Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:10 pm on 26 October 2022.
On the points that Jack Sargeant made, I'd firstly like to thank the petitioner for the important points raised in the petition, but perhaps it would be helpful if I just help to clarify why the committee did not feel able to extend our recommendations to primary schools. We know, and we heard in our inquiry time and again, that sexual harassment is likely to begin in primary schools, but the evidence we gathered over the course of the inquiry did not give a clear enough picture of the prevalence or the nature of sexual harassment in primary schools to make a well-informed recommendation to the Welsh Government about how to address it. The committee felt that addressing sexual harassment in the primary sector presents many different challenges to addressing it in the secondary sector, so we didn't feel confident as a committee in extending our recommendations, which are based on research on secondary-age children, to children who are much younger. So, I hope that helps to clarify why our recommendations didn't include primary school children, but, obviously, we're really pleased that that work is going on.
We heard from Joyce about, and the Minister also mentioned, the voice of young people. We did hear from young people about the solutions and what they felt needed to change. We received over 100 responses to our online survey, and those views really did shape our recommendations. The committee's inquiry also drew on the many personal anonymised testimonies on the Everyone's Invited website, and Estyn's primary evidence, which was the foundation of our inquiry. So, just to give an idea—you know, we really want to put young people's voices at the heart of everything we do.
So, I'd like to thank everybody who contributed to our inquiry. The written and oral evidence we received from everybody, the academics, charities, schools and other public bodies, was exceptionally high quality. I'd also like to place on record my thanks to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language and to the Minister for Social Justice for their constructive engagement with our inquiry and their positive response to our report. I'm really pleased that the Minister's been able to answer some of those questions put by outsiders as well to our recommendations. That's really positive; thank you.
I also say in the Chair's foreword to the report that we've asked a lot of the Welsh Government, and we have. We've asked a lot of the Welsh Government because of all the testimonies from young Welsh people on the Everybody's Invited website, submitted by pupils of schools across Wales and beyond, because of what children in schools across Wales told Estyn, and because what children in schools across Britain have been telling anyone who asks them for years and years. Schools can't be held responsible for sexual harassment. We must take responsibility for denormalising the harmful behaviours and assumptions that underpin it. But they are ideal places for that process of denormalisation to begin, and are sites for early intervention and effective, high-quality support for learners who have been harassed. My fellow committee members and I will pay close attention to the Welsh Government's implementation of the recommendations in our report to do everything we can to make sure that happens.
I've saved my biggest thanks for last. To the many young people across Wales who responded to our survey: thank you for sharing your views on what needed to change. To Ebonie, Glenn, Jake and Sophie and your lecturers: thank you for your hard work and expertise in analysing our engagement responses and producing a video summarising those findings. We appreciated your recommendations to us, and, really, all Members should see that and share it as widely as possible. As Laura Jones said in her contribution, they really challenged us when we had some ideas, so we know that their voices are so important in the work that goes on through Welsh Government now. And to our Welsh Youth Parliamentarian Ffion Williams, who so bravely, articulately and convincingly spoke to ITV Wales about her own experiences of sexual harassment in an interview following the launch of our report.
To children and young people across Wales more generally: I know this isn’t the end of the conversation, and that change will not happen overnight. But you have every right to expect that we, as your elected representatives, will do more to prevent sexual harassment in schools and colleges. It is not normal, it is not okay and it has to stop. Diolch.