It would appear so, in a remarkable oversight…
Further grounds to consider that Wales shouldn’t be relying on England to legislate for us on a devolved matter?
Amendment 121a, put forward in the House of Lords, isn’t only controversial because of the content.
A key component of it quotes and relies on section 17 of the Children’s Act 1989, which is found in Part III.
And the House of Lords voted on it without question on that legislative point.
Part III of that Act doesn’t apply to Wales.
Has Westminster forgotten about Wales?
Were no Welsh peers actively involved at the House of Lords?
No scrutiny there of the involvement of Wales?
No-one informed on the implications for Wales or the intersect with devolved legislation?
The Welsh Government are asking Senedd Members to agree to let Westminster legislate on Wales’ behalf on such a crucial, controversial Bill,
on a clearly devolved matter.
The vote on this has been deferred yet again, this time to the 17th of March.
This appears to be for several main reasons, as far as we can tell from what is in the public domain,
- Westminster having overlooked how we, in Wales, have our own legislation on devolved issues, including on the wellbeing and education of children.
- How the Welsh Government had considered it reasonable for the Senedd to vote on applying such key clauses before knowing their full content at the previous two dates it had set for the vote.
- How aspects of the CNIS section of the Bill have been changed markedly by Westminster over recent weeks- since the Welsh Government asked for whatever was in the CNIS section to apply to Wales
This leaves this crucial vote only three weeks away-
With the Bill only just entering ping-pong stage at Westminster, With us still not knowing what form the Bill, and especially these crucial clauses, will take.
The vote is being deferred in the hope that the Bill will be in a more finalised form by then…
But it would seem the Welsh Government expect the Senedd to vote immediately the Bill is finalised or when it is near to being so.
Where is the time to reflect and consider the finalised Bill in its totality,
to appreciate the implications and the unintended consequences for us in Wales?
None, it would seem.
And of course, that vote will now be only 3 weeks before the Senedd adjourns to prepare for the election.
Does this not give a remarkable appearance of the Welsh Government trying in haste to push through such a controversial and complex Bill before the forthcoming election?
Is this really a wise way to legislate on measures that would greatly impact so many children in Wales, that have profound implications for any concerned Welsh people, including unprecedented steps such as effectively “mandatory” right of entry into homes even without any cause for concern.
More consideration on how that would be effectively obligatory can be found here.
The only insight as we the people of Wales have been allowed into the reasons for further deferment, or even the fact that the vote is again deferred, is tucked into pages 147-9 of this extensive document,
Because sadly the Welsh Government have not engaged with the community on process or on content – more about that here.
That is very sad and unfortunate, especially as the Cabinet Secretary for Education had previously called out a colleague for appearing to not listen to the community in Wales, when confirming that “it’s about listening to a consultation” … “You cannot have a consultation and then just ignore that consultation. That would not be acceptable.”
But here, of course, there hasn’t even been a consultation of any kind regarding the CWS Bill in Wales, seemingly just the expectation that the Senedd would wave this through.
That’s just part of the problems with the process,
Are there problems with the content of the section of the Bill that this controversial amendment relates to?
Amendment 121A relates to increasing proposed powers even further, placing the LA as the determiners of what is in the “best interests” of “certain children” in an increasing array of circumstances.
This section of the CWS Bill would effectively give council staff, in terms of how children are educated, parental responsibility over this growing cohort of children because these families have decided to not take up the state on its offer of free state-administered education.
These families would need permission from council staff to change their approach to education by deregistering. Please do read more on this measure, and the many unintended consequences, here:
However, permission would not be needed to register them in school, demonstrating something of a dichotomy of thinking and an increasingly discriminatory attitude towards home education.
The presumed need for a council to act in a child’s best interests would be a belief that parents are not able to act in a child’s best interests, or that they cannot be trusted to do so.
Therefore, by the same reasoning, surely their decision to place a child into school should be also considered to need evaluation and permission?
Unless of course there is the underlying discriminatory assumption that school is always the best place for a child.
In which case, how can a council therefore act without bias to determine “best interests”?
While considering the appropriateness or not of allowing Westminster to legislate on behalf of Wales on devolved issues,
It is also worth pausing to note the risk of appropriating clauses of the CWS Bill being the tip of the iceberg,
The statement made by Welsh Government when they first announced their desire to “piggyback” onto Westminster’s CWS Bill – the same day the memorandum was laid at Westminster – includes the comment:
The Senedd has previously rejected the concept of mandatory digital ID for adults.
One key area of the CWS Bill. beyond the sections that the Welsh Government have already stated that they wish to apply to Wales, is the intention for mandatory digital ID of children, through “Unique Identifier Numbers”.
It is of course of note that the CNIS clauses that Welsh Government desire to apply to Wales
essentially include mandatory digital ID for home educated children,
with extensive databases of personal and tracking information on each child, not because of concerns but purely because of their mode of education.
But to return to the matter in question at present:
Surely the oversight in the already controversial amendment 121A further calls into question the level (or lack) of scrutiny) on how this Bill would impact the people and especially the children of Wales.
These are really vital concerns that every elected representative needs to know about before considering voting.
Standing in the public eye as Surely the oversight in the already controversial amendment 121A further calls into question the level (or lack) of scrutiny) on how this Bill would impact the people and especially the children of Wales.
These are really vital concerns that every elected representative needs to know about before considering voting.
Standing in the public eye as being in favour of devolved powers needs consistency between words and action.
Please do ensure our Senedd Members have the opportunity to consider the information in this and other such articles well ahead of the vote at the Senedd.
And should any Senedd Members be willing to discuss these concerns, and to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Wellbeing in Education Wales 