The Centre for Young Lives welcomes the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as a positive and important step towards improving the safeguarding of vulnerable children and boosting their life chances. It addresses issues we have been very concerned about over many years, including vulnerable children falling through the gaps and into danger. This briefing provides a short overview of the Bill.

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Children in care and children not in school have been some of the most neglected groups in recent years. Today, the Government will introduce a Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to Parliament, designed to “write children’s best interests into law”. This is the first new law for children inseveral years and brings about welcome measures to better support and identify children not in school, support and protect children in care, and drive higher school standards.

The Centre for Young Lives believes this Bill is a positive and important step towards improving the safeguarding of vulnerable children and boosting their life chances. It addresses issues we have been very concerned about over many years, including vulnerable children falling through the gaps and into danger.  

School absence and home schooling

The problem:

• A good education is a crucial foundation for all children, yet a growing number of children are missing out on school entirely, a tragedy for their future life chances and a significant safeguarding risk. An estimated 305,000 children are missing from education, up by 41% since 2017.‍
• DfE statistics published last week showed a 21% rise in elective home education: 111,700 children in elective home education (EHE) in the autumn term, up from92,000 in the previous autumn term.
• An estimated 7,000 section 437(1) notices have been served, an increase of almost 80% from the previous academic year - these notices are issued when local authorities are concerned that parents are not providing a suitable education.‍
• We know that many children are being “home educated” because they have fallen or are being pushed out of mainstream education or because they are not receiving the support they need to learn in school. Fewer than one in five parents surveyed about the reasons why their children are home-schooled say it is for philosophical reasons.
• Sadly, some children are not receiving an education at home, including some vulnerable children. Some may also be at risk of harm and are being kept deliberately out of sight, as we saw in the tragic case of Sara Sharif, who was brought out of school by her father shortly before she was killed.

Measures announced today by the Government are a positive step forward, particularly:  

• A new register of children not in school;
• The removal of parents’ automatic right to educate their children at home if their child is subject to a protection investigation or under a child protection plan;
• New powers for local authorities to require a child’s attendance in school where their home is not suitable.

These are welcome steps in identifying children and bringing some children back into school. We want to see the Government go further and to encourage a culture of inclusion and belonging in schools, as well as supporting schools to better support and identify families in need. We also believe the Government can start to break the link between poverty and school absence by lifting the two-child limit and reducing the number of branded items in school uniform.

Early intervention

The problem:

• There were nearly 400,000 children in need in 2024, equivalent to around 1 in every 30 children.
• Between 2010/11 and 2021/22, spending on early intervention services such as Sure Start children’s centres fell by 46%, while total expenditure on late interventions, like youth justice and child protection, has risen by 47%.
• Too often, public agencies struggle to work together and share information to protect children.

Measures announced today should support local authorities to provide improved early support to families and ensure public agencies are working together better to protect and support children. We welcome:

• The doubling of the investment for Family Help services to £500m next year;
• The unique identifier number for children across public services, to help public services share information and work together to support children.

We also want to see substantial investment in early intervention and prevention support, including in family hubs and children’s centres.

Children’s social care

Better investment in early intervention and prevention through Family Help and powers to identify children across public services are important steps towards improving prevention.

The problem:

• Excessive profiteering in children’s social care has contributed to sky rocketing local authority bills. According to the Department for Education's latest data, local authorities spent £2.5bn on residential placements last financial year, £1.1bn more than 2018-19. Among the largest 15 providers, profit margins averaged 22.6% in residential care.
• The number of children going into care has fallen slightly for the first time, after several years of increasing numbers, although the number of children over 16 continues to rise.
• 90%+ councils highlighted children needing help with increasingly complex needs, including mental health andchallenging behaviours.

Welcome measures announced today by the Government include:

• A requirement on councils to offer Family Group Decision Making, a family-led process that recognises the strengths within the family.
• A requirement on families to publish a local kinship offer;
• Measures to crackdown on excessive profiteering in children’s social care, including a backstop law to potentially cap profits.

Schools

We believe a high-quality education is our most essential public asset in setting children up well for life.

The problem:

• Schools should provide a foundation of knowledge and skills to every child and young people, including the most marginalised. Currently, our education system is not delivering for every child and allowing them to the thrive.
• Children continue to fall through the gaps in our education system for a range of reasons including exclusions, off rolling or managed moves, elective home education, non-attendance, or children struggling with unmet special education needs.
• We want to see Government continue to push for a culture of inclusion in every mainstream school, including through Ofsted’s addition of an inclusion measure in its inspection framework to be rolled out across 2025, and through its commitment to strengthen SEND provision in mainstream schools.

Today the Government has announced new measures including:

• The Bill will require all state-funded schools to teach the national curriculum (as set out following the Curriculum and Assessment Review).
• Councils will be able to welcome proposals for all types of school.  
• All new teachers will hold or be working towards Qualified Teacher Status before they enter the classroom. They will also need to complete a statutory induction period.
• Every schoolteacher will have the same core pay and conditions offer, and schools will have greater flexibility to attract and retain the best teachers.
• Schools and councils will have to work together when it comes to school admissions, with councils given greater powers to ensure admissions decisions reflect local needs including the placement of vulnerable children.
• Failing schools run by local authorities will not be automatically forced to become an academy.