Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:24 pm on 9 June 2021.
Thank you, Laura Anne Jones, for those comments, and I absolutely agree that the children we're talking about are some of the most vulnerable children who need care and support, and should not suffer. The Welsh Government is committed to those vulnerable children having the best standards of care possible.
As I said in my statement, these allegations are being investigated, so we're not in a position to make any comment yet, because an investigation is ongoing at the moment. But I can reiterate that the Welsh Government will be publishing the reducing restrictive practices framework, and that'll be in July—next month—2021. So, that's coming very soon, and that will promote measures to appropriately reduce restrictive practices in childcare, education, health and social care settings. And we will support work to promote implementation across all those sectors. And the guidance is intended to ensure that those who work with children and adults across services share a common framework of principles and expectations, informed by an approach that actively promotes human rights and person-centred support. There has been a consultation about the restrictive practices, and I'm looking forward to that being published in July 2021.
So, obviously, CIW does report regularly on these settings, including Tŷ Coryton. We do have a culture of encouraging whistleblowers, and I think it's very important that that is reiterated and that allegations that are made are taken very seriously. I can absolutely assure her that these allegations are being looked into very seriously. They're being looked into by Cardiff safeguarding scheme, and CIW is working very closely with the local authority, with the commissioning and safeguarding teams, and the service is now in Children's Commissioning Consortium Cymru's—known as '4Cs'—escalating concerns process. So that is the position at the moment, and Orbis is not admitting any further children to the service at the moment. But I don't think I can really go much further as this is all being investigated at the moment.