Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Seventh sitting)

Debate between Amanda Martin and Stephen Morgan

Thursday 30th January 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Stephen Morgan]

I am afraid that my hon. Friend needs to remain patient in waiting for the confirmation of which local authority areas will have early adopters, but I know that he has been a tireless champion on these issues. I promise that he will not have to wait much longer to know which schools in his patch may have a breakfast club.

This scheme will make a huge difference to children’s lives. We know that it will put more money in the pockets of parents, but also, as I mentioned earlier, that it will be good for attendance, attainment and behaviour. Research out today demonstrates the impact and the challenge that we face to make sure that children do start school ready to learn.

[Amanda Martin]

I want to make about point about attendance and the evidence that suggests progress. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East that is about children’s bellies being full and them being able to learn in the best part of the day. It is also a calming part of the day. It allows parents, if they have an infant and a junior, to drop them off—they could do the infant first, and the junior next. It also helps our parents to go to work. Evidence also suggests that breakfast clubs can help children to make up to two additional months of progress in their core reading, writing and maths skills because they are, as my hon. Friend said, ready to learn.

[Stephen Morgan]

My hon. Friend speaks with real authority on these issues as a former teacher. I know that she will be very excited about breakfast clubs coming to her new constituency of Portsmouth North. Attendance is a key priority for this Government, and it goes right to the very top—the Prime Minister has set out that he is also keen to make attendance a key priority. Children have to be in school to learn the skills that they need for life and work. I know that breakfast clubs will make a big difference in making that happen.

Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Eighth sitting)

Debate between Amanda Martin and Stephen Morgan

Committee stage
Thursday 30th January 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Stephen Morgan]

That is not something that we are currently considering, but the shadow Minister’s point will be recorded in Hansard.

The Department for Education is responsible for driving high and rising standards in state schools across the country. DFE headline data is therefore focused on pupils at the end of key stage 4 attending state-funded schools in England. To hold state-funded schools to account, the Department publishes performance data for schools and colleges. The purpose of that performance data is not to provide information about the attainment or achievement of individual pupils. The Department publishes performance data at a regional and national level, so that it can track the performance of the state-funded sector.

Including children not educated in the state school system would distort these figures and make it more difficult to monitor the performance of state schools. In choosing to home educate, parents are opting out of this system and assuming responsibility and accountability for the education of their child, whether they choose GCSEs or any other type of qualification. I also recognise that some home-educating children choose not to take any public examinations. This data would therefore offer an incomplete picture of the outcomes of this cohort.

A comprehensive view of outcomes for home-educated children cannot be based on a single measure. That is why clause 25 includes powers to require additional information to be held on the children not in school register and for this information to be provided to the Department so that it can be analysed and actions can be taken at a national level to support these children.

It is also true that, on results day, the Joint Council for Qualifications already publishes results by qualification and subject. This is data for all students taking that GCSE, including home-educated children, adults and independent and state school pupils. It would therefore not be appropriate for the Department to publish the results of this cohort or include them in performance data. I therefore kindly ask the hon. Member not to press the amendment.

I turn to clause 25. The number of children who are not in school because they are being home educated has drastically increased since the covid-19 pandemic. The numbers have more than doubled since 2019: the latest Department data shows that 111,000 children were home educated as of October 2024. As I have highlighted, all parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child receives a suitable, efficient full-time education. Some parents choose to fulfil that responsibility by home educating their children. I reassure the Committee again that we recognise that parents have the right to do so, and that many work hard to ensure that their child receives a suitable education. But as we know, this is not the case for all.

Local authorities have a legal duty to identify all children not in school in their areas who are not receiving a suitable education. However, as parents do not need to notify the local authority that they are home educating, it is difficult for authorities to fulfil that duty and to take action to support and protect children where necessary. It is vital that we introduce an effective system of registration for children not in school. Clause 25 will introduce compulsory registers in every local authority in England and a duty on parents of eligible children to provide information for them. This will help authorities to identify all children not in school, including those who are not receiving a safe, suitable education and, where that is the case, support them to take action.

Parents of eligible children will be required to provide the local authority with the information necessary for operation of the registers, including the child’s name, address and date of birth, the names and addresses of each parent, and details of how, where and from whom the child is receiving their education. A local authority can require a provider of out-of-school education to give information on children attending their setting, if the authority believes the provider to be supplying education to an eligible child for a period above the prescribed threshold. Having these duties on parents and certain providers of out-of-school education to provide information will ensure that as many eligible children as possible are on local authority registers.

