Will the Minister provide an update on whether professional standards for teaching and leadership will be updated to include anti-racism, as proposed in recommendation 29 of the final report of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, Contributions and Cynefin in the New Curriculum Working Group?
I published an update on delivering the recommendations made by the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, Contributions and Cynefin in the New Curriculum Working Group on 22 June.
Recommendation 29 calls for consideration to be given to making explicit reference to anti-racist practice in the professional standards for teaching, leadership and assisting teaching. We have commissioned an evaluation of the implementation, effectiveness and anticipated impacts of the professional standards for teaching, leadership and assisting teaching in terms of their ability to support the development of a highly-skilled workforce ready to meet the challenges of education reform in Wales. The report on the first year of the project was published in November 2021. Further fieldwork is currently taking place and the final report is due to be published summer 2023. At this point we will be making changes to the standards based on the recommendation of the working group and the findings of the evaluation.
In the meantime, as part of our response, the Diversity and Anti-Racism Professional Learning (DARPL) project has been established to address the professional learning recommendations of the working group. New professional learning for practitioners on diversity and anti-racism will be available from September.
Progress on this issue contributes towards wider change in society through the Welsh Government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Cefin Campbell, the Plaid Cymru designated member, as part of the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.