Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill — 8 Jan 2025 at 18:44

“this House, while welcoming measures to improve child protection and safeguarding, declines to give a Second Reading to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill because it undermines the long-standing combination of school freedom and accountability that has led to educational standards rising in England, effectively abolishes academy freedoms which have been integral to that success and is regressive in approach, leading to worse outcomes for pupils; because it ends freedom over teacher pay and conditions, making it harder to attract and retain good teachers; because it ends freedom over Qualified Teacher Status, making teacher recruitment harder; because it removes school freedoms over the curriculum, leading to less innovation; because repealing the requirements for failing schools to become academies and for all new schools to be academies will undermine school improvement and remove the competition which has led to rising standards; because the Bill will make it harder for good schools to expand, reducing parental choice and access to a good education; and calls upon the Government to develop new legislative proposals for children’s wellbeing including establishing a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs.”

“belongs not to some remote bureaucracy, not to the rulers of government, local or national, but to itself, for itself. The school is in charge of its own destiny.”

“command public services today are no more acceptable than a command economy.”

“positive innovation and good practice in teachers’ pay and conditions in some academies”

“ensure that local authority-maintained schools also have the opportunity to implement this”.

“strong track record of multi academy trusts…turning around failing schools”.

“regional improvement for standards and excellence (‘RISE’) teams”-

“hope to see future legislation and the forthcoming multi-year spending review further prioritise wider kinship care reform”.

“receive efficient full-time education…either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.”

“The forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill is a vital mechanism for improving the lives of vulnerable children… there is a renewed government focus on tackling child sexual abuse… which will necessarily include our response to the IICSA recommendations.”

“The current discrepancy between maintained schools and academies leaves potential for inconsistencies in education standards, opportunities and outcomes for pupils from different types of schools.”

“the last vulnerable child to be killed by people who should have looked after her.”-[Official Report, 18 December 2024; Vol. 759, c. 312.]

“we urge the Government to focus on delivering improvements… rather than proposing new inquiries that may potentially delay action even further”.

“to ensure that Jennifer’s Education, Health and Care Plan contained sufficient and updated information about…her risk of suicide”.

“To ensure that Oskar’s Educational, Health and Care Plan contained sufficient…information”

“the perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal the truth from everyone.”

“Even though you didn’t get to meet Jen, her story is a powerful one and needs sharing to save other young lives. I raised Jen to be the change you want to see in the world and she’s still doing this.”

“Before requiring academies to comply with the framework we will ask the School Teachers’ Review Body to consider additional flexibilities within the statutory framework to make it most effective for all schools.”

“Children do disclose to teachers, particularly in primary school. We spend so many hours with children-we are often the voice for the child. Parents can often tell authorities things that are not true.”

“Unless you have spent sleepless nights worrying about a child, knocked on a door in the hope that a child is still alive, you don’t understand.”

“of huge significance for any child currently at risk of harm in this country”.

“I’m guessing victims of abuse want to be believed, to see justice served and to hold the people who knew and didn’t help accountable, not listen to another multi-million pound inquiry lasting 7 years, which points out the obvious.”

“crippling families, even more so in this current climate, and it is only getting worse.”

“We recognise the good practice that academy trusts have developed over the years, but good practice shouldn’t be limited by administrative structures.”

“We are worried in the sector about what the problems are that the changes are designed to fix. We can offer better pay. It’s not clear why constraining that solves a problem. Why academies…should be constrained beats me…We’re hoping that some of this will be amended. It would be a terrible shame if the reforms that Labour introduced over 20 years ago…were watered down.”

“more difficult for trusts to do the hard work of improving schools in the most challenging circumstances”.

Debate in Parliament |