removal of reasonable chastisement<\/a> as a legal defence.<\/p>\nThis 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
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765806376_309_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Antonia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dd7cac60-dc38-11f0-a665-27b3eb61cb96.jpg.webp.webp\")
Antonia Merola Jones<\/p>\n
Antonia Merola Jones from Flintshire in north Wales says she wishes the ban could be adopted in England <\/p>\n
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
‘Positive parenting techniques’<\/p>\n
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
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
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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cemlyn Davies,Wales political correspondentand Angela Ferguson,BBC Wales Mari Ellis Dunning Mum-of-two Mari Ellis Dunning says the fact that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-641726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115744891830486458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mari](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/a8a7c920-dc2e-11f0-854f-613aec88e40b.jpg.webp.webp\")
Mari Ellis Dunning<\/p>\n![\"Mari](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/a8dad0f0-dc37-11f0-a665-27b3eb61cb96.jpg.webp.webp\")
Mari Ellis Dunning<\/p>\n