Thank you, Llywydd. It's worth waiting for, if I may say so—[Laughter.]

5. Will the Minister make a statement on the safeguarding of children who attend private schools in Wales? OAQ55064

Diolch yn fawr, Llyr. Safeguarding children in all education settings is of paramount importance. Independent schools must exercise their functions in a way that safeguards and promotes the welfare of their pupils, and they must comply with the 'Keeping learners safe' guidance to meet regulatory standards.

Thank you for your response. I know that you're very aware of the situation that arose at Ruthin School in my region. And before saying any more, I think we should thank Kelly Williams, the Daily Post journalist who did so much to expose the situation there and to bring it to the attention of the wider public, and also to help bring matters to a head. And now that some of those heads that needed to roll have rolled, we need to look forward, of course, and work with the school, but we also need to learn wider lessons from this terrible episode that we encountered at Ruthin.

And it became clear, of course, that independent schools aren't subject to the same rules as local authority schools, and that's of a huge concern, particularly when things, of course, go wrong. Now, some of the things that have been suggested to me that need addressing include making sure that those who teach in independent schools should be registered with the Education Workforce Council. We need to look at ways of ensuring more rigid requirements on councils of management, or governing bodies as most of us would describe them. We really do need representatives who are appointed by local authorities. We need to make sure that there are representatives of teachers and parents and pupils on those bodies. We need to extend the powers of Estyn so that they can remove governors and senior leadership when there are issues around professional concerns.

Now, not all of this is devolved and I appreciate that you wouldn't, maybe, be able to address all of those issues, but I just want to understand what the Welsh Government is now doing to address some of the deficiencies that are clearly in the system so that we can make sure that the experience at Ruthin School isn't one that can happen anywhere else in future. 

Can I thank Llyr for raising these issues today and thank him also—? We have been keeping in close touch in recent months, and I know that you have been taking this very seriously in your own region, and I'm grateful for your interest and your diligence in continuing to pursue these issues, Llyr. 

You are right, the situation at Ruthin raises some fundamental points about the regulation of the independent school sector. I hope that you will be pleased, Llyr, when I tell you that there are a number of issues that we are looking at at present and hope to make progress on. 

Firstly, we are already out to consultation on changing the regulations that will require an independent school to notify its local authority of the pupils who are on the register at that school so that we know exactly who is attending that school. We are also actively looking at the requirement for staff in independent schools to register with the Education Workforce Council, going forward, as well as enhancing the EWC's powers to suspend registrants who they have concerns about. Those pieces of work are live and are actively being taken forward at the moment and I think they will take us one step forward in providing the safeguards that, I'm sure, across the Chamber, we would all want to see in all of our schools, but in this case, independent schools. 

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? 

I am more than happy to look at that specific point, as to the relevance of domestic abuse legislation with regard to schools, but let me be absolutely clear and repeat once again: we already have very comprehensive 'Keeping learners safe' guidance. That is to be complied with by all schools, whether they are maintained or independent. The inability of an independent school to satisfy me of that, then, ultimately, we have the sanction of withdrawing the registration of that school, but I'm more than happy to look at the point that the Member raises. 

Question 6 [OAQ55099] is withdrawn. Question 7, Neil Hamilton.