Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 1 February 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:34, 1 February 2022

Well, Llywydd, I agree, of course, that, particularly in an area like this, it will always be much better to prevent harm from happening than to try to help children to deal with the consequences of harm. I think the Member's question would be more helpful if he relied a good deal less on assertion and provided a little more evidence to underpin what he had to say, because I heard no evidence at all in the first part of his supplementary question, just a series of unsupported assertions.

In terms of trauma-informed practice, well, of course, we have the adverse childhood incident programme, established by my former colleague Carl Sargeant, which has done so much in Wales to make sure that front-line workers in the field of child protection, but far more than that, in housing, and in health, and in other front-line services, have that trauma-informed approach to the work that they do. So, on the substantive points that the Member makes—prevention on the one hand, trauma-informed practice on the other—I agree with what he said this afternoon.