'Clywch—Examination of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales into allegations of child sexual abuse in a school setting’

I made a written statement on 1 July in which I welcomed the Clywch report. I said then that our response would be in actions, not just words; that action has already begun. This is a deeply disturbing report. We are considering it with the utmost seriousness to ensure that lessons are learned. The abuses that the commissioner finds John Owen to have committed against pupils are shocking. Pupils, parents, the community and the teaching profession all have reason to feel betrayed.
Systems designed to protect children failed. The commissioner concludes that certain adults in authority failed to protect children from abuse, failed to deal appropriately with their allegations, failed to get justice for the children, and failed to take steps to prevent the possibility of further abuse.
In my written statement, I outline six themes from the commissioner’s report that seem to me to be fundamental: the need for school staff to have the skills and confidence to detect signs of possible abuse and take action, the need to share information within and between organisations, the need for robust systems that are understood and followed, the need to address issues about the teaching of drama and drama exams, the need to protect children working in the media, and the need to ensure that children can access independent, confidential help and advice.
Those whom the system let down at Rhydfelen—and those in schools today as pupils or teachers—need effective action that helps prevent anything like this from reoccurring. Responding to the Clywch report is a major strand of work within my department. My officials have already established a steering group with officials from Jane Hutt’s department to work up the Government’s response, which we will debate in this Chamber in September.
The due process of considering and testing each of the commissioner’s recommendations must be allowed for. However, we are, at the same time, already taking action that this Assembly should welcome. The Children Bill provides an immediate opportunity. Jane Hutt and I have written to Charles Clarke proposing that examination boards be added to the list of bodies that the Bill requires to have regard for the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The Bill will already strengthen child protection arrangements by placing area child protection committees on a statutory basis as local safeguarding children boards. The responsibilities of local authorities, the police, the probation service, local health boards, NHS trusts, secure training centres and prisons to co-operate to safeguard children will be clearer than ever. That runs alongside Gwenda Thomas’s review of the progress made to date in safeguarding vulnerable children in Wales.
One prominent recommendation from the commissioner concerns establishing independent schools disciplinary tribunals. I am making arrangements to bring together the parties identified by the commissioner in recommendation 21.9 during the summer recess to discuss the way forward on that recommendation. In the meantime, we are already taking action to support school governing bodies. The joint National Employers’ Organisation for School Teachers and teachers’ union guidance, issued in September 2002, underlines that allegations involving child protection matters should be referred to the statutory authorities—the police and social services. Failures to do that in 1991 were at the root of what went wrong at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen. On 21 May, we issued guidance to governing bodies of maintained schools about the complaints procedures that they are required to have. That makes clear that if a complaint involves a child protection issue, it should be handled by the designated child protection teacher or the headteacher and referred on to the local education authority.
Next term, we will issue guidance to governing bodies on handling disciplinary action against staff. That guidance will repeat unequivocally the guidance that allegations of child abuse must be referred by LEAs and schools to the statutory authorities. It will reiterate the statutory requirement on employers to report to the Assembly Government any instance where the employer dismisses, or would have dismissed, a member of staff for misconduct. It will underline the need for governing bodies to complete their consideration of disciplinary action, even when a member of staff resigns. Procedures are also now in place for governing bodies to refer cases of professional incompetence to the General Teaching Council for Wales for action. We will consult in the autumn on supplementary guidance on handling complaints involving pupils. That follows a specific request to me from young people in Funky Dragon, supported at that time by the children’s commissioner and now endorsed in his report. In a further development, we will shortly bring into effect section 175 of the Education Act 2002. That places an explicit responsibility on LEAs and governing bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. They will have to have regard to guidance from the Assembly Government, and I expect to consult on that guidance towards the end of the year. The UK Government has accepted the main recommendations of the Bichard inquiry. We will be discussing urgently with it how the improvements that Bichard calls for will become a reality in Wales.
There is one further point that I want to make today. In responding to this inquiry, we will not lose sight of the interests of teachers and others who work with children. We are concerned about the scope for malicious complaints by children about adults. Such complaints can have a major, stressful impact on the professional and personal lives of practitioners. The guidance for schools on handling complaints involving pupils will deal with the issue of malicious complaints. In addition, we will continue to talk to representatives of teachers and other practitioners about how we can help to support dedicated, professional people to do their jobs and counter the risk of groundless allegations. In 2000, Wales took the lead on giving a clear, authoritative voice for children by establishing the children’s commissioner. We intend now that our response will do justice to his Clywch report.