In Wales, professionals are raising an alarm of high levels about no protection of children in educational environments. Their concerns follow the recent conviction of a former high-profile headteacher for sexual abuse. The Welsh Government is being questioned over its handling of strict safeguarding protocols. This is all in the wake of the conviction of Neil Foden in 2024, when he was imprisoned for sexually abusing four underage girls for four years. As the country gears up to release a national child practice review about Foden, calls for accountability are growing louder. The times are a-changin’ and folks are demanding more oversight.
Prof Sir Malcolm Evans, one of the world’s leading child safeguarding experts, stressed the need for robust recommendations. He too has said there should be strong public monitoring mechanisms built in, as part of the Statutory Public Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, in England and Wales. He stated, “If one withdraws or retreats from those levels of scrutiny and oversight, which were originally put in place, regretfully it is almost always the case that those problems will arise again.” His comments shine a light on worries about the lack of a national oversight of child safeguarding practice reviews in schools since 2018.
In 2018, upon reviewing a contract for its safeguarding scheme, the Welsh Government decided to scrap the scheme. Consequently, investigations fell under the remit of school governors and local authorities. With this shift, there has been growing concern over whether the current state of play is working. Rocio Cifuentes, a Welsh Government Minister, acknowledged that there must be a commitment to implement and monitor recommendations from safeguarding reviews. She noted that there’s no requirement right now to make reports or studies public. These reports were first implemented following the Clywch inquiry.
Helen Mary Jones, the Children’s Commissioner for child safeguarding, expressed her dismay. At the time of Clywch report’s publication, she was an assembly member as well. She questioned, “Once these reports exist, who exactly is responsible for implementing recommendations? Who is answerable if they aren’t implemented?” This muddled picture around accountability only serves to worsen the safeguarding status quo in our schools here in Wales.
These conversations have great impact. With the Welsh Government expected to publish the results of an independent review of Neil Foden’s case any day now, this is a really important time for action. The possibility of future incidents has many experts sounding alarm bells. Most troubling, they say, is the absence of any coordinated national strategy to protect children while in schools.
Gwyn Loader, S4C chief correspondent, has reported extensively on these issues. She makes powerful arguments for urgent and sweeping reforms to protect children from sexual predators in schools and at all educational institutions. S4C reporter Gwinno Robinson stressed that it is the recent cases that have revealed these shortcomings. He highlighted the need for immediate systemic change to make sure this type of abuse never happens again.
