6. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: The Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 7 December 2021.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:02, 7 December 2021

Diolch yn fawr, Laura Anne Jones, and thank you for responding in such a constructive and positive way to my statement. I'm glad that you have repeated that appalling statistic in my statement, the fact that 115 women have been killed by men so far this year and that domestic abuse is the biggest killer of women aged 19 to 44 in the UK. We have to repeat that statistic to remind us that it's endemic and we have to make that change.

I did want to just mention in terms of schools, because I've responded quite a bit about the relationships and sexuality education, the response to the Estyn report coming forward from the education Minister, working very closely, not just myself, but also the Deputy Minister for Social Services in terms of children's safeguarding. But I think I also want to acknowledge the Wales police schools programme, which you may all be aware of. We've supported that; again, it's not devolved, policing, but we support the Wales police schools programme. We invest £1.98 million each year and that's matched by the four police forces, and actually, they've broadened the scope of what they address when they come into schools, and you'll know how many pupils respond very positively to the Wales schools programme. So, now, the core programme includes domestic abuse, bullying, online safety, sexting, child sexual exploitation, consent; a very balanced programme within primary and secondary schools. We're reviewing the programme to see how we can move that forward, and also adapting it to respond to the concerns raised by the Everyone's Invited website. Again, this is about the work that we can do in schools; we've got a real opportunity in Wales with our new curriculum. I also want to say that Amanda Blakeman, deputy chief constable, and also deputy police and crime commissioner Eleri Thomas are assuring us that they're going to ensure that the schools police programme is actually geared to responding particularly to the Everyone's Invited website and report, which of course now Estyn's responding to, and the Minister will be responding to their report in due course.