Cabinet meeting: 2 February 2026

• Rt Hon Eluned Morgan MS (Chair)
• Huw Irranca-Davies MS 
• Jayne Bryant MS 
• Jeremy Miles MS 
• Lynne Neagle MS 
• Ken Skates MS
   
• Dawn Bowden MS 
• Vikki Howells MS 
• Sarah Murphy MS 
• Jack Sargeant MS 

Apologies

• Mark Drakeford MS 
• Rebecca Evans MS
• Jane Hutt MS
• Julie James MS

Officials

• Andrew Goodall, Permanent Secretary 
• Rebecca Dunn, Head of Cabinet Division 
• Victoria Jones, Principal Private Secretary First Minister
• Toby Mason, Head of Strategic Communications  
• Sinead Gallagher, Deputy Director Cabinet Office
• Luke Young, Special Adviser 
• Sarah Dickins, Special Adviser
• Haf Davies, Special Adviser 
• Victoria Evans, Special Adviser
• David Hooson, Special Adviser
• Nadila Hussein, Special Adviser 
• Kirsty Keenan, Special Adviser 
• Jackie Jones, Special Adviser
• Stephen Jones, Special Adviser 
• Philippa Marsden, Special Adviser
• Tal Michael, Special Adviser,
• Mary Wimbury, Special Adviser 
• Christopher W Morgan, Head of Cabinet Secretariat (minutes)
• Helen Carey, Cabinet Secretariat 
• Damian Roche, Cabinet Secretariat 
• Katie Mason, Cabinet Secretariat 
• Helena Bird, Permanent Secretary’s office
• Tracey Burke, Director General Climate Change & Rural Affairs
• Judith Paget, Director General Strategy
• Andrew Slade, Director General Economy, Energy and Transport  
• Jacqueline Totterdell, Director General Health 
• Emma Williams, Director General Education, Culture & Welsh Language
• Dean Medcraft, Director Finance 
• Neil Buffin, Deputy Director Director Legal Services
• Taryn Stephens, Deputy Chief Social Care Officer (item 6)

1.1 Cymeradwyodd y Cabinet gofnodion 26 Ionawr 2026 / Cabinet approved the minutes of 26 January 2026.

Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards

2.1 The First Minister advised Cabinet that she would, in the coming days, be announcing the appointment of Dr Melissa McCullough as the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, in line with the commitment made during the recent revision of the Ministerial Code.

2.2 Dr McCullough had extensive experience in ethics and professional standards in the public sector, having served as Commissioner for Standards to several UK and Channel Island legislatures. She would be responsible for investigating breaches of the Ministerial Code, considering Ministerial interests, and providing advice to Ministers on the Code.

Business Appointment Rules

2.3 The First Minister outlined the business appointment rules that would apply to Ministers leaving Welsh Government, following the UK Government’s decision to bring to a close the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments at the end of 2025. 

2.4 These duties would now fall under the remit of the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards. The rules would reflect what was previously expected and outlined in the Ministerial Code. As such, this would be in keeping with the rules that apply to other Governments across the UK.

3.1 Cabinet considered the Plenary Grid and noted the LCM on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill had been postponed, with voting time on Tuesday expected to take place around 4:10pm. This would be followed by Stage 3 of the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill, with voting throughout. Voting time was scheduled for 5:55pm on Wednesday. 

4.1 The Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government provided Cabinet with an update on delivering more homes, in advance of a statement to the Senedd the following day. 

4.2 The Government was projected to deliver an additional 20,000 homes for rent in the social sector by November. This was against a backdrop of the most challenging conditions the housebuilding sector had faced in a generation, including the aftermath of the pandemic, the impact of Brexit along with mitigating the impacts of water course pollution. 

4.3 This was the highest sustained delivery of affordable housing in Wales in nearly two decades and there was also a pipeline to maintain this pace into the future. 

