2. Will the First Minister outline how the Welsh Government is tackling domestic abuse in Wales? OAQ54954

I thank the Member for that. We tackle domestic abuse through a range of initiatives informed by survivors. These include raising awareness and challenging attitudes through communications campaigns; training professionals; providing healthy relationships education; setting standards for working with perpetrators; and providing both revenue and capital funding to service providers.

Thank you for that answer. I know the Welsh Government has put in many different practices in relation to coercive control, which I welcome, and you will know, from the debate last week that we had on rape—the Plaid Cymru debate—I hosted an event with David and Sally Challen in the Senedd building. And what struck me was that many of the victims will just not know that some of the many forms of abuse that relate to coercive control is something that they don't identify in those relationships. And so trying to get to grips with that is something that—. When we had the police commissioners present they were saying that domestic abuse is an epidemic now and that coercive control-related incidents have risen exponentially within that particular police force. 

So, my question is, from that evening, we heard that the Freedom programme is very successful, will you be able to put that into schools? We know that it looks at belief systems of abusers and how they can change their attitudes.

And my second question is—. We had a roomful of people there, but we only had five or six men. Whether they are being abused or whether they are abusers, if they're not in the room they're not listening and they're not engaging in those processes. So, how do we make this a societal issue? 

And the third one is about how you can make sure that, when the current coercive control programme that you've got, as a Welsh Government, comes to an end, what are you going to do post that, so that we can make sure that we have people in these types of relationships in the future who are able to be supported and helped when they need to escape those relationships, but in a way that they can do with the support of society behind them? 

Well, Llywydd, I thank Bethan Sayed both for those questions and for the event that she hosted, which I know has attracted a lot of interest beyond the Assembly in learning from what was said and the question and answer session with David and Sally Challen. And it was said there, I know, that, for so many victims of coercive control the first step is to recognise that this is happening to them and to understand that this is just not a normal way that relationships are conducted. So, to take the specific questions in reverse order, the 'This is not Love. This is Control' communication campaign, which ran through last year, will have a successor. We will go on from there. It has certainly, we think, through evidence from police forces, seen a rise in reported cases of coercive control, suggesting that the awareness campaign is having an effect. But as the event here showed, raising awareness has to be the first step. I thought a very important point was made about how we broaden the conversation so that men as well as women are fully engaged in it, understand what is being debated and can be themselves, as Bethan said, victims of coercive control but also need to understand the part that they play in sustaining it in some relationships, or challenging it when it is seen.

As far as schools are concerned, then, of course, the new curriculum has a rounded approach to the way in which health, well-being and personal relationships are taught in our schools in an age-appropriate way, so that by the time young people are themselves involved in relationships, they are informed, they understand and, hopefully, are better equipped to be the sort of citizens we would like to see them be here in Wales.

I did attend the question and answer session with Sally and David Challen. Of course, coercive control also applies to children in terms of adults. Worryingly, analysis by the Children's Society has shown that around 85 per cent of sexual offences against children reported to the police in England and Wales do not result in any action taken against the perpetrator, and the figures they include are that 70 per cent of sexual offences against children under 13 are familial sexual offences; in other words, domestic or occurring within their family or home. How, therefore, do you respond to the call on the Welsh Government by the Children's Society to review the case for making the offer of debriefs following a child's return from a missing incident a statutory requirement, where there are frequently links between children going missing from home and their experience of sexual abuse or exploitation? They say this will result in improved intelligence gathering to help inform abuse and exploitation cases, young people being referred into services for support and in information sharing about at-risk children between the police and social care, noting that debrief is offered in England.

Llywydd, I think there are a number of different strands in that question. The Member began by rightly pointing out that children who are sexually exploited are more likely to have that occur to them within the home and with people they know than with strangers. Children who run away from residential care provided by the state are in a different position. They are vulnerable in a different sort of way and to a far wider range of potential perpetrators.

I am not aware of the very specific point in the Children's Society's advice. My understanding from the cases that I myself have dealt with is that when a young person runs away and are returned, they are almost always spoken to and their experiences explored with them. Whether that is a debrief interview in the sense of the Children's Society's report I'd need to look at in greater detail, and whether there is a case for making that statutory, when, as it would seem to me, it would simply be good practice on the part of any childcare social worker, to have explored with a young person on return what has happened to them in the interim, I'm happy to look at that as well.