Written statement (Wales) on The Welsh Government response to the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Annual Report 2024-25 - Nov 28

Eluned Morgan MS, First Minister: The Children's Commissioner for Wales' Annual Report provides important advice to help us continue to put children's rights at the centre of our decision making. In October, I joined the Commissioner to speak to children and young people from local schools in Port Talbot about the Report and issues that matter to them. The Commissioner and Welsh Government have a shared ambition for the children of Wales. We want a Wales for all children; a wonderful place to grow up, live and work, now and in the future. I am pleased to provide our response to the recommendations made in the Commissioner's Report for 2024-25.

Education – school complaints

We are refreshing the guidance for school governing bodies on complaints. The intention is to clarify sections on learner complaints, timing of the complaints process, and where other procedures should be used rather than the complaints process. The refreshed guidance will be published as soon as possible and publicised to all schools. Further, a review of school governing bodies will commence as soon as possible. The review will ensure governors' roles and responsibilities are appropriate. We must also ensure that governing bodies are provided with the support they need to lead their schools effectively.

Additional Learning Needs (ALN)

We recognise the importance of resourcing to realising our vision of an inclusive education system and are working with partners to deliver upon this long-term ambition. Over the past five years, the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme has invested more than £170 million capital funding to improve facilities for learners with additional learning needs (ALN) and a proposed £750 million of projects are planned over the next 9 years. This includes investment in special schools, specialist resource bases and mainstream schools and colleges.  As well as establishing ‘Dysgu', the national professional learning and leadership body for maintained schools and settings in Wales, we are developing a strategic education workforce plan. This will embed our vision and values for leaders, teachers and support staff for the future recognising that there are a range of important roles across the school workforce.

The Welsh Government will closely consider the findings from the thematic review work being undertaken by Audit Wales. This report will make an important contribution to the wide range of evidence we are considering as part of our work to improve delivery of the ALN system.

Child Poverty

Our Child Poverty Strategy sets out our ambitions and how we will work across Government and with partners to maximise the impact of the levers available to us. The Senedd does not have the competence to legislate for an equivalent child payment scheme to that operating in Scotland, however, the Welsh Government is already providing direct financial support to families and children using the powers we already have through interventions such as Free School Meals, School Breakfasts and the Schools Essential Grant. 

These are challenging financial times for families, and we remain committed to keeping the Free School Meal eligibility criteria under review should budget become available in the future. We have focused our efforts at primary school age due to our understanding that families with younger children are more likely to be living in relative income poverty. 

Creation of a coherent Welsh benefit system is an ambition for Welsh Government, working with local government, to ensure that people in Wales are claiming all the financial support they are entitled to. The Welsh Benefits Charter has been adopted by all local authorities in Wales confirming the collective commitment to improving access to financial support for people across Wales.

Housing

We require all local authorities to carry out a Children's Rights Impact Assessment in the planning and delivery of housing related support services funded via the Housing Support Grant.

The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill will fundamentally change our homelessness system, to focus on earlier intervention and prevention. The Bill is grounded in the insight and expertise of people who have experienced homelessness and has been developed in close partnership with stakeholders, including those who work with children and young people. We will continue to ensure children and young people's views are fed into the development of guidance that will accompany the legislation, including a new Code of Guidance. 

Under the Bill care leavers will be recognised as a group that must be allocated reasonable preference for social housing. The Bill therefore ensures prevention of homelessness for care leavers, mitigating the negative impacts which disproportionately impact this group.

We have 67 organisations signed up to the Corporate Parenting Charter including all local authorities and 7 local health boards. Our intention is for young people to review a sample of the pledges and provide feedback to organisations. We are working with Voices from Care Cymru to arrange this. 

Accommodating sanctuary seekers is a UK Government responsibility, however, we do press for housing which meets the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). Research is underway into children's experiences of homelessness and will include reaching out to asylum seeking children and their families to be involved.

