Children's Rights

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 16 July 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:41, 16 July 2019

I thank Janet for that question and for drawing attention to the children's commissioner's 'The Right Way' document. It does, I think, provide a useful framework to support public services to embed children's rights in the way that they go about their responsibilities. I'm alert to the point that she makes about brass bands. I've already had an opportunity to discuss it with the Minister for Education. It's a matter of striking the right balance in just the way that the questioner put it. Of course we want to make sure that children are properly protected, that the right provision is in place, that when children are entrusted to the care of any organisation, parents can be confident that those children will be safe and properly looked after. But it does need to be proportionate to the task in hand.

Brass bands play a really important part in so many communities here in Wales, and children who take part in them get a fantastic experience as a result. Nothing that the Welsh Government wants to do is about putting extra barriers in the path of children's participation. It's why we want to make sure we've learnt from local authorities, and we will definitely be keeping a close look on the arrangements to make sure that they do what we want them to do—to help to keep children safe— and don't do what we don't want them to do, which is to be a barrier to children taking part in such a rich part of Wales's heritage.