The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (formerly known as the Children’s Wellbeing Bill) had its first reading in the House of Commons on the afternoon of 17th December. The bill encompasses 38 measures aimed at fulfilling the Labour Party’s 2024 commitments to remove barriers to opportunity in schools and improve the education system. Additionally, it seeks to advance pledges from the 2024 manifesto on children’s social care. Notably, the first reading was scheduled to coincide with the sentencing in the Sara Sharif case.
There was some initial confusion when it sounded like the second reading would take place the following day (18th December). A quick email to the House of Commons bill team confirmed that it will, in fact, take place after the festive break—a relief for me and the NASS team, I must admit!
We’ve pulled together an initial summary of key elements in the bill before the merriment of the festive period begins. If you find yourself with some downtime during the "Crimbo limbo" period, we hope this blog offers a useful insight into what’s in store.
What does the bill include?
There aren’t many surprises to what we were expecting. The bill is structured into three parts:
- Children’s Social Care
- Schools
- General Provisions
Through the lens of children and young people with SEND, I’ve highlighted some key themes and proposals that may be of interest to our members and others in the SEND sector. This isn’t an exhaustive list, so you may wish to explore the full bill and its supporting documents here. https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909/publications
Unfortunately, at first glance, the bill lacks significant reference to SEND. During the post-launch briefing, it was mentioned that SEND policy would be addressed in future legislation. This means we’ll need to keep a watchful eye on what might emerge soon. Additionally, the absence of wellbeing provisions beyond safeguarding is disappointing, as this was an opportunity to champion improvements in mental health support for children.
That said, here are the key points of interest so far:
Child protection and safeguarding
“Protecting children at risk of abuse and stopping vulnerable children falling through the cracks are at the heart of this landmark bill”
A major theme running throughout the bill is child protection, with a strong focus on improving multi-agency cooperation, especially when safeguarding of children in need is concerned. We welcome the proposal to automatically include education and childcare agencies in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. This duty to share information will apply to persons listed in s.11(1) of the Children Act 2004, along with education and childcare relevant agencies, and seeks to address long standing issues around inadequate information sharing.
Regulation of children’s homes
It isn’t a great surprise that regulation of children’s homes features heavily in the bill. The government aims to improve local authorities’ ability to shape the children’s social care placement market and tackle profiteering. Key measures include:
- A duty for parent undertakings (private or voluntary provider groups) with multiple settings flagged by Ofsted for quality concerns to develop improvement plans. Non-compliance could result in unlimited monetary penalties from Ofsted.
- Introduction of a Financial Oversight Scheme, with provisions for profit caps in the future if other interventions fail to yield results.
For those who read NASS CEO Claire Dorer’s blog last month, she highlighted the need for a nuanced conversation about profit in social care:
“We need to be able to have sophisticated discussions about profit – how it is generated, how much of it is re-invested in new homes and schools. We need to be clear about the similarities and differences between surplus and profit and the role of efficiency in service provision and we need to be able to do this logically and factually, owning when our views are driven by our own set of morals and values. It’s possible to do and I am hoping NASS will have a seat around the table and an opportunity to create great evidence-based policy that makes a lasting difference to children, young people and their families.”
This considered approach will be crucial as the details of the scheme take shape during the second reading and committee stages.
Children Not in School
The Bill contains several changes aimed at reducing the number of children and young people fall through the cracks, not least aimed at reducing the number of CYP in unregistered providers or better oversight of home education. The Children Not in School proposals that are being introduced as part of the Bill build on previous legislative attempts that we have seen. It includes:
- A local authority consent mechanism for withdrawing certain children from school.
- Giving local authorities the power to require that children subject to child protection processes attend school when it is in their best interests.
- A duty on local authorities to maintain registers of children not in school and provide support to home-educating parents.
Academy schools
The bill proposes several changes that will impact academy schools and multi academy trusts, including:
- A requirement for all academies to teach the national curriculum, pending the conclusion of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review. Currently, academies are not required to teach the national curriculum, although they can if they choose. They are obligated to meet the curriculum requirements of section 78 of the Education Act 2002, which requires schools to offer a “balanced and broadly based curriculum”. It’s unclear at this stage whether special academies will also be required to follow the national curriculum, though like local authority special schools, they may retain the flexibility to adapt it to students’ needs and abilities.
- Extension of statutory pay and conditions arrangements to academy teachers (clause 45). This will mean that bodies representing the interests of proprietors of academies will from now may be consulted by the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) when compiling their report.
- Extension of LA power to direct admission to academies (clause 48); however, it is important to note that this does not extend to a special academy school for pupils with special educational needs.
Independent educational institutions
Key proposals affecting independent educational institutions include:
- Enhanced powers for the Secretary of State (clause 31) to prescribe standards and which would require the proprietor of an independent educational institution to have regard to guidance issued, or a document published, by the Secretary of State. This is one clause where the devil is in the detail and it will be interesting to see further details on this and the proposed Subsection (1) of a new section 118A that creates a power to suspend, temporarily, the registration of an independent educational institution.
- Changes to the "material change" regime (Clause 33), requiring institutions to seek approval before specified operational changes - for example, by introducing a new category of material change related to the buildings occupied by an institution and made available for student use. Clause 33(5) amends section 101 of the 2008 Act to redefine what constitutes a “material change” and therefore, the changes at an institution for which the Secretary of State’s approval would be needed. This is of particular importance for special schools who, if it changes the type or types of special educational needs (as set out in regulations made under section 98(3A) of the 2008 Act) for which it makes special educational provision, it will need to seek a material change.
- Introduction of a more intrusive inspection regime by Ofsted (clause 36), with increased powers to investigate criminal offences and impose prevention orders.
Next Steps
We expect the second reading of the bill to be scheduled for January or, at the latest, February 2025. In the interim, NASS will thoroughly review the bill’s provisions, pinpointing areas that require clarification and identifying opportunities to propose amendments, either independently or in collaboration with other stakeholders. As always, we will keep our members informed and updated.