Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 21 January 2020.
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?