5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Services: The Children (Wales) Act

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:02 pm on 22 March 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 4:02, 22 March 2022

Yes. There was a YouGov survey yesterday that showed that 68 per cent of the public in England thought that this legislation should be introduced in England, and I think that you'll find that this is the way the mood is going. There was a time when physical punishment was accepted, but now, in all our surveys it shows that younger parents, younger families don't even consider physically punishing their children. In fact, most of them think it's illegal already, before we passed this Act. So, I really think that you, as I said, are on the wrong side of history.

But then, to go on to some of the other specific questions you asked: from 2016 to March 2022, the cost was £2.5 million and that was over six years, which I think is very reasonable, and the proposed expenditure for the next three years is £3.44 million, and that will cover the awareness raising and engagement and the out-of-court parenting support. I think what you fail to realise, Janet, is that this is the result of a huge amount of collaborative working, that we set up an implementation group when this law was passed and we worked in that implementation group so closely with the police and with the Crown Prosecution Service, so that we produced something that is a joint product, because that's how we want to do things in this Government; we want to work with our partners. So, we worked together to have the out-of-court disposal scheme, which I think is absolutely crucial because we want to give all the help we possibly can to parents, and we do. We think physical punishment is wrong, but along with making it illegal, we are there giving additional support to parents, and I said in my introduction how much money we're giving to the local authorities in order to help support parents, and that is additional money. So, I think that, as I said, every penny is worth it. And, you started off by really saying, 'Why on earth did we introduce this Bill?' We introduced this Bill to make sure that children have as good lives as they possibly can.