to fulfil their aspirations as the most well off children.

And many of us will have been raised with that special type of Welsh working class aspiration – which isn’t about personal advancement but a collective ambition that means that we want for each other what we want for ourselves.

Some of that is about making it easier to be at school – tackling the cost of the school day by expanding free school meals, making uniforms cheaper, access to free music tuition. or by giving each child a book of their choice to keep.

I am proud to be doing every single one of those. A lot of families are really struggling – with school staff often dipping into their own pockets to help – so it has never been needed more.

But it’s about much more than that, it’s also about support for literacy, support for families, better links with the community, with other services, making sure teachers are trained to support the needs of disadvantaged children, to instill confidence and to encourage their aspirations, more funding for schools with more disadvantage. We know that this is how we will give every child the start in life they deserve.

And when the day comes for me to stop being education minister, the single most important thing I want to be judged on is what we have put in place to support our disadvantaged pupils, like every other pupil, to reach for the stars — and to get there.

But despite all this, not everyone has the best experience of school and we need to make sure they have chances throughout life to return to education.

When I was first elected to the Senedd I set out my ambition that Wales would become a nation of “second chances – where it’s never too late to learn”. I have seen at first hand what places like the DOVE workshop in the Dulais valley in my constituency have done to transform the lives – often of women in their communities – through adult education.

And as education minister I have been working to make that nation of second chances a reality. I have launched a review of our vocational qualifications to make sure they give people the best chance of getting decent work. We have brought in big budget increases for further education, for adult community learning and for our work based personal learning accounts. And we have now legislated to create a duty to fund lifelong learning.

Adult education has been a big part of our history in Wales, and I want to make sure it will be a big part of our future too.

Because at the end of the day, for a Labour government, the best economic policy is education policy and the best social justice policy is education policy.

It is how we change society, to give people the chance of a decent livelihood and a fulfilling life.

How we change society, yes. But also how we equip young people for a society that is already changing all around them. How we equip our future generations, to whom our commitment in Wales is so clear. But also equip those leaving school in the next decade.

They will become young adults as the next quarter century of devolution is dawning. A quarter century which will bring new challenges and which will demand new responses.

The climate and nature emergencies, the disruption of rapid technological change, building a new sustainable economy from the embers of Brexit, a decline in the number of working age people, an increasingly fragile constitutional settlement for the United Kingdom and the most challenging public spending situation for half a century and more.

Any one of these would be a momentous change in itself. All together and they require a collective response of unprecedented proportions.

But we can rise to this challenge and not only survive – but flourish.

Young people in education, contemplating the world of work should know that we have high expectations of them. But they are entitled to have high expectations of us too.

To expect us to ensure our future generations benefit from rising living standards, in an increasingly productive sustainable economy which will offer prosperity and equity.

No child should be living in poverty, no adult should be without opportunity.

They are entitled to look to us to take every advantage of our small size as a nation to make Wales the easiest part of the United Kingdom to invest in, to start or to grow a good business, to create decent sustainable highly skilled work. And to equip our young people to take those roles.

Innovation, skills, capital, but building on our natural advantages as a nation, and with a government focused on practical delivery, and that does what only governments can do – takes the risks when others shouldn’t, builds the infrastructure when others can’t, and crucially, invests in people when others don’t.