RATES of bullying in Welsh schools have reached record levels, with more than one in three children and young people reporting being bullied, the Senedd heard.

Gareth Davies raised concerns about a 6% increase in bullying between 2021 and 2023, according to a survey of more than 130,000 pupils in 200 secondary schools.

The Conservatives’ shadow mental health minister told the Senedd: “These results are higher than ever previously reported in the survey, which is deeply troubling.”

He said the latest survey showed regression on “just about every metric of pupil wellbeing”, including growing social isolation and a rise in behavioural issues.

Mr Davies, who worked in the NHS in north Wales for more than a decade, pointed to a 2021 legal duty to have regard to the mental health of children and young people.

He said: “The mental health of pupils has declined and reports of bullying in schools have only increased, so the Welsh Government have failed in that duty, unfortunately.”

Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell called for an update to 2019 anti-bullying guidance for school governing bodies following a commitment from the Welsh Government eight months ago.

The shadow education secretary focused on the impact of poverty, warning the high cost of school uniforms can cause stress and lead to bullying.

Mr Campbell, a former lecturer, expressed concerns about penalties, such as detention, for pupils over non-compliance with uniform policies.

Raising a report on “horrific” experiences of racism in Welsh schools, he said one pupil was told a classmate did not want to sit next to them due to the colour of their skin.

“That’s entirely unacceptable in our schools,” said Mr Campbell.

Labour’s Carolyn Thomas warned children’s mental health is at an all-time low, pointing to smartphones and social media as major contributing factors.

She said: “They can be used to bully, manipulate and control, sending young people into an isolated world of despair, not thinking they can get out of it or go to somebody for help.”

The North Wales politician highlighted a petition calling for a ban on phones in schools.

Rhys ab Owen, an independent who represents South Wales Central, stressed that bullying can impact people for decades to come after school.

“But it’s an issue that doesn’t affect learners equally,” he said. “In Cardiff, around a third of learners come from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

“And I was staggered to read a survey from 2020, which said that 61.5% of learners had expressed stereotypes over skin colour, religion and nationality.”

In a statement on November 12 to mark anti-bullying week, Lynne Neagle accepted that bullying continues to be an issue in Welsh schools.

Pledging to prioritise the problem, Wales’ education secretary said new statutory anti-bullying guidance will be published for consultation after Christmas.

Ms Neagle pointed to concerning trends, including 42% of girls scoring high or very high in a questionnaire on psychological problems compared with 27% of boys.

She told the Senedd: “I wouldn’t want to be a teenager growing up today.”

Ms Neagle stated the Welsh Government provided more than £800,000 this year for one of the biggest surveys of children and young people in the UK.

She said: “The link between bullying and mental health is well known. At its most extreme, young people have taken their own lives as a result of being bullied. This is a tragedy for the young life lost, for their family and friends and for whole communities.”

A CALL for waste centre users across Pembrokeshire to “share the pain” in a cut in the number of days they are open rather than close St Davids’ recycling centre is being recommended to senior councillors.

Members of Pembrokeshire County Council’s policy pre-decision overview and scrutiny committee, at their November 12 meeting, received a report on the provision of recycling centres in the county, which had been referred from full council at its March budget meeting.

Back at that meeting, St Davids recycling centre, at risk of potential closure against a backdrop of severe budget pressures, was given a reprieve.

A report for the November committee, presented by Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services Cllr Rhys Sinnett, said the council’s medium term financial plan identifies “a ‘most likely’ projected funding gap of £84.6m over the period 2024-25 to 2027-28,” with the council needing to deliver at least £70,000 of savings against the waste and recycling centres, adding: “if this is not possible this saving will be required to come from alternative areas within environmental services impacting on collection arrangements and services provided across Pembrokeshire.”

Four options were presented to the committee: no change, with the £70,000 coming from other areas of the service; the closure of St Davids netting the £70,000; its closure along with reductions in the amount of days other centres at Winsel, Waterloo, Crane Cross and Hermon to save £110,000; the final option being a reduction in the number of days all were open, but keeping St Davids running, saving the £70,000.

The choice of the options, complicated by various capital investment requirements for the sites, before committee would take the form of a recommendation to the council’s Cabinet before a final decision is made.

