Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 18 June 2019.
Well, I thank Delyth Jewell for this really important question, particularly given the fact that we have that recent case, the Sally Challen case, bringing this insidious topic of coercive control to the forefront of national news.
I think, as you say, training is key. It's part of our national strategy. Through the national training framework, we have trained over 142,000 professionals in the public sector workforce in Wales, and it is at different levels. We've got over 3,000 professionals being trained in our early intervention and prevention training, 'Ask and Act', where identifying coercive control is a key aspect, but the national training framework has six different groups to ensure that we reach out to those who are nearest to women particularly who are at risk, catching the widest audience in terms of group 1, raising awareness of the violence against women and domestic abuse legislation, and moving to those professionals with frequent contact with potential victims to those whose specialism is tackling violence against women, and also to leaders as well. We are currently planning regional workshops for public sector leaders—those with commissioning and planning responsibilities—and we also have a strength in leadership series of films, which has been viewed over 7,800 times. So, training-the-trainer training has been completed by 20 professionals in mid and West Wales.
I appreciate that this is about reaching out to the professionals who are at the forefront and the sharp end of being able to address this issue, and I'm very glad that you brought this to our attention to show what is being done in terms of the national strategy delivering on our pioneering legislation.