Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 12 February 2020.
Like Llyr Huws Gruffydd, I was also very concerned about the situation at Ruthin School, Minister, and I was very grateful for your very firm message in relation to the desirability of the leadership to change at that school in order for it to be able to continue to operate. I think it did make a difference and I think that that was the straw that finally broke the camel's back in terms of moving the principal of that school on. But, of course, as has already been mentioned, unfortunately, because of the regulations, that principal could easily pop up in another independent school somewhere else in Wales, unless there is a change to the requirement to register with the Education Workforce Council. Of course, it's not just teachers; it could be a senior manager, or anybody, indeed, on those sites.
One of the other issues that was exposed by this episode, of course, was the limitations of domestic abuse legislation also, because there were suggestions that there could have been an element of coercive control to some of the messages that had been exchanged with at least one pupil in that school, between the principal and the pupil. Can I ask whether you will be considering this more widely as a Welsh Government? And, if it's not already on your radar, in terms of being, perhaps, able to look at the law in respect of domestic abuse in particular, I do think that this needs to change. An independent school with boarders is effectively in loco parentis when those children are in its care, and yet the domestic abuse legislation doesn't seem to apply to a school as a corporate parent, which I think is inappropriate. So it clearly needs to be looked at. Is this something that you will look at with your Cabinet colleagues to see whether it can also be addressed, in addition to the good work that's already under way with regard to registration with the EWC?