1. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on how he intends to support victims of domestic violence? OAQ(5)0117(CC)

I thank the Member for her question, and, Presiding Officer, if I may, wish you and women and girls across Wales a very happy International Women’s Day.

Our national strategy sets out the actions we are taking to support victims of domestic violence through the delivery, development and implementation of the framework. Since the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 was passed, we have appointed a national adviser, published the national framework on training, and piloted the ‘Ask and Act’.

Thank you for that response and thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for attending the Mothers Affection Matters event earlier today. Because here we are, celebrating International Women’s Day 2017, and yet, today, we heard some harrowing stories and learnt of the deep fear of abused people who are reluctant to seek help because they feel their children will be removed. I’ll be absolutely honest, a couple of the stories I heard today have really affected me, so, my apologies. Because we should all be free and so should these women.

It costs far less to support safe mothers and far more when children are removed into the care system. Could I press you, Cabinet Secretary, to review the successful German model of removing the perpetrators of domestic violence and enabling the abused person to remain in their community, with the support of police, social services, and GPs? I would like to see if this excellent practice could be a lesson learnt for us here in Wales. We’ve been so successful in so many other areas in being the first in the world on things like children’s commissioners and so on, and I would like us to see if we can do something really radical, and perhaps learn from our European neighbours. Thank you.

I thank the Member for her question and the opportunity to briefly meet some of the people at the event at lunch time. Llywydd, no-one should blame victims who take the time and courage to come forward. We all know and admire the courage they show when they speak out, and what we can and should blame are the onlookers who know what’s going on and stay silent about these things.

In regard to the very specific question on this, the VAWDASV Act is one piece of the jigsaw; the housing Act actually does look at removing perpetrators from a property. So, there is a suite of tools that we do have, but I will look at the model that the Member raises and ask my advisory panel to give me some more thoughts around that.

Last week, I asked what was being done to prevent female genital mutilation and to support those who are affected by it. A year ago, on International Women’s Day, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and BAWSO, supported by the Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, launched Voices Over Silence, and it’s a project aimed at doing just that. It is a Welsh Government-funded project that allows 16 young women to be trained as youth ambassadors on FGM to spark conversations about FGM in schools and in communities across Wales.

I’m really pleased to say that the project, last night, won the Royal College of Midwives award for partnership working. So, I ask you, Cabinet Secretary, if you will join me in congratulating all those involved in this outstanding initiative.

Indeed. NSPCC, BAWSO and the university and the youth ambassadors indeed are doing a fantastic job and I was delighted when the Welsh Government-funded programme was awarded the RCM award. It is a big congratulations from me and I’ve already tweeted to say congratulations to them, too.

Yesterday afternoon, you declined to support a Plaid Cymru amendment that would make it mandatory to introduce healthy relationships education in schools. I would like to understand why you rejected that amendment. How are we going to reduce violence against women in a permanent way unless our children and young people have an opportunity to discuss key issues around ensuring healthy relationships? And if it isn’t mandatory in schools then there is no assurance that it will happen and will happen consistently across Wales.

I thank the Member for her question. Yesterday, the Member is right, you tabled an amendment in regard to healthy relationships, and I did respond to you in that debate yesterday on the reason why we weren’t supporting it then—because we have a working group that the Cabinet Secretary for Education has set up; we want to learn from that. But you’re pushing at an open door here; it’s about the way we do this and introduction of it. I agree with the Member in terms of how it should be done, it’s just when we do that in the appropriate manner through the curriculum, and that will become clearer with the Cabinet Secretary’s statements shortly.