Written question WQ96255

In Wales we have an organisational duty to report abuse and neglect in respect of children and adults.

We wholly agree that where there has been disclosure (from a child or perpetrator); witnessing; or observation of behaviours or other evidence that indicate a child is experiencing or is at risk of sexual abuse, these must be reported without delay, either to the relevant local authority or to the Police, as appropriate. This is part of our existing organisational duty to report.

In our response to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse's IICSA recommendation 13 on mandating individual duties to report we committed to strengthening and improving compliance with our regulatory frameworks across childcare, education, health and social care. Progress has been made implementing this work, examples include the work being undertaken jointly by the Childcare, Play and Safeguarding teams in Welsh Government on the revision of the National Minimum Standards for Childcare and the revision of the Exceptions Order.

In our 2022 consultation on the then proposed Social Care Bill, stakeholders were clear in saying that further exploration needed to take place with stakeholders to consider the detail, breadth and impacts of any new duties before any decisions would be made.

There are key differences in the approach taken to mandatory reporting in Wales compared to that proposed by the Inquiry. Our practice and legislation relate to both children and adults who may be experiencing or at risk of abuse, neglect or, in the case of children, harm.

In our response to the final report from the Inquiry we committed to building on the publication of our Code of Safeguarding Practice and combining this with taking further measures to promote access to effective training and tools for practitioners; and to raise and sustain public awareness of abuse, neglect and harm. This work is ongoing, and the revised Code of Practice will be re-launched in 2025.

We have continued to explore individual mandatory duties to report with stakeholder. Any implementation of mandating duties to report on individuals would be accompanied by an implementation and evaluation plan that will clearly set out how we will measure progress.