Found: The children’s charities coalition welcomed the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill but stated that

Found: papers were reported to the House for publication: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to local government of implementing the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The department has conducted initial new burdens impact assessments, in line with normal practice, for measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Once the new burdens assessments have been finalised, where it is assessed there is a new burden on local government, all additional net costs will be funded by central government in line with the New Burdens Doctrine.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of legal aid provision for parents of children who are or may be deprived of their liberty.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Legal aid is fundamental to a fair justice system, underpins the rule of law, and facilitates access to other public services across government. We are committed to a well-functioning legal aid system, and one which aids in the smooth running of the justice system. For this reason, we keep the adequacy of all legal aid provision, including for deprivation of liberty and kinship carers, under regular review.

Individuals may be eligible for legal aid where a child is, or may be, subject to deprivation of liberty proceedings under section 25 of the Children Act 1989 (Secure Accommodation Order) or under the Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court (Deprivation of Liberty Order). This is subject to meeting the relevant means and merits tests. Kinship carers may be eligible for legal aid in family proceedings such as Care Proceedings subject to meeting the relevant means and merits tests.

We continue to work closely with the Department for Education on these areas, including following the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of legal aid provision for prospective kinship carers.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Legal aid is fundamental to a fair justice system, underpins the rule of law, and facilitates access to other public services across government. We are committed to a well-functioning legal aid system, and one which aids in the smooth running of the justice system. For this reason, we keep the adequacy of all legal aid provision, including for deprivation of liberty and kinship carers, under regular review.

Individuals may be eligible for legal aid where a child is, or may be, subject to deprivation of liberty proceedings under section 25 of the Children Act 1989 (Secure Accommodation Order) or under the Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court (Deprivation of Liberty Order). This is subject to meeting the relevant means and merits tests. Kinship carers may be eligible for legal aid in family proceedings such as Care Proceedings subject to meeting the relevant means and merits tests.

We continue to work closely with the Department for Education on these areas, including following the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill on small high-street businesses.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Bill provides the Treasury with powers to make provision for two new lower multipliers for qualifying retail, hospitality, and leisure properties from 2026/27. The intention of these provisions in the Bill is to rebalance the playing field for high street businesses.

Policies and legislation concerning tax and tax administration fall outside the meaning of regulatory provisions and, therefore, are not required to be accompanied by an Impact Assessment. Nevertheless, when the new multipliers are set at Budget 2025, the Treasury intends to publish analysis of the effects of the new multiplier arrangements.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what safeguards are in place to ensure people who (a) own, (b) manage and (c) work in private children's homes are properly qualified.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Providers of children’s homes must register with Ofsted and prove that they are financially, mentally, and physically fit to carry on a children’s home, and that they are of integrity and good character. These requirements are set out in Regulation 26 of the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015.

Managers of children’s homes are required to register with Ofsted. They are required to hold a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare (England) and to have at least two years’ experience working in children’s residential care, as per Regulation 28 of the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015. They must also pass a fit and proper persons interview with Ofsted to demonstrate they have the required knowledge and skills to manage the home.

Non-managerial staff in children's homes must hold Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) or an equivalent qualification, as per Regulation 32 of the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015. It is the responsibility of the registered manager to verify that their staff hold, or are working towards, this qualification. Providers have a responsibility to ensure that their staff are trained to meet the needs of the children they care for.

Providers and anyone working in regulated activity in a children’s home must undergo an enhanced DBS check, including the barred list.

Ofsted aim to inspect children’s homes at least once per year. When a home is judged to be inadequate or require improvement to be good, Ofsted usually conduct a second, assurance visit within the same inspection period.

The policy paper ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ details the department’s ambition to introduce a provider oversight scheme to increase Ofsted’s existing powers to ensure provider groups are held responsible for the quality of the children’s homes that they own through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

This will give Ofsted the power to issue fines for breaches of the Care Standards Act 2000, including to unregistered providers, and enable them to hold provider groups to account for quality issues in the provision of care. The Bill will also protect 16 and 17-year-olds from ill-treatment or wilful neglect by making low-level abuse of these young people in children’s social care settings a prosecutable offence. The Bill will also introduce a financial oversight scheme to increase financial and corporate transparency of children’s social care providers in order to allow for assessment of financial risk and advance warning of risks to providers’ financial sustainability.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Independent review of children's social care: final report, published on 23 May 2022, whether she plans to implement the recommendation on care experience and caring as protected characteristics.

Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We know care leavers have some of the worst long-term life outcomes in society. We are therefore committed to ensuring children leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training. Through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill we will be driving forward our commitments on children’s social care, including improved support for care leavers.

As announced by the Prime Minister on 24 September 2024, care leavers under age 25 will be exempt from rules which require a connection to a local area before accessing social housing. We have also established a care leaver Ministerial Board, which brings together Ministers from key Departments, to improve support for care leavers across Government.

