Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 16 June 2021.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 1:34, 16 June 2021

Diolch, Llywydd. I'll try and do justice to the questions, because it's a very sensitive topic, in the way that the questions are asked. I welcome the fact that you welcome the statement that issued this morning. I feel that this is a cross-Government priority, in the sense that it engages a number of portfolios. Because some of the underlying causes of the behaviours that we have seen demonstrated in that very painful report, and some of the very searing remarks and testimony, if I can use that language, in the Everyone's Invited report and material, those are behaviours and those are experiences that exist outside educational settings as well. So, I think it's very important that there's a cross-Government approach to how we can respond.

I just want to be clear that, in requesting that Estyn should conduct a review, I am not in any way suggesting that action should await the outcome of that review. So, I just want to be quite clear about that. And there are some practical steps, which I set out in the statement, which are firstly about understanding whether the resources that are currently available are sufficient, are sufficiently easily accessible, and, if they aren't, obviously we will do something about that. Some of the resources that have already been issued, including some comparatively recently, have been well used, have been well accessed at least, and what I want to understand is whether there's more we can do to provide training around that to schools. As you say in the question, there is a significant amount of material that is already available. I want to make sure it's as easily available as it can be, and I want to encourage people to use the various helplines that the Welsh Government and others already fund in order to be able to support people to come forward with their concerns and their personal stories, if I can use that term.

I do want to say I think there is a very clear message for us here in the new curriculum about how fundamental it is to make sure that our learners have the kind of relationship and sexuality education that we envisage for them. We're consulting on the code for that at the moment, and I was pleased to hear the children's commissioner acknowledge over the weekend that she feels as well that the curriculum provides an underpinning for helping us tackle this question, certainly within a school setting.