I listened carefully to what other people have said and perhaps want to deviate slightly from what some other people have said. I particularly welcome the acceptance of recommendation 4, which is about aligning training packages, because it’s absolutely essential that we’re not overburdening public servants with too many different instructions. And so it’s really important that the needs assessments and outcome frameworks are embedded with the social services and well-being Act, as well as the well-being of future generations Act. So, I think that’s going to be reassuring to practitioners that the training element is going to be taken forward coherently, and that also there’s going to be guidance on the development of joint local strategies, because I think it’s very important that they’re done in bite-sized chunks. But the most important thing that we must take from this is that it’s really, really important that anybody who’s having to cope with people who are experiencing domestic violence, sexual violence, are all singing from the same hymn sheet and all are understanding their particular role in both either preventing it or in ensuring that people get the support that they are entitled to.

I want to relate the rest of my contribution to focus on recommendations 9 and 10 in relation to female genital mutilation. I understand why the Government has only partially accepted recommendation 9 on mandatory education, because I fully understand that there’s no point in making something mandatory if you don’t have the ability to monitor it. I note the agreement not to put any additional burden on schools to obtain additional information from what we already ask them to do. So, I think I take heart from recommendation 10, which is to ensure that the pioneer schools are incorporating the best practice guidance in the way that we’re delivering the new curriculum and that Estyn is going to be inspecting schools on the basis of whatever is in this new curriculum. That’s absolutely essential to me. So, I don’t think this is a rejection of recommendation 9; I think it’s a deferment in line with the pace of travel.

In relation to FGM, it’s absolutely essential that schools appreciate the potential risks that their girls are under, because it’s probably only going to be the schools, or perhaps youth services, after-school services, that are going to be able to spot when a girl is at risk, because, unfortunately, this is mainly a practice that’s conducted by the family members of the girls. Therefore, there have to be other people who are available to safeguard that child.

The data are hard to come by, but I think we know that more than 2,000 women in Wales are living with fully or partially removed genitals, according to Dr Mwenya Chimba, who co-chairs the Wales FGM Forum, and about 1,200 of them live in Cardiff. But, nevertheless, if you think this is not a particular problem in your constituency, I refer you to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, because there are 30 million girls at risk before their fifteenth birthday across the world, so we all have a role to play in stamping out this horrendous practice.

But going back to girls and schools and the role that schools have to play in this country, we absolutely have to ensure that schools can read the runes when a girl is likely to be at risk so that they can take the action required to ensure that the court will safeguard that child before it’s too late, because there is no reversal of FGM—it is a lifelong and deeply scarring event.

Happily, the courts are prepared to take action on this and there is now much more effective action to prevent girls going abroad. But, unfortunately, this has led to a new revival of FGM taking place in this country. We stamped it out in Harley Street, but I was horrified to learn from the London Assembly Member, Jenette Arnold, who was here on FGM Combating Day on 6 February, that this was occurring in the suburbs of London, using either retired or practicing midwives. These are people who’ve been trained in the NHS. So, we have to ensure that everybody understands the Hippocratic oath and that FGM is something we have to all fight against.

We absolutely need to ensure that girls have the space to be able to disclose the possibility of that risk, and that means that we have to have whole-school training on this to ensure that we’re not simply targeting one ethnic group or another. So, it’s got to be a whole-school event and I want to ensure that this is fully embedded in Donaldson, because that is the only way that we are going to be able to combat this practice amongst girls—as well as, obviously, important work that we need to do in the communities affected.