Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to reach Parliament

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is set to be introduced in Parliament today (17th December), which will be central to delivering on the government’s Plan for Change by making children’s futures priority. The measures aim to ensure all children get the best start to life in order to propel to sustainable change that children need to thrive in the future.

The new measures today will aim to rectify a system that leaves certain groups of children by the wayside through changes such as new registers to identify children who are not in school, as well as giving children their own unique number across service, like how the national insurance number works for adults. This will allow for better safeguarding protocols through better, more thorough data sharing.

Additionally, parents will longer be able to educate their children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. Local authorities will have the power to intervene and require school attend should a child’s home environment be assessed as unsuitable or unsafe. 

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “In recent years, too many children have been failed by their last line of defence: the state.

“This Bill will be a seminal moment for child protection. No more words, no more lessons learnt. This government will put children first at every turn.

“That means a child-centred government, with better protections for young people and real join up between children’s social care, schools and local services. Alongside further measures to drive high and raising standards in our schools, this Bill will deliver on the government’s Plan for Change, so that all children, whatever the circumstances, can achieve and thrive.”

Alongside these reforms, the government is also doubling the investment for Family Help services to £500 million next year, which will allow local authorities to support vulnerable families and protect children. This extra funding will go towards providing holistic support for families struggling with issues like substance misuse or mental health, and getting help to the family.

Other measures set forward the Bill include supporting the government’s crackdown on excessive profit-making by children’s social care providers, and having all councils offering Family Group Decision Making, a service that brings together extended family members when a child is on the brink of entering care.

Further support will be delivering schools through an extensive set of commitments to drive standards in education higher, such as councils welcoming proposals from all types of schools rather than just academies, all teachers to hold or be working towards Qualified Teacher Status before they teach in schools, all schoolteachers to have the same core pay and conditions offer, and for schools and councils to work together when it comes to school admissions.