On the specific question of protected characteristics, the Government often receives requests for new characteristics such as "carer experience"” to be added to the Equality Act 2010. While many of these carry merit, it would not be practical to legislate because of the public and private sector burdens that this would create. The Equality Act 2010 will already protect many care leavers under the indirect discrimination provisions, because a disproportionately high number are likely to be from an ethnic minority and/ or have a disability. They may also benefit from the age discrimination protections in the Act.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to include (a) schools and (b) educational agencies in local arrangements for safeguarding.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The involvement of education and childcare agencies is fundamental at all levels of safeguarding arrangements. The department knows that teachers and educators are often the first to spot warning signs of abuse and neglect and are the largest referrer of cases into children’s social care after the police.

That is why the department is introducing measures through the landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to strengthen the role of education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. We will make it a legal obligation for safeguarding partners to automatically include all education and childcare agencies at both operational and strategic levels of their safeguarding arrangements.

These measures include all education settings, covering early years and childcare settings through to schools, colleges and alternative provision, so that opportunities to keep children safe are not missed.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that pupils who are considered hard to place under school admission requirements receive suitable school placements.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The school admissions code requires every local authority to have a Fair Access Protocol (FAP), agreed with the majority of the mainstream state-funded schools in its area, to ensure that unplaced and vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible, minimising the time the child is out of school.

All admission authorities, including academies, are required to participate in the FAP for their area. This includes admitting pupils when asked to do so in accordance with the Protocol, even if the school is full. Where an admission authority fails to comply with the FAP, they may be directed to do so by the local authority, in the case of maintained schools, and currently by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education in the case of academies.

To further strengthen this framework, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes measures to allow local authorities to not only direct a maintained school to admit a child, but also to direct academies in the same way. It aims to streamline existing direction processes and provide a more robust safety net for vulnerable children, by giving local authorities the levers they need to secure school places for children more quickly and efficiently when the usual admissions processes, including the use of the FAP, have been exhausted.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to issue guidance under sections 10(8), 10(10) and 12B(4) of the Children Act 2004.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department has no plans to issue guidance under sections 10(8), 10(10) and 12B(4) of the Children Act 2004.

Safeguarding partners (police, health, local authorities) are under a duty to make arrangements to work together and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. These responsibilities are set out in the 2023 statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. The department will review this guidance regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect evidence, learns from children’s social care reform and aligns with legislative changes.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans for children’s social care reform in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, the department introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed power in clause 43 (Academies: power to secure performance of proprietor’s duties etc) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes the duty of proprietors of academies, under section 10(5) of the Children Act 2004, to co-operate with the local authority in making arrangements to improve the wellbeing of children.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

Clause 43 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill proposes a power for my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education to issue a direction to secure the proper performance of a relevant duty or power by the proprietor of an academy trust. A ‘relevant duty’ is defined as ‘any duty, whether or not imposed by or under enactment, to which the proprietor of an academy trust is subject’. This includes the duty, under Section 10(5) of the Children Act 2004, to co-operate with the local authority in making arrangements to promote co-operation with a view to improving the wellbeing of children.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when regulations will next be made under sections 17 (Children and young people’s plans) and 66 (Regulations and Orders) of the Children Act 2004.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department has no immediate plans to update regulations under sections 17 and 66 of the Children Act 2004. Safeguarding partners (police, health, local authorities) are under a duty to make arrangements to work together, and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. These responsibilities are set out in the 2023 statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. The department will review the statutory guidance regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect evidence and learning from children’s social care reform and aligns with legislative changes.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans for children’s social care in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, the department introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the most recent review was undertaken of the use made by local authorities of their duty under section 10(1) of the Children Act 2004 (Co-operation to improve well-being), and of the response of relevant partners listed under section 10(4)(fa) to (fd); and what conclusions were reached.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The department has not undertaken a review of the use made by local authorities of their duty under section 10(1) of the Children Act 2004 (Co-operation to improve well-being), or of the response of relevant partners listed under section 10(4)(fa) to (fd).

Evidence is clear that multi-agency and multi-disciplinary support is essential to keep children safe at home with their family. The department is therefore testing stronger multi-agency approaches to support families, through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder and Family Networks Pilot. This will help families overcome challenges, stay together and thrive whilst keeping children safe. This includes establishing new multi-agency child protection teams and lead child protection practitioners.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, we introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to (a) support the private education sector and (b) encourage its expansion (i) domestically and (ii) internationally.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department encourages private schools to be high quality and is seeking to further improve regulation of the sector through measures outlined in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Amongst other things, the Bill seeks to ensure that all pupils receive both a safe and suitable education and to strengthen and improve the regulatory regime for private schools.

