1. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that pupils are protected from harassment in schools? OQ56975

We have a range of guidance and support to ensure the safety of children and young people. I've also commissioned Estyn to conduct a review into peer-on-peer sexual harassment in education settings, and the findings will play an important role in supporting settings and in informing Welsh Government policy.

Thank you for that, Minister. The Everyone’s Invited website, where pupils are able to anonymously report abuse and harassment, has shone a light on a significant problem. More than 90 schools in Wales have been named in the online campaign, but the reality is likely to include far more. The Everyone’s Invited testimonies are deeply upsetting, with some pupils saying girls as young as 11 are being pressured into sending nudes or receiving unwanted explicit images from boys. We know that Ofsted concluded its review in England that sexual harassment has become normalised for young people, and I’m pleased, as the Minister has said and acted, with Estyn conducting their report into the matter. In preparation for the findings, what measures and resources are the Minister preparing to put in place so that the findings can be put into practice as quickly as possible?

I thank the Member for that important supplementary, and I share with her—. I was very saddened and very concerned to read the testimony on the Everyone’s Invited website, and any form of harassment or indeed abuse is totally unacceptable. I know that we will all want that message to be really clearly sent from this Chamber.

We’ve introduced measures already in advance of the report from Estyn. A number of the items identified in the Ofsted report are interventions which are already taking place in Wales. In addition to those which were already in place, I wrote to each of the schools identified on the Everyone’s Invited website. But I want to echo the point which the Member made, and it’s a very important point—we absolutely must not assume that those schools are the only schools in which this activity may be taking place, and a letter has gone to each school in Wales to identify the steps that they're taking to safeguard their learners. In addition to that, officials in my department are working, both with local authorities and with individual schools, to identify a lead in relation to relationships and sex education in professional learning, which will help support advances in this area as we receive our report from Estyn. And in addition to that, as well as commissioning additional resources in this area to support schools and learners, we've been working to make sure that the resources that are available, and are, actually, in many cases, very widely used, are as accessible as possible, both to schools and to learners.

And, finally, there are, of course, a range of existing helplines that any victim of any harassment or abuse is able to make contact with, which provides very specific and tailored advice. But, as I say, we'll have a further body of information in the Estyn report, which will help us shape policy beyond that.

Can you advise the Senedd of action being taken to promote respect and compassion in the school place, given the vital role that both play in promoting well-being amongst learners, and in shaping confident learners who are not blinded by shame later in life? And would you commit to also reporting to the Senedd any appraisals of the benefits that universal free school meals may have in terms of eliminating embarrassment and shame within the school place?

I thank the Member for that important question. As part of the effective delivery of the RSE part of the new curriculum, and as well as the work that schools will be doing to make a reality of the health and well-being area of learning and experience that's an integral part of the curriculum, that requires specialist expertise, time and resources to ensure that the kind of supportive environment that the Member is referring to in his question is available in school for our learners, so that their confidence and their sense of themselves is supported.

In March of this year, as the Member will know, we published statutory guidance for schools on developing the whole-school approach to the well-being of learners and, indeed, in the wider school community. Part of that is about supporting our young people to build resilience through developing trusting relationships in the school environment and beyond, and also to support teachers, so that when they encounter issues that may be beyond their immediate competency, they have the support in order to be able to deal with that. As the Member is aware, there's a piece of work already under way in relation to the extension of eligibility for free school meals. I would be very keen to share with Members in the Senedd our advances in that space in due course.