Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I'm very pleased to give Assembly Members an update on the significant progress made since the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence Act came into force in 2015. The two annual reports that have been published since I took on this portfolio provide more detail of this progress.

Our national strategy published in 2016 outlines six objectives. These objectives were designed to enable compliance, as far as our powers allow, with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, or the Istanbul convention. The delivery framework, which we published in July 2018, explains how we will work across Government departments to deliver against each of these six objectives.

The Welsh Government is committed to the prevention of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, or VAWDASV. It's an impossible acronym, Deputy Presiding Officer, but VAWDASV, as it's called. We want to improve the public sector response to these issues, and through education, empowerment and engagement, we are challenging attitudes and behaviours across society.

We need to work together to protect those who are currently experiencing VAWDASV. Our national training framework, for example, ensures that, for the first time, standards have been set on training for professionals to help them to recognise who is at risk. Last year, we published draft guidance and rolled out 'ask and act' training. 'Ask and act' is a process of targeted enquiry to be practised by front-line professionals. The training has been developed with survivors, and therefore informed by lived experience. It has the potential to change and save lives, and feedback from the early adoption work shows that it does achieve this.

We've trained over 135,000 people across Wales through e-learning and face-to-face training. That is 135,000 professionals who are more knowledgeable, more aware and more confident to respond to those experiencing VAWDASV. We have published a suite of films aimed at public service leadership to raise awareness of VAWDASV. These films have been viewed over 6,500 times. We are raising awareness amongst children and young people and are teaching them what healthy relationships look like. This work is aimed at preventing them from becoming victims, or even perpetrators. Many schools deliver this through the Welsh Government-funded Spectrum project. We are also strengthening our guidance for schools to include links to appropriate support. This will build upon our good practice guide on taking a whole education approach, and also our guidance for school governors.

The introduction of the new curriculum in 2022 will offer the opportunity to deliver relationships and sexuality education in a completely different way to traditional sex education. Schools do not have to wait until formal roll-out if they feel sufficiently equipped to do so before then.

One of my officials jointly chairs the female genital mutilation, honour-based violence and forced marriage leadership group with the Crown Prosecution Service and BAWSO. This group has developed a delivery framework for tackling so-called honour-based violence, whilst providing the best possible support to survivors. The group has also been instrumental in supporting Wales’s first specialist women’s well-being clinic for those affected by FGM.

We are working under a collaborative agreement with HM Prison and Probation Service on improving the approach to working with perpetrators. This links with the framework to support positive change for those at risk of offending in Wales. The newly formed perpetrator services network takes part in regular practice-sharing events, and a rapid evidence review on what works with domestic abuse perpetrators is due to be published in December. Next month, I will be launching new perpetrator service standards to support commissioners and services to deliver safe and effective practices. We have conducted a mapping exercise of perpetrator services in Gwent and are sharing the learning from this with other areas.

We are tackling gender stereotyping through our communication campaign, This is Me. Gender stereotyping can lead to gender inequality, which is at the root of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. Survivors have informed our campaigns, and it is their words, voiced by actors, that delivered powerful messages about the impact of just being asked, 'Is everything OK?' in our Don’t be a Bystander campaign.

Working with survivors is integral to our delivery. We want those with lived experience to have a voice in the development and delivery of policy, funding and legislation. That is why we will be piloting a national survivor panel next year and undertaking more work on what a survivor engagement framework should look like.

Welsh Government continues to fund the Live Fear Free website and helpline. These provide 24-hour confidential support, information and advice to women, men and children experiencing abuse. It is also there for concerned others and for professionals working with victims and survivors. Men are supported through the Dyn project and men's helpline. We are working with the national advisers and key stakeholders to develop national indicators that will be measures of progress against the purposes of the Act. We will consult on these by the end of the year and will publish the final indicators by May 2019.

We have provided guidance to support local health boards and local authorities to publish their first local strategies. Our national advisers are reviewing these and will feed back on how these can improve delivery. Earlier this month, the First Minister announced that he would commission an expert-led review into refuge provision and sexual violence services in Wales. The review will look to take the best of the international approaches to inform a made-in-Wales model of support for victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse.

Violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence are horrifyingly prevalent, not only in Wales, but across the world. Our legislation is groundbreaking, but nothing will change overnight; these issues are too deeply entrenched. We are making progress, however, and I want the progress that has been made over the past three years since the Act was introduced to be recognised. I am determined that Wales will realise its ambition to be the safest place for women in Europe. Diolch.