2. What action will the Welsh Government take to support female school pupils’ welfare? OAQ52781

Thank you, Jane. The welfare and safety of all learners is of paramount importance. Our national mission makes clear our objectives to deliver strong and inclusive schools committed to excellence, equity and well-being for all.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. In the Member debate on period poverty in May, we heard how some schoolgirls from low-income families were missing school when they had their periods because of the challenge of managing away from home without adequate sanitary protection. I welcome the Welsh Government's announcement of £700,000 of capital funding to improve facilities and equipment in schools, and it was particularly encouraging to note that this funding will be used in primary schools as well as secondary schools. This is an acknowledgement of research that shows that more girls are starting their periods at a younger age and that some primary schools can lack the facilities they need. Can we have an update on the impact of this funding, and what are the expectations in terms of the sustainability of this funding in the future?

Thank you, Jane. As you rightly identified, the money that was made available via my colleague the leader of the house was split into capital and revenue streams. The £700,000 capital has been used to invest in school toilet facilities, to ensure that they are designed and have the facilities available to enable girls to manage their periods with dignity. The revenue aspect of the grant has been distributed to local authorities, because the Government believes that they are in the best place to decide how best to distribute products. And that is being done through either community hubs, food banks or a number of projects that exist in local areas. We have asked local authorities to provide information to Welsh Government on how the grants have been spent, and early indications demonstrate that there have been a variety of interesting ways in which that money has been utilised.

With regard to product in schools, some local authorities have made products available in school, but all schools should have made it very clear to pupils where they can obtain free products within their school environment should they be needed. I understand that the leader of the house has not made a decision yet as to funding in the future, but, clearly, any funding decisions will be influenced by the feedback from the utilisation of the funding to date.

A report by children's charity Plan International UK shows that a third of girls have been sexually harassed in public when wearing school uniform, and the opinion poll, which canvassed 1,000 teenagers and young women aged 14 to 21 across the UK found that two thirds of girls had experienced unwanted sexual attention or sexual physical contact in public. Chwarae Teg has found that sexual harassment can put girls off their chosen career path. Now, I'm concerned about all these findings, if not hugely surprised given the climate that we find ourselves in. But what I want to know from you is what support is in place to provide support for girls who have experienced sexual harassment and assault. This might be a good opportunity for you to look at the provision of school counselling services, which the Children's Society have found to be patchy. And can you also tell me what work schools are doing to educate young people that sexual harassment is not acceptable?

Presiding Officer, could I thank Leanne Wood for raising this really important topic? I too was appalled, but not surprised, by the findings of that Plan International UK survey. I want to ensure that education settings in Wales are a place of safety, a place where all girls can be confident and undertake their studies and activities without this threat. And I say that as the Cabinet Secretary and the mother of three girls. Clearly, there is more work to be done. On the issue of supporting girls, clearly there is a need to ensure that our curriculum, via our current personal and social education lessons, and in our new curriculum of our new relationship and sexuality education programme, explores these issues from the very youngest age for both girls and boys, because, of course, boys are absolutely crucial in ensuring that girls do not have to endure this kind of behaviour. In our new curriculum, our new relationship and sexuality education will begin at statutory schooling age. So, from our very youngest pupils, we will begin to address these issues so that we can see a culture change in how girls and women are having to live their lives.

With regard to current support services, local authorities have a responsibility, indeed a duty, to provide counselling services for all children in year 7 through high school and in year 6. Individual local authorities have chosen to do that in different ways. For instance, in my own local authority, there is a heavy reliance on online counselling facilities and they have enjoyed very positive feedback from young people. But there is a duty on all local authorities to provide those service.

We are also, of course, about to go out to consultation on the school uniform itself to look to introduce new statutory guidelines around school uniform, which will hopefully address perhaps some concerns that girls have about what they're able to wear, both in terms of school uniform and PE kit, and will hopefully address some of these issues.