
Having played an instrumental role in pushing for pre-custodial perpetrator programmes in order to increase the safety of women & children, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has this week questioned the Welsh Government over their impact.
Speaking in yesterday’s Debate on ‘The Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy’, Mr Isherwood also asked about the delivery and outcomes of Healthy Relationships Education.
He said:
“At the beginning of your contribution, Cabinet Secretary, you related a number of horrible stories of recent events, and worryingly, that's 10 years after this legislation came into place.
“When this legislation was being scrutinised, I led on that for my Party, working closely with my opposite numbers in Plaid Cymru at the time, Jocelyn Davies, and in the Liberal Democrats, Peter Black.
“But two of the issues that the Opposition Parties united were concerned about in relation to early prevention and intervention were Healthy Relationships Education and Pre-custodial Perpetrator Programmes, neither of which were on the face of the legislation. And we only agreed to support the Bill at Stage 4 because of the pledges made regarding both of those.
“Clearly, after that, Healthy Relationships Education was included in a form in the curriculum.
“I wonder if there's any monitoring and evaluation that you can share with us about what that's delivering, how it's being delivered, what the outcomes are, whether there's any beneficial impact being seen from it. And in terms of Pre-custodial Perpetrator Programmes, we received evidence at the time in Committee that most of the Perpetrator Programmes related to people who are already in the Criminal Justice System, who were effectively required to take these programmes, whether or not they were committed to learning from them.
“The beauty of pre-custodial was that, when they were offered it, a large number of perpetrators or potential perpetrators—mainly men, but some women—were prepared to join them, and there were good statistics to show that they were effective in reducing the number of abusive incidents that followed.
“So, I'm wondering, in addition to updating us on the monitoring and evaluation of the Healthy Relationships Education in our schools, what evidence you have to show us that the pledges relating to Pre-custodial Perpetrator Programmes have actually produced programmes on the ground, and what impact they might be having.”
In her response, the Cabinet Secretary said:
“It's important that we have got a work stream on perpetrators, and that work is being undertaken very effectively in terms of the group involved in that.”
Mr Isherwood added:
“As I said in the concluding stages of the legislation, “Wherever there are relationships, there is a need for perpetrator programmes. There will be no regions where there are no perpetrators, or where the proportion of perpetrators is lower per head.”