4.4 The Government currently had 26 sites available, covering over 1,300 acres with potential to deliver around 7,000 new homes. There was already a contract with Barratt Redrow to deliver one of the UK’s largest net zero carbon housing developments.  The Cosmeston Farm site would deliver 576 new homes that would achieve net zero carbon through innovative design and technologies. 50% of these would be designated as affordable homes.

4.5 Whilst the Government had less levers available to drive private sector housebuilding, more than 17,000 private sector homes had been completed in Wales in the first four years of this Government’s term, and the momentum continued.

4.6 Help to Buy Wales, which had more than 70 developers, had helped over 3,000 people to purchase a new home during the current Senedd, despite the cost-of-living headwinds.

4.7 When the Empty Homes Grant was introduced in 2023, it was acknowledged it would take a few years for it to gain interest and for any remedial works to be completed. So far, the fund had received over 1,200 valid applications and supported over 370 properties to be brought back into use as homes, with many more in progress. 

4.8 The Government was piloting removal of the 10% funding requirement for Local Authorities in 2026-27.

4.9 All 22 Local Authorities had joined Leasing Scheme Wales, which encouraged private landlords and owners of empty homes to lease properties to their respective Council for up to 20 years, with over 480 properties already registered under the scheme.  

4.10 In addition, the Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme was delivering good-quality, longer-term housing at pace. This Programme had been established to help move people out of temporary accommodation and into longer-term homes, in response to growing housing pressures. Over the past three years, the investment had delivered over 2,700 good-quality homes, this included more than 930 previously empty properties. 

4.11 More broadly, across all interventions over the last two years, 18,000 people had been moved out of temporary accommodation into suitable long-term accommodation.

4.12 The delivery partners were embracing low cost, recyclable loans through the Land for Housing and Registered Social Landlords (RSL) loans, which was helping secure land towards the delivery of up to 7,400 homes or directly build over 300 new affordable homes. There was also a programme to deliver improvements to over 4,000 existing properties. 

4.13 Regionally, there was engagement with Local Authority Housing leads and their RSL counterparts, via regular roundtables, to provide first hand leadership and commitment to help them address housing needs and working collectively to respond to the recommendations of the Affordable Housing Taskforce.

4.14 Good progress was being make on identifying land, resourcing the planning system, tracking schemes and providing skills support.

4.15 Cabinet welcomed the update. 

5.1 The Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership provided Cabinet with an update on the preparations to celebrate St David’s Day. 

5.2 A Pilot Support Fund had been established to support communities in preparing events and activities aimed at celebrating St David’s Day. 450 applications had been received, with 100 projects approved, resulting in a total value of £1.2m. Successful projects covered a wide range of sectors and communities across Wales, reflecting ambition and diversity.

5.3 A new overarching St David’s Day brand had been developed to unify activity, with a branding toolkit being shared with funded projects. In addition, the St David Awards ceremony had been brought forward to 26 February to coincide with the week building up to St David’s Day.

5.4 In terms of tourism and digital promotion, a dedicated St David’s Day section on the Visit Wales website had been created, which enabled organisations to upload events. In addition, content was being refreshed across Visit Wales, Croeso Cymru, and social media channels to maximise reach.

5.5 The Pethau Bychain / Random Acts of Welshness campaign, which encouraged simple acts celebrating Welsh culture, kindness and community worldwide, was due to return for its fifth year in 2026.

5.6 There would also be a series of celebrations to promote Welsh food and drink, such as a London based showcase featuring Welsh producers, demonstrations, and tastings, along with a Transport for Wales event at Cardiff Central Station on 27^th February. 

5.7 Cadw would also be offering free public access to its sites on St David’s Day, with donations encouraged for its charity of the year, the Wales Air Ambulance.  

5.8 Furthermore, the Little Things Quest would be launched and hosted in the Bishop’s Palace Minecraft world in St David’s. This would be a culturally inclusive Minecraft based learning experience; to encourage young people to explore how small actions could positively impact communities. 

5.9 Cabinet welcomed the update.

6.1 The Minister for Children and Social Care introduced the paper, which asked Cabinet to agree the cross-Government commitments within the 10-year Strategy for preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse. 

