1. What resources and guidance is the Welsh Government providing to local authorities and other statutory agencies to identify potential child safeguarding concerns, following the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in Solihull? TQ586

Could I ask the Deputy Minister what steps are being taken to address recruitment challenges in child protection services and to ensure that partner agencies are properly equipped to identify possible safeguarding issues? Can I then give the background—

No. The Minister will answer that bit and then you can come back to it. 

I do apologise.

Thank you very much. In terms of the workforce, I'm sure that the Member is aware that there is extensive training for the social care workforce in Wales. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 introduced strengthened and robust safeguarding arrangements for Wales. It established a national independent safeguarding board, and regional safeguarding children boards, to support evidence-based safeguarding practice across agencies and across Wales. These arrangements are now well established. Statutory guidance has been issued under the Act, and we do have consistent evidence-based safeguarding practice across agencies and across Wales, with opportunities for practitioners to update their skills.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I raised, yesterday, the very upsetting case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, an eight-year-old boy in Solihull, who was subjected to months of physical abuse by his father and his partner. As I said yesterday, we must not forget that they were the people who killed him. And services, as we know, are being reviewed and we're unclear of any outcomes from that.

But child protection and safeguarding has been particularly challenging during COVID-19, especially during the early lockdown period. As you'll know, Deputy Minister, the number of children in receipt of edge-of-care support on the child protection register and looked-after children has increased in recent years, at a time when local authorities are facing significant staffing challenges. I'm aware that the Government issued new all-Wales practice guidelines in July 2020 for all practitioners working with children under the age of 18.

So, may I also just finish—just thinking about any potential future COVID restrictions and some current ones on entering people's homes, what steps will you be taking to ensure that greater face-to-face contact can be maintained with those children and families who require that additional support? And may I also ask whether the Welsh Government is knowledgeable about the number of child protection vacancies in front-line posts across Wales? Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Diolch. Thank you very much for those very important questions. We will do all that we can to ensure that there is face-to-face contact with children and with families in another potential lockdown. During the previous lockdown period, we are aware that there was not face-to-face contact with many families, although it did continue with some families. Sadly, the position, really, is that we can never be sure about—. It's unlikely that we will ever end the abuse of children by those who care for them and keep them safe, but we can do everything possible to ensure that practitioners can identify children at risk of abuse and understand their duty to report children at risk and that they're equipped with the skills and knowledge to investigate and to respond to concerns that a child is at risk of harm. And I think we do depend, in periods such as lockdown periods, even more on the ears and voices of people in the community, because, inevitably, some of the safeguards such as going to school are not there.

So, it has been a very difficult period for children and their families. The Government has done all it possibly can to help; we have certainly put additional money into the local authorities. In addition to the revenue support grant, we've given generous funding from the hardship fund to local government to help support social care, and we've also recently put in £40 million of recovery funding and an additional £42 million for the winter system and other pressures, again for the social care workforce. We've also put in money for a family intervention fund to support child and family well-being through a mixture of practical and direct support. So, we are putting funding in and the support to social workers continues. But obviously, in any lockdown period, this is a very difficult time for all families.

I'm grateful to the Minister for her answers. One of the issues that has been troubling me for some time, as we've come through this pandemic, has been the disappearance of children from education, and the significant increase in the number of children being educated from home. We know from tragic history that, when children are taken into the home to be educated, we can lose contact with those children and that some terrible things can and have happened to children in those circumstances. Would the Government, both the social services department and the education department, consider an investigation into the growth of elective home education, and consider how contact can be maintained with children who are being educated at home, and also review the law governing home education? I have very, very significant concerns that the growth of home education is going to lead to a growth of abuse and the potential for further tragedies in future. 

I thank Alun Davies for that very important question, and this is an issue that I have worked on closely—and am working on closely—with the Minister for education, because, obviously, it's an issue that concerns both departments. We are developing proposals that will further strengthen the existing framework around elective home education to help ensure that children who are educated at home do get a suitable education to begin with and that their well-being needs are met. So, we are developing a framework, and the proposals that we have include new statutory guidance for local authorities and a wider package of support for home-educated children to enhance the learning experience and development opportunities, and, also, a handbook that will help and give information to home educators. 

This year, we've made £1.7 million of funding available to support local authorities with administrative costs relating to home education, as well as to fund education resources and activities for home-educated learners. This is a unique fund to Wales, and I think that does answer his questions about having contact with children who are educated at home and who wish to make wider contact outside of the home. So, the Minister for education will be taking forward the proposals for the new statutory guidance in due course, but it is an issue that I'm working on very closely with him.

I note in Estyn's annual report that Ceredigion had very interesting outreach work with home-educated students, which enabled a lot of those children to be reintegrated into schools.

I'm very pleased that you're giving additional money to family support services for this really, really difficult subject, but I also just wanted to highlight the fact that Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was not in school at all, and that on the day before he was killed he was taken to the hairdressers by the woman who killed him, where he was made to stand with his face to the wall for up to seven hours. Therefore, I agree with you: it is up to the ears and eyes of the community to identify and speak out when child cruelty is obviously taking place, such as in that situation, because, at the end of the day, family support services, would you agree, cannot be everywhere all of the time? It is everybody's duty to speak up for children's rights.

Absolutely right, the community have to be the eyes and ears, because it is not possible for social services officers and departments to be there and to see everything. So, it is incumbent on all of us, if we see something we're concerned about, to act on it.

Obviously, the review that has been set up by the UK Government will come forward with proposals, I'm sure, and we will look very closely at what those proposals are and see how they will help us in Wales. It is a very wide-ranging review, and for the Member's information it's led jointly by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills; the Care Quality Commission; Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services; and HM Inspectorate of Probation. So, it's looking at all of this wide range of agencies. We will look very closely at the result, but, yes, it's all of our duties to look out for any concerns and to follow up on any concerns that we may have.  

Thank you, Deputy Minister.