|
Petition title: Introduce parenting lessons and basic life skills for High School pupils.
Mounting pressures due to the pandemic have led to an increase in child abuse cases. In 2020/21, there were over 24.8 thousand child abuse offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, an increase of 2.9 thousand offences when compared with the previous reporting year. One way to support future generations to become parents would be through a curriculum which provides lessons on parent responsibilities, looking after a home, money management, basic first aid, physical and mental health and preparing nutritious meals on a budget. The government need to help break the cycle of child abuse. Improved communication and multi-agency working for health, social and children's services and a huge drive for promoting intervention and prevention programmes. One system used by all multi-agency workers so information can be shared effectively. Compulsory well-being checks for young children including dental and dietary. |
The Welsh Government is introducing a new statutory curriculum, which all learners aged 3-16 in publicly funded settings will follow, known as the ‘Curriculum for Wales’.
The Curriculum for Wales is intended to better equip young people with the knowledge, skills and experience they need for modern adult life, than the current national curriculum established in 1988. It follows Professor Graham Donaldson’s Successful Futures review in 2015, which adopted a starting point of what 16 year olds completing their compulsory education should look like and what attributes should they have, before deciding what the curriculum should provide.
The new curriculum is intended to be purpose-led rather than content-based, with a greater emphasis on skills and teaching what matters. Schools will have the flexibility to design their own curriculum, within a broad national framework provided by the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021 and associated codes and guidance.
As the Minister for Education and Welsh Language’s letter highlights, one of the six Areas of Learning and Experience is ‘Health and Well-being’, which is designed to develop healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society (one of the curriculum purposes).
Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) will be a mandatory element of the Curriculum for Wales, through which children and young people will learn about healthy and unhealthy relationships. RSE will be taught in line with a statutory code.
The new Curriculum for Wales is being introduced in primary schools in September 2022. Secondary schools will have the opportunity to begin teaching it in Year 7 from this September, although will not be legally required to do so until September 2023 when it will become statutory in Year 7 and Year 8. The new curriculum will then be rolled out to an additional older year group, year by year, until it reaches Year 11 in 2026/27.
The Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021 provides the high-level framework with further detail of how and what schools should include in their curricula set out in statutory codes and statutory guidance. The curriculum detail was developed by the Welsh Government in partnership with the teaching profession and has been subject to several consultation and feedback exercises.
The petition discusses the subject of child abuse and calls for governments to ‘help break the cycle of child abuse’. The Welsh Government intends for the new Curriculum for Wales, particularly through Health and Well-being and RSE, to both help protect young people from harm and abuse and enable them to carry forward into adult life positive, healthy and responsible attitudes towards others.
As the Minister’s letter outlines, there are established safeguarding duties and procedures, based on legislation including the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which are designed to identify and respond to children at risk.
Relevant guidance includes safeguarding guidance for local authorities, safeguarding guidance for education settings, and the Wales Safeguarding Procedures and All Wales Practice Guides.
The Senedd scrutinised and subsequently passed the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Bill between July 2020 and March 2021, which then became an Act upon Royal Assent in April 2021.
The previous Welsh Youth Parliament prioritised calling for life skills to be included in the new curriculum, publishing a report in 2019. The current Welsh Youth Parliament is also prioritising education and the school curriculum.
|
Every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this briefing is correct at the time of publication. Readers should be aware that these briefings are not necessarily updated or otherwise amended to reflect subsequent changes. |