The Children’s Wellbeing Bill: what does this mean for the future of education?

On 17 July 2024, the Children’s Wellbeing Bill was first introduced in the King’s Speech. It forms part of the Labour government’s vision and priorities and is being billed as the most significant piece of education law to be introduced in over a decade.

In September, we provided an overview of the Bill and explored the changes we can expect when the Bill comes into legislation. Since then, further information has been released and the Bill has recently been debated in the House of Commons.

Joanne Davison, partner, and Victoria Walton, senior solicitor apprentice, in our education team, take an in-depth look at the Bill which is said to be:

"introduced as soon as parliament allows and aims to put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and to ensure that every child has a fulfilling childhood, enabling them to succeed and thrive."

What does the Children’s Wellbeing Bill set out to achieve?

The Bill still aims to achieve a wide variety of goals, including (but not limited to) raising educational standards and breaking down barriers to opportunity.

The Bill will do so by:

• Requiring every primary school in the country to provide a free breakfast club, to increase the current 52% of primary schools that already provide one;
  
  
• Bringing multi-academy trusts (MATs), which run over 45% of state schools, into the inspection system to provide a fairer and more transparent inspection system, as the current Ofsted framework arguably neglects the reality of MATs as one organisation, with the trust being the accountable body;
  
  
• Imposing a duty on local authorities to have and maintain ‘Children Not in School’ registers and provide support to home-educating parents, with the aim of maximising the opportunities open to the 92,000 home-educated children, and ensuring that fewer children go under the radar when they are not in school;
  
  
• Requiring all state schools to teach the national curriculum, which will bring MATs in line with maintained schools and will ensure greater consistency between the two and set the foundations to equip every child with the essential knowledge and skills for the future;
  
  
• Requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion and place planning, which in turn will provide the local authorities with greater powers in relation to admissions; and
  
  
• Strengthening multi-agency child protection and safeguarding arrangements, in order to combat the rise in safeguarding concerns from incidents like cyber-bullying, domestic abuse and neglect across all schools.

What does this mean for my school or trust?

Although more information about the Bill has been released, it is still early in the process of becoming legislation and the full effect of the Bill will not be known until it officially becomes law.

However, we do continue to expect that MATs will become subject to the scrutiny of Ofsted and its recently amended grading system.

In addition, MATs will be provided with support should they not deliver the national curriculum already.

Although this specific bill is yet to become legislation, we have already seen some major changes in the first few months of the Labour government – including the removal of single-word Ofsted judgements, additional funding for the provision of school nursery places, and the axing of the academy conversion support grant from 1 January 2025.

If you have any questions regarding the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, and how it will affect your school or trust or the removal of the academy conversion support grant, please contact Joanne Davison by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 0191 211 7958.