Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a national wellbeing measure for children to provide local authorities and national policymakers with data for the purpose of improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, giving mental health the same attention as physical health. We are reforming the National Health Service and have committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. The Government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

There are no current plans to introduce a national wellbeing measure for children. The Office for National Statistics publishes a range of children’s wellbeing measures. The Department maintains ongoing monitoring of the national data landscape and research on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, to support its policy making.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, as part of Anti-Bullying Week, what steps they are taking (1) to collect, record and monitor data on reports of bullying in schools and subsequent responses, and (2) to improve the availability and quality of anti-bullying training and support for teachers

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department collects and monitors data on bullying of children and young people through robust national surveys such as the National Behaviour Survey, the Health Behaviours of School-aged Children Study and the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what works best for their pupils. All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. Schools have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rests with schools, headteachers and teachers. They are in the best position to judge their requirements and access development.

The department published advice in 2017 to support schools with addressing incidences of bullying. The guidance is clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf.

In 2016, the department also published a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website, here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

The department is currently reviewing the impact of these previous programmes and considering next steps to tackle bullying in schools.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to extend the remit of the Minister for Women and Equalities specifically to include girls’ wellbeing.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Minister for Women and Equalities considers the interests of all groups as part of her portfolios, including the interests of girls. This is also the case for other Equalities Ministers and other Government Departments and their Ministers, who consider relevant groups when formulating policy as part of their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

In addition to the general responsibility all ministers have, the new Government has a specific Minister for Children and Families at DfE, currently Janet Daby MP. The Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, also represents children’s interests. Officials at the Office for Equality and Opportunity regularly meet stakeholders representing girls to make sure the needs of girls are understood across government.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of Anti-Bullying Week 2024, and what initiatives they have in place to eradicate bullying.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Schools must take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and should tackle bullying at the earliest opportunity to prevent it from escalating, particularly given the impact it can have on pupils, both emotionally and physically. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour.

Anti-Bullying Week is an annual event, co-ordinated externally by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. As such, the government has not made an assessment of it.

The department has published advice to support schools with addressing incidents of bullying. The guidance is clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is attached and is also available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf.

The department has also published a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website. It is available here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to issue statutory guidance to all statutory safeguarding partners, including police, local authorities and integrated care boards, for the criminal exploitation of children measures in the Crime and Policing Bill should the Bill receive Royal Assent; and if not, why not, and what steps they will take to clarify roles and responsibilities and embed best practice in safeguarding children from exploitation in that absence of that statutory guidance.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We recognise the importance of effective multi-agency working to safeguard children from criminal exploitation.

The Crime and Policing Bill includes provision for statutory guidance to be issued to relevant law enforcement officers about their role in preventing, detecting and investigating the new child criminal exploitation offence and about their functions relating to the new child criminal exploitation prevention orders being introduced in the Bill.

In addition, we will publish non-statutory guidance for all relevant frontline practitioners (including statutory partners) to help them understand the new offence and their role in disrupting this crime and supporting victims. This guidance will supplement existing statutory guidance, including ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, which set out the roles and responsibilities of organisations and agencies to help, support, safeguard and protect children from harm, including in relation to child criminal exploitation.

Found: affairs, are excellent when it comes to the contributions made by our colleague Bishops. 44 The Lord Bishop of Derby

Found: affairs, are excellent when it comes to the contributions made by our colleague Bishops. 44 The Lord Bishop of Derby

Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Heidi Allen MP Jess Phillips MP Alex Norris MP Lord Gordon of Strathblane Lord McColl Lord Bishop of Derby