Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill progresses

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being debated in Parliament today, Wednesday 8 January.

Some of the measures included in the Bill include the introduction of registers for children not in school and allocating a unique identifying number for every child.

This is 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.

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 in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill include the requirement for all councils 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.

The Bill also includes the introduction of 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.

It also includes 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. And ff any child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities will have the power to intervene and require school attendance.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, that will bring these measures into law, has its second reading in Parliament today.

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."