Capacity to expand domestically, within individual school settings, is a matter for private schools themselves. Where they do wish to expand, the department seeks to effectively consider the required material change application. Measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will make these requirements clearer.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) provides support for UK private schools that wish to expand internationally. They do this in a number of ways by:

• Arranging outward missions with delegations of UK schools, an example of which is one that went to Vietnam and resulted in the signing of agreements with six UK schools to open campuses in that country, one alone which was for seven campuses.
• Involving them with inward delegations from overseas and other events.
• DBT has a dedicated schools specialist embedded within its International Education team who works closely with UK private schools.
• Supporting UK school expansion overseas is a major strand of the education sector wide International Education Strategy (IES). This strategy is currently being reviewed and will be refreshed, taking into account DBT’s discussions with the whole education sector, including those with UK private schools and their membership organisations.
• The department works positively with DBT to help them engage with private schools where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools delivering free school breakfasts will be allowed to charge for provision outside the free 30 minute entitlement.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to delivering a free breakfast club of at least 30 minutes in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England.

Breakfast clubs boost attainment and attendance, and delivering free universal breakfast clubs will ensure children are set-up to learn. Schools will not be able to charge for the 30-minute funded breakfast club. Schools must not create an expectation that parents have to pay for additional provision in order to access the free 30 minutes, and clubs must be available to all pupils from reception to year 6. Beyond these requirements schools will have discretion to set-up their clubs in a way that works for the families they serve.

This new offer will also support parents to have more choices on when to work and will support families with the cost of childcare.

Found: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill: HL Bill 61 of 2024–25

Found: Committee Stage: Monday 3 February 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper) This

Found: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill RUNNING LIST OF ALL AMENDMENTS IN GRAND

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Overview ......................................................

Found: Committee Stage: Thursday 30 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper)

Found: Committee Stage: Thursday 30 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Committee Stage Decisions

Found: 30 January 2025 CHILDREN’S WELLBEING AND SCHOOLS BILL Chair’s provisional selection and grouping of

Found: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill RUNNING LIST OF ALL AMENDMENTS IN GRAND

Found: Committee Stage: Wednesday 29 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper)

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by an individual who wishes to remain

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Deepa Naik to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Anonymous to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Sarah Willcox to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Gabrielle Kelly to The Children’s

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Stella De Luca to The Children’s

Found: Written evidence submitted by Jenny and Alexis Massey-Ryan to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Holly Strawbridge to The Children

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by MyBnk (CSWB115)    The Children’

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by John Tang to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Charlotte White to The Children’s

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Jonathan Pearce, owner of OZ Schoolwear

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Dr Alice Porter (Senior Research

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by the National Secular Society (NSS

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: call for evidence submission January 2025 Executive

Found: Page 1 of 6 Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Written evidence submitted by Sense for

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Polaris Community (CWSB120) Children

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Dr Peter Appleton, Visiting Fellow

Found: OF REASONABLE PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN IN ENGLAND Submission to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: These reforms for the School admission arrangement in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (clauses

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written Evidence submitted by Bright Futures UK (BFUK) (CWSB123

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Glenn Leech, CEO of Banner Ltd (CWSB128

Found: Case for change: amending the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 3 UCL (2024).

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Louise Renshaw, Director, Classworx

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Further written evidence submitted by the National Association

Found: Written evidence submitted by the Christian Legal Centre (CWSB135) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Whizz Kidz Written Evidence Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: call for evidence 1.

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Fatherhood Institute (CWSB132) Children

Found: VAT No: 878 5744 57 1 NGA Evidence Submission: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill NGA is the

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Committee call for evidence Requirement for a reference

Found: Page 1 of 2 January 24, 2025 Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Commons General Committee House

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by The Steiner Academy Hereford (CWSB136

Found: 28 January 2025 CHILDREN’S WELLBEING AND SCHOOLS BILL Chair’s provisional selection and grouping of

Found: campaign seeking to achieve the introduction of this programme via the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: submitted by Written evidence submitted by Diana Larfynn (BAHons) to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Alex Montegriffo, Community Organiser

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by the British Association of Social

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by the National Network for Child Employment

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Parentkind (CWSB139) S ubmission

Found: Committee Stage: Tuesday 28 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Committee Stage Decisions

Found: protection for children from assault RCPCH supports amendment NC10 • The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Dr G McNeill and Ms E Ridley to The

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Emily-Rose Gray to The Children’s

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Sarah Mansfield to The Children’s

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Jennifer Watts to The Children’s

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Erion Sovron to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Poppy Coles to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Jodie Coles to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Written evidence submitted by Nikki O’Rourke to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Sarah Osborne to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Camilla Jones to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: January 2025 Written Evidence Submission Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Philippa Nicholson Introduction

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Kate Richards to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Committee Stage: Tuesday 28 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper) This

Found: 1 Re: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill PROPOSALS RELATING TO CHILDREN NOT IN SCHOOL: TWO

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Anonymous to The Children’s Wellbeing

Found: Written evidence submitted by Mrs Jennifer Cornall to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Georgina Stubbings to The Children

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Nikki & Nigel Hughes to The Children

Found: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Written evidence submitted by Philippa Clark to The Children’s

Found: Committee Stage: Monday 27 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper) This

Found: Committee Stage: Friday 24 January 2025 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Amendment Paper) This

Found: , Children’s Commissioner for England (CWSB51) My priorities on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: British Rabbinical Union, to the call for evidence in relation to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments

Found: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments