Interview - Lynne Hill, Policy director at Children in Wales
Monday, October 31, 2011
The charity is backing the Welsh Assembly's move to introduce legislation to outlaw smacking after 2016, the end of the current Assembly term. Wales would be the first part of the UK to legislate against parents smacking their children, after the assembly voted in favour of a ban last week.
Why is Children in Wales backing the move to ban smacking?
We believe that children should have the same protection in law as adults from assault.
Clear and consistent boundaries are crucial in childhood, but parents do not need to resort to physical punishment. Many already believe that smacking is not effective. Positive non-violent parenting encourages better behaviour, whereas smacking teaches children that violence is acceptable.
It's a significant step for the Assembly to support a smacking ban. Hopefully a growing number of people support a ban and understand why we need such a change.
What would a ban on smacking mean for parents in Wales?
Assembly members have said that a ban on smacking is not about criminalising parents, but working to support them by introducing alternatives to physical punishment.The focus needs to be on parenting. Ensuring parents have access to and understand how to use alternative non-violent discipline techniques, such as time-outs, and knowing how to set clear boundaries, is key.
Children in Wales facilitates a number of projects to promote non-physical disciplines to parents, such as the Flying Start programme, which aims to make a difference to the life chances of children under age four.
The Welsh government has also been very active in promoting non-physical disciplines. In 2007 it launched the Parenting Action Plan, which sought to ensure that parents in Wales got the advice and support they need. We hope this work will continue to grow and develop.
Do you believe that the rest of the UK will follow in Wales' footsteps?
Obviously the smacking ban is something we hope that the rest of the UK embraces, but we are talking long-term.
The UN Convention on the rights of the child always raised recommendations about banning smacking, and someone has to test the water. Wales was the first country to ban childminders from smacking children.
Across the EU, 16 out of the 27 countries have legislated a ban on smacking. Sweden stopped smacking in 1979. There are a number of countries we can learn from and many models we can follow.
