Children’s Minister gains insight into work of NSPCC in Wales

Children’s Minister gains insight into work of NSPCC in Wales

Minister for Children and Social Care Huw Irranca-Davies visited the NSPCC’s Cardiff service centre on Wednesday (20 December) to learn about the work of the leading children’s charity in Wales.

Ogmore AM Huw Irranca-Davies learnt about the services and campaigns run by the charity, all aimed at protecting the next generation of children from harm and abuse.

Mr Irranca-Davies was also given a tour of the charity’s Cardiff Childline base, one of only two in Wales, which provides counselling to children from a dedicated team of volunteers.
Last year Childline provided more than 8,800 counselling sessions with children from Wales, whilst across the UK the children’s helpline carried out nearly 300,000 counselling sessions in 2016/17.

During his visit to the service centre Mr Irranca-Davies was given an insight into the charity’s Letting the Future In service, which provides counselling and support for victims of child sexual abuse and the Turn the Page service, which attempts to address ‘peer on peer’ child sexual abuse by working directly with children who are exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour to stop it developing further.

Mr Irranca-Davies also learnt about the charity’s attempts to educate children about what is abuse and who to report it to through the Speak Out Stay Safe schools service.

The service uses specially-trained volunteers to talk to primary school children about abuse and helps teach them the Childline number.

The NSPCC aims to reach every single primary school in Wales with the vital service.

Across Wales during the 2016/17 school year alone it spoke to 69,530 children and visited 520 schools.

During his visit Mr Irranca-Davies also learnt about the charity’s Take 5 positive parenting campaign.

The campaign urges parents of children aged between one and four to stop – breathe – and react calmly when dealing with tantrums, difficult behaviour and other challenging parenting situations.

More than 5,000 people have been to the NSPCC’s website to find out more information about the campaign since it was launched just over two months ago.

Speaking about the visit, Minister for Children and Social Care, Huw Irranca-Davies said:
“I was very pleased to visit the NSPCC’s base in Cardiff. Improving outcomes for all children in Wales, and listening to and protecting children are priorities for the Welsh Government. I know that the NSPCC have these same shared priorities.

“Discussions with staff gave me a valuable insight to the important therapeutic support children receive at the centre, the vital work of Childline volunteers and the issues the service deals with. This insight will help ensure the policies we are developing in the Welsh Government meet the needs of children and young people.”

Des Mannion, head of NSPCC Cymru / Wales, said: “We welcomed Huw Irranca-Davies to our service centre in Cardiff so he could see first-hand the work we are doing to support children and young people in Wales.

“Our service centres in Wales have directly helped thousands of children and young people suffering from issues including sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and neglect.

“The NSPCC is fighting for every childhood and we are delighted that Mr Irranca-Davies was able to learn more about what we do from our staff and volunteers.”