The recent Extended Child Practice Review by the North Wales Safeguarding Board highlighted serious failures in safeguarding practice and multi-agency coordination. We will address these failures, and ensure that everyone working with and caring for children understands their responsibilities and acts quickly when safeguarding concerns arise.
Accepting and committing to act on all of the Review’s recommendations, we will:
- Ensure children’s voices are central to safeguarding decisions, including when they have not made a formal disclosure but show signs they may need help.
- Develop legislation which introduces new duties to report child sexual abuse, in line with the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
- Introduce new national safeguarding standards so all services working with children follow the same clear expectations.
- Ensure that both learners and educators are fully informed on how to recognise and report on the signs of grooming through professional training and RSE.
- Set consistent national procedures for responding to concerns, ensuring timely information-sharing and coordinated decision-making across relevant agencies.
- Strengthen leadership and governance, with explicit safeguarding duties for governing bodies and senior school leaders, and independent scrutiny of how they meet them.
- Create a consistent national approach to learning from safeguarding concerns, so lessons lead to improvements across Wales, not just within individual services.
We will ensure safeguarding and educational standards are consistently upheld in home schooling, and review school governance to ensure our schools are effectively and transparently managed.
All learners in Wales will receive comprehensive education in digital and online safety, media literacy, and how to identify mis- and disinformation.