Good afternoon, First Minister. 

4. What steps is the Government taking to support local authorities with the growing number of children who are subject to a child protection plan? OQ58156

We're providing additional funding to local authorities to safely divert cases from the child protection register using procedures that were developed in partnership with safeguarding boards. The Welsh Government works closely with those regional partnership boards, and with local authorities themselves, to strengthen and improve safeguarding practices across Wales.

Diolch, Brif Weinidog. I want to state firstly my thanks to all of those working in social services and social care who have worked, and continue to work, tirelessly to protect the most vulnerable in our society, especially throughout the pandemic. But I do want to raise again the need, in my view, for an independent inquiry following the terrible, tragic death of Logan Mwangi, looking at our children's social services across Wales. This is happening in England, following the terrible deaths of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and one-year-old Star Hobson. The author of the independent inquiry in England has said that failure to tackle major problems in children's services would lead to record numbers of youngsters entering care. As you will know, there are more children in care in Wales than in England or Scotland, and children in Wales are more likely to enter care than their counterparts in England or Scotland. Could I ask you, First Minister, to consider that children and families in Wales, and the workforce, deserve the detailed consideration that has been afforded in Scotland and in England through an independent inquiry? Diolch yn fawr iawn.

I thank the Member for that important question. She makes a series of points that absolutely deserve to be thought through carefully. I've said many, many times on the floor of the Senedd that the rate at which children are taken away from their families in Wales is unsustainable and that the gap between the rate at which children in Wales are taken into public care continues to accelerate away from the rate in other parts of the United Kingdom. The result is, and this is the reason why it is unsustainable, that local authorities find all the money they have for children's services taken up in looking after children who they have now direct responsibility for and nothing left to help families through difficult times where a bit of investment in preventative work could have helped those families to stay together.

On the specific issue of another inquiry, I certainly don't think this is the moment to commission such an inquiry. In the case that the Member highlighted from Bridgend, the serious case review is still to report. There are other cases in Wales before the courts still where court hearings are yet to be concluded. So, I don't think this is the moment to make a decision about an inquiry of the sort that Jane Dodds has advocated, and I think there would be other important questions that we would need to think through as well.

Are we short of advice, Llywydd? In 2018, we had the care crisis review here in Wales. In 2019, we had the Nuffield Foundation's 'Born into care Wales' report. In 2020, we had the public law working group's report into the way that public law proceedings can be improved in Wales. Last year, we had the legacy report of the improving outcomes for children ministerial advisory group chaired by David Melding, and this year we've continued to receive the thematic reports of the Wales Centre for Public Policy into looked-after children. This is not an area where anybody could argue that we are short of independent advice that has looked across the whole practice landscape here in Wales.

Are we confident, Llywydd, about what we might learn from the huge effort that would have to go into an inquiry of the sort that would do justice to the points that Jane Dodds has raised? We know we have to tackle issues of recruitment and retention in this workforce. We know that we have to invest in prevention and de-escalation in the system. We know that regional working is an important component in the answer to the challenges that children's services face today. So, I think it is incumbent on people who argue for a public inquiry to articulate where they think the gaps in our knowledge are to be found and where they think we would learn something that we don't already know about the challenge facing those services and the answers that have already been devised to meet those challenges.

First Minister, we saw a massive rise in the number of children on a protection register even before the pandemic, so Lord only knows what the situation is truly like now. Because we know that social services are under tremendous strain, short staffed and overworked, we simply don't know what's being missed or who's being missed. We do know that children's social care in Wales is in crisis. Those are not my words, but the words of Professor Donald Forrester, director of CASCADE and an expert in the field. He and many other colleagues, alongside us in the Chamber, are calling for an urgent review of children's social services. So, First Minister, will you now listen to the advice and heed the calls for a full independent review of children's social care in Wales, just like every other nation is doing? England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all doing it. Because we can't keep burying our heads in the sand and doing nothing until another child dies of abuse or neglect. Thank you.

Had the Member been listening to my previous answer, he would have heard the answer to his question. If we are to have an inquiry, then it would be helpful, wouldn't it, to establish some basic accuracy in the facts that people put forward. It is simply not the case, Llywydd, as the Member suggested, that the number of children on child protection registers was growing in Wales in the period prior to the pandemic. In fact, the opposite is actually the truth. It would help a little, wouldn't it, if people took the trouble to establish a few basic facts before they offered us their opinions, because the numbers were reducing, not growing. That is the fact of the matter. Numbers have recovered post pandemic to where they were before the pandemic began. So, when Jane Dodds referred to the growing number of children who are subject to a child protection plan, she was referring to a recovery in those numbers. The number is not above today where it was prior to the pandemic. So, if we're going to have an inquiry, then I think a bit more light and a little bit less heat would probably assist in making it a worthwhile exercise.