{"id":66226,"date":"2025-12-19T01:45:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/mum-baffled-smacking-children-was-legal-as-wales-reviews-ban\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T01:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:45:24","slug":"mum-baffled-smacking-children-was-legal-as-wales-reviews-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/mum-baffled-smacking-children-was-legal-as-wales-reviews-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum ‘baffled’ smacking children was legal as Wales reviews ban"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Cemlyn Davies,<\/span>Wales political correspondent<\/span>and<\/span><\/p>\n

Angela Ferguson,<\/span>BBC Wales<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"MariMari Ellis Dunning<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mum-of-two Mari Ellis Dunning says the fact that smacking was ever legal “baffles” her<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A mother-of-two says she is “baffled” that smacking a child was ever legal in Wales, nearly three years on from a ban being introduced.<\/p>\n

Mari Ellis Dunning, 32, said she sought “to meet my kids with compassion before anything else”.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of parents have been sent on out-of-court parenting courses since the smacking ban was introduced in March 2022, according to a Welsh government report, and “fewer than five” cases had since been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), with no convictions. <\/p>\n

But opponents of the ban said it was “diverting police from serious crime and placing unnecessary strain on social services”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the Welsh government review, the aim of the act was to “protect children’s rights whilst adopting an educating and preventative approach which avoids criminalising parents”.<\/p>\n

It showed 365 people were referred for out-of-court parenting support by police staff between April 2022 and March 2025, instead of facing prosecution.<\/p>\n

Of those referred to the service, 310 completed the course with 265 reporting a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

Data from three of Wales’ four police forces revealed 6,200 physical punishment cases since the act was implemented.<\/p>\n

This was up from 3,900 before the so-called smacking ban.<\/p>\n

However, the report found no one in Wales had been convicted of common assault or battery on a child in their care since the ban came into force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MariMari Ellis Dunning<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mari says she and her husband use compassion to find out what their children’s needs are before addressing any issues<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mari, who lives in Aberystwyth with her sons aged two and five, said for children to grow up to become well-regulated adults “how can you possibly teach them that by physically harming them”.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why I would ever feel the need to physically harm a child,” said Mari.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ban saw the removal of reasonable chastisement<\/a> as a legal defence.<\/p>\n

This means anyone who smacks a child in their care in Wales can be arrested and prosecuted for assault.<\/p>\n

Wales’ Social Justice Cabinet Secretary Jane Hutt said the ban was “something we must be very proud of”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AntoniaAntonia Merola Jones<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Antonia Merola Jones from Flintshire in north Wales says she wishes the ban could be adopted in England <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Antonia Merola Jones, a single parent-of-one from Mold, Flintshire, said the ban should also be in force across the border.<\/p>\n

“I was delighted to see it introduced in Wales and I’m proud that we have such a great approach to tackling this problem,” she said. <\/p>\n

“I just want to see it widely introduced. I think England should learn from Wales and potentially introduce this across the border too.”<\/p>\n

Antonia, who is head of marketing and communications for a university, said physical punishment offered no proven benefits and created a risk of harm.<\/p>\n

She added she felt public support in ending that punishment of children was strong, which was backed up by the review reporting “a general trend towards disapproval of physical punishment”.<\/p>\n

“Growing up in the 1980s, smacking was accepted but now it is very much frowned upon,” said Antonia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Positive parenting techniques’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Frontline services had reported that “positive parenting techniques and awareness from parents and carers is increasing”, the report said.<\/p>\n

Although “some professionals such as the police reported an increase in time-consuming processes” as a consequence of the legislation, such challenges had been “partially mitigated”, it added.<\/p>\n

The data shows the aim of the act “is being realised in practice”, the review says.<\/p>\n

Cabinet secretary for Social Justice Jane Hutt said the review “shows the law is embedding well”.<\/p>\n

“I thank all of those who played their part in this legislation…because this is something that we must be very proud of.”<\/p>\n

However, Simon Calvert from the Be Reasonable campaign group who opposed the ban said: “This law is costing the taxpayer millions, diverting police from serious crime and placing unnecessary strain on social services.”<\/p>\n

“Instead of focusing on neglect and abuse, professionals are being drawn into intrusive investigations of ordinary, loving families.”<\/p>\n

He said it was “impossible to reconcile the Welsh government’s claim that implementation is ‘progressing well’ with the data it has produced”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sociologist and Be Reasonable supporter Dr Ashley Frawley said “being investigated for assaulting your child is huge”, adding it would go on a person’s record, even without prosecution.<\/p>\n

Dr Frawley, from the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, added that authoritative parenting “often uses smacking as a back-up method combined with a lot of love”.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority of parents know the difference between beating a child and a light tap,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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NSPCC chief executive Chris Sherwood said the “trailblazing work” in Wales had “changed public opinion and improved social services’ ability to safeguard children”.<\/p>\n

“The report further echoes the unequivocal evidence that physical punishment is harmful, ineffective and damages the trust and wellbeing at the heart of family relationships,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the charity questioned why England and Northern Ireland were “lagging behind”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Cemlyn Davies,Wales political correspondentand Angela Ferguson,BBC Wales Mari Ellis Dunning Mum-of-two Mari Ellis Dunning says the fact that smacking was ever legal “baffles” her A mother-of-two says she is “baffled” that smacking a child was ever legal in Wales, nearly three years on from a ban being introduced. Mari Ellis Dunning, 32, said she sought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[18941,546,587,2090,76,9147,18942,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66228,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66226\/revisions\/66228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}