Plaid wants to give some parents a £10 a week for every young child
The first steps towards creating the payments for less-well-off parents with children aged 0-6 have been announced
Wales' new deputy first minister has announced the first steps towards creating a £10-a-week payment for children aged 0-6 in households claiming Universal Credit.
Creating a Welsh Child Payment - or Cynnal - was one of the pledges in the Plaid Cymru manifesto ahead of May's Senedd election.
In her first oral statement, Deputy First Minister and Minister for Social Justice and Equality Sioned Williams said she was setting up an expert group to develop the plans. The expert group will be co-chaired by Ms Williams and Steffan Evans, chief executive of the Bevan Foundation.
Speaking in Welsh, she said: "We are already making progress in preparing for the implementation of Cynnal's pilot scheme, namely Taliad Plant Cymru, there is an expert consensus on how a direct payment like this can make a real difference to children in poverty in Wales and I'm pleased to take forward the trial programme in government
"This is based on solid evidence of what works and as part of our first 100 days plan I've commissioned an expert team to lead on design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of Cynnal/Sustain."
In the Plaid manifesto, it said the direct payment approach was "already being taken in Scotland through the Scottish Child Payment, which is helping to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty."
It said the pilot would "be delivered initially in a limited number of local authority areas, selected using objective criteria as part of the pilot design. The pilot will be used to build a robust evidence base and to inform the design of a Wales-wide rollout of the payment."
Ms Williams also spoke about the Plaid government's intention to expand free childcare for all parents of children aged from nine months to four years in Wales.
She told the Senedd: "Solidarity and fairness. These values have always mattered to the people of Wales. These are the values that the people of Wales voted for in electing a Plaid Cymru government. They are now the foundations that underpin our work to reduce poverty, tackle inequality and build safer, fairer and more united communities.
"My focus will be practical, tangible and evidence-based action. Wales cannot afford to continue to bear the consequences of such high levels of child poverty which diminishes the future health and prosperity of our nation. The impact on public services is huge and the human cost is morally unacceptable.
"That's why we have placed reducing poverty and improving the chances for children and families at the core of our work.
"One of the key tools we will use to tackle poverty and inequality is ensuring childcare is more affordable and accessible. We are already taking forward a new transformational childcare offer that will help families with the cost of living, boost families' incomes and give all children the best start in life.
"At full expansion, our childcare offer will be the most generous in the UK with every child aged nine months to four years entitled to 20 hours of funded childcare every week for 48 weeks a year."
She said Welsh medium childcare will be an integral part of the policy in every part of Wales.
In a written statement issued to the media, she added: "This new government has been left with a legacy of stubbornly high levels of child poverty – I am determined to change that.
“We are committed to reducing poverty and improving life chances for children and families with an ambitious new child poverty strategy which reflects what the sector has been asking for – clear targets, benchmarks and milestones.
“Our childcare offer is the most ambitious in the whole of the UK and I’m pleased that work to deliver it in line with our First 100 Days Plan is progressing well, including an establishing an Expert Group that will drive the work forward.
“Our priorities set a clear and deliverable course of action that will lead to tangible results across Wales. They are tightly and clearly focused on the pressures people living in Wales face, the support they need, and the kind of nation we want to build together across all parts of Wales.”