National Assembly for Wales

The Welsh Government recognises the critical importance of safeguarding children and young people online. Last year the Welsh Government published new statutory guidance, ‘Keeping learners safe’, which includes guidance specifically on e-Safety. In January 2014, the Welsh Government contracted South West Grid for Learning to deliver an extensive e-Safety education and awareness raising programme across Wales. To date the project has developed and provided:

• e-Safety training across all local authorities to up-skill educational practitioners and school governors;
• access to the 360 degree safe Cymru tool, an e-Safety self-assessment tool for schools  to review and improve their e-Safety practice and provision;
• the Digital Literacy Resource for Wales  - these classroom materials encourage learners, from Foundation phase up to Key Stage 4 and beyond, to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly online
• guidance, articles and advice for parents and carers including the recently published ‘Safe digital summer - tips for parents’ and ‘Sun, Summer and Screens’; and
• a range of case studies to exemplify and share good practice of e-Safety in schools across Wales.

To help children and young people stay safe online, an e-Safety zone has been created on Hwb. This one-stop shop provides access to resources, news and research, in addition to materials and tips to help both learners and parents. Most recently, playlists have been published on digital safeguarding issues including cyberbullying, ‘selfies & sexting’ and social networking. Resources will continue to be developed on key themes to help teach children and young people how to make safe, smart and ethical decisions online. Over the past 12 months, we have also strengthened our education response to child sexual exploitation in Wales with the publication of a new education resource ‘Hidden’. Developed with Barnardos Cymru, the resource highlights the dangers of child sexual exploitation. An accompanying training programme has also been delivered to practitioners, and highlights the risks of on-line grooming. Further training sessions are being planned for later this year. A Digital Competence Framework is on track to be available to schools and other settings from September this year, in line with the Welsh Government’s proposals in “A curriculum for Wales – a curriculum for life”, which followed Professor Graham Donaldson’s report “Successful Futures”. Development of the Framework has been led by practitioners from pioneer schools across Wales, and areas such as digital wellbeing, rights and responsibilities are an important part of this work. Digital Competence will be a cross-curricular responsibility, alongside literacy and numeracy and this will further embed e-Safety throughout the curriculum.