Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:49 pm on 7 December 2022.
I mean, we're obviously looking very closely at the reviews, and we've looked at the review carried out by Josh MacAlister in England, and many of the conclusions that he comes to are things that we are already doing here. So, we're certainly looking at what other reviews are doing, and that's causing part of our thinking. But, just to reiterate, our approach in Wales is rights based, unlike elsewhere in the UK, from the appointment of the Children's Commissioner for Wales, first established under the Care Standards Act 2000, to the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, which sets out our commitment in Wales to children's rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and more recently to the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 and the removal of the defence of reasonable punishment. Wales has taken a distinctive, progressive and highly successful approach to promoting the welfare and well-being of our children and young people.
Similarly, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 provides us with mechanisms to support safeguarding arrangements that are not replicated elsewhere. For example, the Act established the national independent safeguarding board, which is now in its second term. The legislation enabled the creation of the whole-Wales safeguarding procedures, implemented in 2019. So, our approach has been strategic for a number of years, and, of course, we have kept our services under constant review. And we do have the evidence to take us forward. As I said last week, I gave you all examples of all the reports and things that we have done to look into this type of situation.