Lack of school child safeguarding criticised by experts

There has been no national oversight of child safeguarding reviews in schools since 2018, the Welsh government has confirmed.

Talking to Newyddion S4C, prominent child safeguarding experts and the children’s commissioner have criticised the admission.

The Welsh government said school governing bodies must appoint an independent investigator when allegations of harm to a pupil are made, but confirmed they would be “reviewing the requirements around independent investigations.”

The revelation comes just days before the expected publication of a child practice review into paedophile former headteacher Neil Foden.

Foden was jailed in 2024 after being found guilty of sexual abuse involving four girls over a four-year period.

The Independent Investigation Service (IIS) was set up by the Welsh government in 2006 after the Clywch report was published into the crimes of paedophile teacher and author John Owen at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen.

The IIS funded independent investigations into safeguarding allegations against staff at Welsh schools.

But this scheme was scrapped after a contract review in 2018, with government funding withdrawn and responsibility for such investigations transferred to school governors and local authorities.

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales Rocio Cifuentes says there were instances where independent reviews had been commissioned by local authorities, with a summary rather than the full report.

In a statement, Ms Cifuentes said there was currently “no obligation” to publish or share the reports introduced in response to the Clywch inquiry.

“It makes no sense to have investigations and conclusions without a robust mechanism for recommendations to be implemented and monitored and for there to be a process by which these recommendations can be considered nationally by others.”

Helen Mary Jones was an assembly member when the Clywch report was published and is now an expert on child safeguarding in Wales.

She told Newyddion S4C: “Once these reports exist, who exactly is responsible for implementing recommendations? And who is answerable if they aren’t implemented?”

“[Welsh Government] Ministers should assure themselves that actions have been taken when things go wrong. They must be responsible.”

Prof Sir Malcolm Evans, originally from Cardiff, was a member of the Statutory Panel of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales.

He said removing national oversight, which had been in existence until 2018, meant safeguarding issues were more likely to arise.

“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.”

“It is arguably foreseeable that such instances are more likely to arise in the absence of such mechanisms.”

The Welsh government said: “School governing bodies, with support from their local authority, must appoint an independent investigator to investigate allegations of harm caused to a registered pupil.

“We will be reviewing the requirements around independent investigations shortly.”