Transport

Transport for Wales are establishing a Young Persons Advisory Forum to advise on public transport. It will provide insights, perspectives, and recommendations on travel for young people, including learner travel. The Forum will include young people from diverse backgrounds, locations and experience of using transport in Wales to help shape inclusive, accessible and sustainable travel opportunities for young people in Wales. 

We recognise that there are financial challenges associated with learner travel. Funding for school transport is through the Revenue Support Grant so local authorities can prioritise spend according to local need. In 2025-26, local authorities will receive £6 billion from the Welsh Government Revenue Support Grant and non-domestic rates to spend on delivering key services, including transport. The Welsh Government has recently introduced the £1 bus fare for all children and young people aged 21 and under to support the cost of living challenges for families and help them access education, training and leisure activities. The increase in funding for the Educational Maintenance allowance can also be used by children to help pay for transport costs. 

The Welsh Government is committed to ensuring free transport to eligible children as defined in the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008, whilst supporting learners to access safe, sustainable travel options to get to their places of learning. The Bus Services (Wales) Bill will form part of the solution to the challenges around learner travel. Co-ordination of the network in a way that works alongside school and college timetables will make a difference to learners. Transport for Wales have committed to considering opportunities to work alongside learner travel provision when designing the Network Plan.

Disability

The ‘Planning to Increase Access to Schools for Disabled Pupils' guidance will be reviewed as part of our work to explore a longer-term vision for an inclusive education system. 

Mental Health

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy includes our commitment to provide same day access to support. We are supporting ‘sanctuary pilots' looking at different ways to provide mental health support for young people in crisis. These pilots are being evaluated and will be used to inform future service provision.

Equipping school staff with the skills and knowledge to effectively support learners' wellbeing, while also enabling them to manage their own, is essential. This year we provided £13.6m, for a range of activity including staff training to improve their ability to support and manage the well-being of children and young people.

Through our maternity, early years, parenting and family support programmes, we provide parents with access to universal, enhanced and specialist early intervention and prevention support, including for emotional and mental health. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy centres on early intervention, prevention and person-centred care, ensuring people are referred to the most appropriate form of support, at the right time and without delay.

Neurodiversity / neurodivergence

Through the Neurodivergence Improvement Programme we are commissioning a third sector organisation to ensure as many voices are heard as possible and are able to influence the development of children's neurodivergence services. Welsh Government have a target of eliminating all three-year waits across Wales by March 2026. We are providing funding and practical support to health boards to make changes to the way children's neurodevelopmental assessments are provided to make them more sustainable. 

Healthy Child Wales Programme

A comprehensive review of the Healthy Child Wales Programme is underway. The review will examine the programme's founding principles, assess its performance and perceived impact, and identify current constraints and challenges. The review will conclude in the spring of 2026. Its findings will help to strengthen the future development and delivery of the programme to ensure it continues to meet the needs of children and families across Wales. 

Community Cohesion

We will be reviewing the Anti Racist Wales Action Plan (ArWAP) governance structure, working with the Children's Commissioner to develop a new mechanism for young people to formally feed into the structure. 

Safeguarding

We are undertaking a review of the current accountability and governance arrangements for safeguarding in Wales. The review will examine the roles and responsibilities of the National Independent Safeguarding Board and the Regional Safeguarding Boards and the interface between these bodies and the inspectorates. Alongside, consideration of the overall effectiveness of these arrangements in protecting people from harm and what actions need to be taken next. A final report will be submitted in Spring 2026. 

The terms of reference for the Year One Review have been ratified by the Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR) Statutory Group and officials are seeking to appoint an external reviewer who can ensure an independent perspective. This work is due to be completed in early 2026.

Providing clear accountability and governance around safeguarding reviews remains a priority and good progress is being made to achieve this with the introduction of a risk management framework. Work is in progress to transition ownership of the Wales Safeguarding Repository fully to Welsh Government. We have worked closely with Cardiff University to ensure any required changes identified by testing were made in readiness for full go-live. The SUSR Dashboard was also trialled internally this summer, identifying a number of necessary changes to be made prior to external publication on the SUSR webpages.