On 8 January 2025 the Department for Education issued a Statement ahead of the subsequently successful further reading of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Within that Statement they note proposed key benefits, stating:

“Major reforms to protect thousands of vulnerable children hidden from sight will take another crucial step forward today, as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is debated in Parliament (8 January 2025).

Children not in school registers, stronger powers for councils to make sure children are getting the right education, and a unique identifying number for every child are part of major reforms to help tackle the tragedy of children vanishing from education and protect young people from exploitation, grooming and abuse.

The recent Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report 2024 highlighted that children experiencing harm outside the home, including exploitation, were likely to be not enrolled in school, missing education or have poor school attendance, and that’s why the bill will also strengthen multi-agency safeguarding arrangements to quickly identify significant harm. This comes as the government announced action this week on three key recommendations from the Professor Alexis Jay review to address significant failings to keep children safe.

According to the latest government data, around 111,000 children and young people are home educated, up from an estimated 55,000 before the pandemic. This is alongside the 150,000 children missing education all together at some point during the last year. The bill will bring in unprecedented safeguards for home educated children, ratchet up powers for councils and compel local authorities to establish dedicated, multi-agency safeguarding teams to keep track of children.

Measures will also put more cash back in working parents’ pockets by capping the number of branded items schools can require as part of their uniform. This could save some families over £50 per child during the back-to-school shop, ensuring parents have as much flexibility as possible to shop around and save money. It will also give every parent of a primary school child a legal entitlement to a breakfast club, saving them as much as £450 per year.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, that will bring these measures into law, has its second reading in Parliament today, helping make child-centred government a reality and deliver on the government’s Plan for Change”.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:

“Keeping children safe will always be my first duty as education secretary, but we can only truly do that if we know where our children are. The sad reality is that at the moment there are thousands of children hidden from sight.

This government will make no apologies for doing whatever is necessary to keep children out of harm’s way, and I will not stand by while some young people fall through the cracks, left without a good education and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

This landmark bill is a crucial step forward in our mission to protect all children, while also supporting parents by putting more money in their pockets as we deliver our Plan for Change and give all children the best start in life.

Measures to reform children’s social care and help reduce the number of children missing education that are being introduced in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill include:

• • all councils will be required to hold a register of children who are not in school. Councils will be able to require parents and providers of out of school education to share information like name, address and the nature of the education children are being provided a unique number for every child – in the same way every adult has their own national insurance number – to join up systems and make sure no child falls through the cracks.
  • A consistent identifier will allow those responsible for the safeguarding and welfare of children to better join relevant data and identify children who will benefit from additional support
  • the removal of the automatic right for parents to educate children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. Schools will need to check with the local authority where a parent asks to remove a child from school to home educate, to establish whether the local authority’s consent should be obtained.
  • if any child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities will have the power to intervene and require school attendance
  • making sure every council operates best practice ‘multi-agency’ safeguarding panels, that bring together all the professionals that can best make sure children are kept safe both inside and outside the home
  • Wider measures in the bill include capping the number of branded items schools can require as part of their uniform. Primary schools will be able to require a maximum of 3 branded items, and secondary schools will have the option to include an additional item if one of those is a tie”.

The Children’s Commissioner also issued a Statement however on 9 January 2025, highlighting a Briefing for MPs on the Bill, welcoming the Bill, but also highlighting areas in which it could be improved. She wrote:

“As Children’s Commissioner, I want England to be the best place for children to grow up, where every child can be safe, healthy and happy. My role was born out of the need to hear children’s voices, who too often are excluded and overlooked in a system designed for adults.

The death of Sara Sharif, and the recent resurfacing of the crimes by grooming gangs have highlighted that too many services children rely on are failing – whether that is children missing out on the benefits of school and education, or children living in social care who, instead of getting the care they deserve and need, grow up in wholly unsuitable and illegal children’s homes.

I am pleased to see the urgency with which the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being introduced and taken through Parliament. The Bill lays a strong foundation for change for every child. It is an important opportunity to better protect children who are at risk of serious harm or abuse, to better support children with complex needs, and to ensure children currently hidden or missed by public services get the help and protection they need. For these children, change cannot come quickly enough.

…

The Bill includes several significant measures for which I have advocated since taking up the role of Children’s Commissioner in 2021. I have called on successive governments to introduce a unique identifying number for children, as well as a register for all children not in school. Writing these two landmark measures into law will be of huge significance for all children in this country, especially those who face the risk of neglect or abuse outside of school.

The Bill sets out important first steps, but there will be a need for further legislation in this parliament that focuses on children, not least those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). A clear vision of reform for this long-overlooked area of support is crucial and must not be seen in isolation from other improvements to children’s services.

…

There are a number of areas where I would like to see proposals strengthened to go further:

• • Protection from assault: This is the opportunity to give children the same protection from assault as adults in England. The Bill should send a clear message to children that the state is there to protect them and should eliminate any shades of grey which leave parents, carers, professionals – and children themselves, uncertain about what level of violence is acceptable.
  • Illegal children’s homes and deprivation of liberty: Some of the most vulnerable children in the country are being placed in illegal children’s homes, denied safe and appropriate care, or are having their liberty deprived without proper safeguards. This legislation is an opportunity to bring an end to both.
  • Home education: I warmly welcome the introduction of a register of children not in school but believe the Bill should go further to both improve the support for children in home education and to introduce a clear national framework for data sharing, so that local Children Missing Education teams can quickly identify and support children missing education to return to education.
  • Child protection: To better protect children, I would like to see a requirement introduced to obtain consent from the local authority before a child is removed from school where a child has been referred to social services for a Child in Need or Child Protection enquiry in the last 12 months where the primary need was abuse or neglect. Where children have a Child in Need Plan or a Child Protection Plan, for these reasons, there should always be a named school.
  • Schools as safeguarding partners: Alongside the police, local authorities and health settings, I would like to see schools made the fourth statutory safeguarding partner. Education settings play a vital role in safeguarding. The Bill only puts in place measures to require education partners’ participation, it does not make them a partner and therefore does not put them on an equal footing with social care, health and police…”

For the Department for Education Press Release see here.

For the Children’s Commissioner’s Press Release, see here.

For the Children’s Commissioner’s Briefing for MPs, see here.

News Editor- Mark Chaloner, Barrister, 42BR

13/01/2024