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 this afternoon
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.
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 Conservatives are planning to use an amendment to the bill this afternoon to call for a public inquiry into grooming gangs, a move condemned by the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson as “utterly shameful” and in another interview that “The bandwagon jumpers that have come along don’t care about children”
