Will the Minister confirm whether the Welsh Government actively monitors data on the Welsh-language skills of home-educated learners, either as they enter local-authority maintained schools or as they enter the workforce?
The Welsh Government does not hold data on the Welsh-language skills of home educated learners. Information on the first or preferred language of home educated children and the school they have attended (if any), is held by individual local authorities.
Since 2018, local authorities have submitted anonymised data to Data Cymru on an annual basis. This is part of the work between the Welsh Government, local authorities, Data Cymru and WLGA to establish a robust and reliable data collection about the cohort of children who are home educated. Data Cymru produce an annual report based on that data, which is shared with local authorities.
The Data Cymru report provides a rich source of data and is used by the Welsh Government and local authorities to inform policy development.