6.2 The Strategy aimed to prevent child sexual abuse, ensure the protection of children where there were concerns, and provide support to children, families and adult victim-survivors.

6.3 Over the course of the Strategy’s development, there had been engagement across Government, with the wider Public and Third Sectors, and with those with lived experience. The views of people affected by decisions had been fundamental to the development of the Strategy. 

6.4 Throughout the pre-consultation process there had been engagement with over 100 key stakeholders, including adult victim-survivors, and there had been 98 responses to the formal public consultation undertaken between July and October 2025. 

6.5 Given the inherent sensitivities around engaging children and young people in discussion on this topic, a rapid review of global research from the past 5 years had been commissioned, in which the voices of children and young people were included. This had been a comprehensive process and a genuine of co-production.

6.6 Good progress had already been made in tackling child sexual abuse in Wales.  Between 2019 and 2022 a National Action Plan had been in place, which successfully developed a wealth of resources for children, parents / caregivers and professionals.  The Regional Safeguarding Boards had been engaged in implementing a national pathway for addressing harmful sexual behaviours exhibited by young people, usually towards other young people. 

6.7 This Strategy built upon the success of the National Action Plan and responded to stakeholder feedback about the need for a longer-term, whole system approach and the inclusion of support for adult victim-survivors.

6.8 The Strategy, the first of its kind in the UK, aimed to build a country in which children were able to live free from the risk of sexual harm, while those affected were protected and supported across their lifespan.

6.9 The Strategy would focus on achieving four key objectives.  Preventing child sexual abuse, protecting children where there were concerns about child sexual abuse, supporting children, parents / caregivers, siblings and other family members to recover, while also supporting adult victim-survivors to recover.

6.10 Prevention would focus on raising awareness, building confidence and educating young people, their parents / caregivers, the public and professionals to help develop their understanding of child sexual abuse. Such as, how it presented, how to report it to the appropriate agencies, and to further their understanding of healthy relationships and healthy sexual development. Children and young people had indicated that adults were still struggling to have discussions with them about these critical matters.  The need to build confidence as well as knowledge was recognised.

6.11 Protecting children where there were concerns centred on improving the multi-agency response to child sexual abuse across all agencies including education, police, youth justice and children’s social services.

6.12 Ensuring the workforce was educated and well supported to respond to abuse and support children and families who had been affected, was a key building block to support the success of the Strategy. A child sexual abuse training framework would be developed. This would ensure that all professionals, regardless of their role, would have access to the information they needed to equip them to protect and support and feel confident in their interactions with children and their families when abuse had taken place. This framework would also educate professionals on the use of trauma informed responses, which were applicable when responding to all child abuse and neglect.

6.13 Child sexual abuse was complex and presented in many forms, so there was a need to ensure professionals had access to specialist advice when necessary.  Achieving the vision for building a Wales in which children were safe from sexual harm would take time. Unfortunately, there were many children and families who had already been impacted, and a high number of children and families would continue to be deeply affected by such abuse. 

6.14 Those who had experienced abuse who had not received the required level of support, could suffer from substance misuse, lack of self-care, mental health and wellbeing issues and enter abusive relationships. A conservative estimate of the cost to the Public Sector of child sexual abuse not being addressed was £1bn per annum.

6.15 People would need access to support services that were available when required.

6.16 The Strategy would be delivered by a three-year rolling Delivery Plan, which would include priority actions and key milestones. 

6.17 Cabinet welcomed the paper and recognised the need to publish the Strategy and first Delivery Plan as soon as possible, given that the Centre of Expertise for Child Sexual Abuse estimated that 25,000 children and young people in Wales would be affected by some form of child sexual abuse each year. 

6.18 The importance of cross-Government working was acknowledged along with working with delivery partners, such as the Third Sector and Local Government.

6.19 It was noted the outcome and recommendations from the UK Government’s Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs would be reflected in future Delivery Plans.  

6.20 Cabinet approved the paper and noted the Strategy and Delivery Plan for 2026-2029 would be launched by Written Statement.

Cabinet Secretariat
February 2026