Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru

The National Assembly for Wales

 

CABINET STATEMENT

TITLE:               SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND PARENTS IN WALES

 

BY:                   JANE HUTT, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES

 

DATE:                23 OCTOBER 2002 

I wish to make a statement on supporting children and parents to find positive alternatives to physical punishment.  I am pleased to be able to do so during Parents’ Week.

 

The recent observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded that current legislation in the UK does not comply with the principles of the UN Convention.  It recommended that corporal punishment in families and all other contexts should be prohibited in law, concluding that action should be taken to promote non-violent forms of discipline, respect for children's rights to human dignity, including through public education programmes.  I shall write to John Denham expressing the support of the Welsh Assembly Government for these views.  We were acknowledged by the UN Committee for endorsing the UN Convention in our framework for children and young people.

 

I also wish to look for ways in which we can build on our current actions within the scope of our devolved powers. Whatever the legal position, I believe that our approach needs to be based on support for positive parenting.

 

The key is to support parents and others who care for children and to promote positive relationships in families. We must seek to change social attitudes so that physical punishment of children is no longer considered acceptable, no matter what context. 

 

We all know that bringing up children can be highly demanding.  We must ensure that parents and carers have the information and advice they need on effective ways of addressing their children's behaviour.  These should include positive alternatives to physical discipline.

 

Our approach in Wales needs to build upon the action we are undertaking over this issue.  Approving Minimum Standards for Childminders means that physical punishment is now banned in every form of public care and all regulated children's services.  It is also unlawful to inflict corporal punishment on pupils in maintained, non-maintained and nursery schools in Wales.

 

Many Sure Start schemes in Wales are supporting local parenting and advice initiatives.  I wish to see widespread development of such programmes.  The unified fund, Cymorth, that will incorporate Sure Start funding from next year, will receive over £21million extra over the next three years to help achieve this.  This is closely linked to our measures to tackle child poverty, improve access to play and childcare provision and widening participation for parents in employment and lifelong learning.

 

We need to build upon this foundation and examine other policy areas through which this issue can be addressed, such as aspects of the personal and social education framework in schools that cover family and social relationships.

 

I also believe that the physical punishment of children has wider general relevance in respect of violence in relationships. The Assembly's Working Group on Domestic Violence and Violence against Women, has recommended a widened definition of Domestic Violence, to include violence in relationships between parents and children.  I am writing to the Home Office and to Ministers in the other Devolved Administrations in support of this change.

 

Many members across all parties attended the workshop organised in the Assembly in July by the Children are Unbeatable Cymru Campaign. I hope the Campaign will continue its efforts to raise awareness on this issue and to promote a wide public debate on ways in which physical punishment can be reduced.

 

We heard Mali Nilsson speak of the experience in Sweden of introducing a ban into their Parents' Code, a civil law code governing family law. This was coupled with a universal and widespread campaign of information and advice. Over the twenty-year period since the ban, no parent has been criminalised and the use of physical punishment has decreased dramatically.

 

We can learn important lessons from the Swedish model, to help us achieve the necessary changes here in Wales.  In this context, I am announcing today that the Assembly Government, working with Children in Wales and the National Family and Parenting Institute, is developing a Parents' Code for Wales. The Code, though not based in legislation, will provide guidance on a range of issues around positive parenting and family relationships.

 

One of the key ways in which government can help to bring about social change is to set expectations which then shape behaviour.  Our Code will help in that way, too. As well as providing advice and assistance, it will embody a set of expectations about the way in which children are treated, contributing actively to the already-changing climate of opinion here in Wales. 

 

To this end we have provided £50,000 a year for a Parenting Support Project jointly run by the Institute and Children in Wales, which recruited a worker in June for a three-year period.  The first materials contributing to the Code will be produced in the spring of next year.

 

The Project is developing a Parenting Forum, Fforwm Magu Plant made up of statutory agencies including education, health and social services, voluntary organisations, parents' groups and Youth Offending Teams.  The Forum will build a network of organisations, working together to ensure that parents individually and in groups can access advice and information when it is needed. The group will support the development and effective application of the Parents' Code and consider ways of providing direct advice and support by phone.

 

The Welsh Assembly Government, in the steps I have described, has taken the first steps towards tackling the issue.  The experience of other countries shows that this is not a short term matter.  We need to begin by deciding that physical punishment is not an appropriate method for parents and carers to adopt in their relationships with children.  We long ago accepted that physical punishment of adults is inappropriate.  I believe those standards should be applied to our children.

 

This is an essential start to the process of debate and practical action that can lead to changes in thinking, attitude and behaviour in the way we bring up our children in Wales.