Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Benjamin Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Benjamin (LD)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Mohammed on his passionate maiden speech; he makes a great addition to our Benches.

I welcome the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill because legislation to improve children’s happiness, health and well-being is well overdue, and this Bill intends to deliver on transforming childhoods. However, Barnardo’s and other children’s charities believe we must go further, and I declare an interest as vice-president of Barnardo’s.

We believe that enhancing obligations on local agencies to provide early support for families before they reach crisis point is crucial. Public finances are tight, but investing in our children—especially early years—is an investment worth making. Every year, some 13,000 young people leave care without the support they need. Outcomes for these young people remain much lower than for their peers. We believe there should be a new minimum standard of support for care leavers—a national offer regardless of where they live, which should include measures recommended by Barnardo’s.

The charity First Star Scholars, of which I am a patron, has a high success rate of getting care leavers into university. We want to work with the Government to expand this programme across the country, to enable more care leavers to succeed in higher education. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with the Minister.

Barnardo’s also believes that children deserve protection from smacking. Some 68 countries have banned the physical punishment of children. This Bill has the power to do the same across the UK—so let us do it.

The Bill, as it stands, will have unintended consequences and risks harming, rather than helping, young performers. It is my primary concern that, by including children who perform and receive tuition outside their school setting within the proposed register, the Bill threatens to divert vital attention and resources away from the children it was intended to protect. While it makes positive strides in addressing youth employment, it fails to recognise the unique needs of children working in the entertainment industry, where many are educated in flexi-alternative provisions. It will not record the positive reason for their absence; it will be merely another day missed from school. This will negatively affect both the child and the school’s register, which could affect its Ofsted standing.

This Bill requires a joined-up approach to the recording of absences from schools for performance. However, there is a disconnect between the multiple agencies that are currently responsible for licensing children. These children are already governed by a well-established framework, the child performance regulations 2014, which I was instrumental in securing. These regulations are still the best place to regulate the performing engagements of young people, but they have not kept up with the changes and advances in the world we now live in: the world of social influencers, streaming and young performers who may earn a six-figure sum for one engagement.

In 2014, the Government committed to a review of the regulations, which is now well overdue. With the leads of the new “Harry Potter” television series soon to be announced, now is the time to ensure that those children will be safe, educated and celebrated for their contributions to the cultural economy. The Children and Families Act 2014 facilitated amendments to the existing performance regulations. I propose that this Bill similarly includes provision for a comprehensive review and update of the child performers regulations of 2014. Will the Minister agree to meet to discuss this matter further? This landmark Bill has the opportunity to change childhoods and ensure that children’s wishes and feelings are considered in all decisions made about them. As I always say, childhood lasts a lifetime.