Members heard many objections to the closure of St Davids had been received, with the city council “unanimously” opposed to it on many grounds, including its use by both the Coastguard and the RNLI for the disposal of maritime debris, and the distances involved for members of the public to use the other facilities.

Nearby local county councillor, Cllr Mark Carter of Solva said he had never seen as many responses to an issue in his seven-and-a-half years as a councillor, proposing the fourth option, later described as “a sharing of pain across all sites” be submitted to Cabinet.

He said the facility at St Davids was much valued by local residents.

“They understand Pembrokeshire County Council has got a severe financial problem, they understand doing nothing is not an option; they understand that, I understand that,” said Cllr Carter, adding: “The problem we’ve got with the budget is a county-wide problem, it’s not St Davids exclusively; logic says we should not be inflicting all the pain on this peninsula.”

He was backed by fellow local councillor Cllr Bethan Price.

Members, by nine votes to three, backed the fourth option of a reduction in hours at all sites but keeping St Davids open, be recommended to Cabinet, expected to be heard at its December meeting.

DISABLED people are more than £2,100 a year worse off than non-disabled colleagues, with women facing a double whammy of discrimination at work, a committee heard.

Rhianydd Williams, of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Cymru, gave evidence to the Senedd’s equality committee as part of an inquiry on disability and employment.

Ms Williams told the committee that the umbrella body estimates the pay gap at £1.16 an hour or, based on a 35-hour working week, £2,111.20 a year.

Ms Williams said the difference is wider for women as she called for mandatory reporting of disability pay gap information and a greater focus on intersectionality.

She highlighted disability pay gap day on November 7, the day an average disabled worker effectively stops being paid for the rest of the year compared with a non-disabled colleague.

Jenny Rathbone, who chairs the equality committee, warned that disabled women face a “double whammy of discrimination” in the workplace.

Ms Williams, TUC Cymru’s equality and policy officer, said accessing reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 remains a major barrier.

She called for time limits as well as a passporting system to keep a live record of adjustments agreed between workers and employers.

Ms Williams said employers often have the final say on what is deemed reasonable and some do not budget for any adjustments.

She warned: “A lot of the time people will just leave the workplace: they’ll experience discrimination and they will leave.”

Ms Williams pointed to examples of branches submitting grievances to try to make sure basic facilities such as workplace toilets are available.

Asked about the Welsh Government’s disability rights taskforce, she said the pace of progress has been slow and she had hoped an action plan would be in place by now.

Dee Montague-Coast, engagement officer at the Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales charity, told the committee she often works in her pyjamas from her adjustable bed.

“In my previous workplaces, things like that would have been seen as totally unacceptable or ‘not quite right’,” she said. “So, I think as a wider society, we have a lot to do in terms of making experiences like mine just normalised.”

She called for a one-stop shop for support and a no-wrong-door approach, warning disabled people face a significant administrative burden in navigating various systems.

Ms Montague-Coast, who had a decades-long delay in getting a diagnosis for endometriosis, said people have been treated appallingly by the UK Government over the past 15 years.

She said: “I think there’s despair from disabled people, from disabled people’s organisations, … that they are still being left out of conversations … and decisions made about us.”

Ms Montague-Coast criticised the new Labour UK Government’s decision to continue reforms aimed at tightening work capability assessments.

She said: “We need to recognise that there are disabled people who cannot work and should not be expected to try to find work. But they’re going to be up to £5,000 worse off.”

Ms Montague-Coast added that society tends to view disability as inspirational or tragic, with little in between, warning that ‘hidden’ disabilities do not fit that narrow narrative.

Angharad Dean said she found employers were more accommodating of working from home during the pandemic but flexibility retreated as the world started opening up.

Ms Dean, a new mother who is registered blind and uses a guide dog, told the committee she has been searching for work but not getting anywhere.

She warned disabled people continue to be “weeded out” of application processes, leaving people too scared to disclose conditions.

She told the committee it took six months to receive support under Access to Work, a UK scheme that provides grants, in her previous job.

She told the meeting on November 11: “I was out of pocket for such a long time that my pay cheque wasn’t actually giving me any money at the end of the month.”