[Amanda Martin]

I know that parents who are home educators have faced a tough decision on this. Looking at the information provided, I think it is clear from the Government that we are not lambasting or judging those parents for taking their children out of school. Does the Minister agree that we must ensure that we know who and where every single adult is who comes into a child’s education? The listing that we are providing will enable us to do that, to ensure that children aresafe whether they are being home educated by a parent or using another provider within their home education setting.

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. These measures are proportionate and are to ensure that every child is kept safe. I welcomed the comments from the shadow Minister earlier; we seek cross-party support on these measures to keep all children safe.

Where a child is eligible for inclusion on the children not in school register, the local authority will have a duty to provide support to the parents of that child if the parent requests it. By focusing support on advice and information, we can ensure that local authorities give a consistent baseline level of support to those who request it. We know that some authorities are already offering carefully considered support packages that go beyond the baseline to meet the needs of families in their local areas. Authorities will continue to have the discretion to offer that additional support.

The measures set out how local authorities in England may share information from their registers with other relevant local authorities and specified bodies, and how they are required to share information with the Secretary of State on request. Appropriate information sharing will create a more complete picture of individual children, and where necessary, support multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. We will also ensure that the data collected is protected. Local authorities, as data controllers, must process data in accordance with the principles of UK GDPR legislation, and ensure that any data that they process is kept safe and secure. This applies to data collection, storage and sharing, as well as respecting the rights of individuals to access, rectification and erasure.

Picking up on the points that colleagues have raised, more broadly, these measures provide local authorities with a proportionate power to ensure that children receive a suitable education and are kept safe. These measures would take us to a level that the vast majority of western countries are already at, and many other countries go much further, even banning home education completely or putting many more restrictions or requirements in place. We are not doing that—these measures are about keeping children safe.

The shadow Minister asked what appropriate amount of time should be spent on home education. Parents are required by law to ensure that their child has a full-time suitable education; the number of hours required to fulfil that duty will depend on the individual child, and is not stipulated in law. On whether our measures will be burdensome to parents, parents must only provide details of their child’s name, their date of birth, their address, the parents’ names and addresses, and details of where their child is receiving education, who is providing it and the time spent receiving education from different people. All other information will be optional, and parents will only be expected to notify their local authority of that information when they first begin home educating or when their circumstances change, such as a move to a new area or a new education provision.

Many measures, of course, will be of benefit to parents. The information provided by parents for the registers will support local authorities to gain a fuller picture of the child’s educational needs and circumstances, which will enable parents to access tailored advice and information from local authorities via the new duty on local authorities to provide support should parents request it.

[Amanda Martin]

On that point, we know that at the moment, not all local authorities provide support to our home-educating parents. Will these measures allow for some best practice to be shared, and place a duty on local authorities to provide help and support if requested?

[Stephen Morgan]

I know that my hon. Friend has been meeting home educators in her own local authority area who have had a difficult relationship with Portsmouth city council. I know that she will take those concerns to that local authority and feed back to home-educating parents.

To address a point that was raised earlier, local authorities may also be able to analyse information from the registers and take action, should that be deemed necessary—should families feel forced into home education due to dissatisfaction with schools or mental health concerns, for example. The hon. Member for Twickenham also raised a number of points about the disproportionate impact on SEND families. We have undertaken a thorough equality impact assessment, and this information will allow local authorities to provide more tailored support to those children.

Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Seventh sitting)

Debate between Amanda Martin and Stephen Morgan

Committee stage
Thursday 30th January 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Stephen Morgan]

I am afraid that my hon. Friend needs to remain patient in waiting for the confirmation of which local authority areas will have early adopters, but I know that he has been a tireless champion on these issues. I promise that he will not have to wait much longer to know which schools in his patch may have a breakfast club.

This scheme will make a huge difference to children’s lives. We know that it will put more money in the pockets of parents, but also, as I mentioned earlier, that it will be good for attendance, attainment and behaviour. Research out today demonstrates the impact and the challenge that we face to make sure that children do start school ready to learn.

[Amanda Martin]

I want to make about point about attendance and the evidence that suggests progress. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East that is about children’s bellies being full and them being able to learn in the best part of the day. It is also a calming part of the day. It allows parents, if they have an infant and a junior, to drop them off—they could do the infant first, and the junior next. It also helps our parents to go to work. Evidence also suggests that breakfast clubs can help children to make up to two additional months of progress in their core reading, writing and maths skills because they are, as my hon. Friend said, ready to learn.

[Stephen Morgan]

My hon. Friend speaks with real authority on these issues as a former teacher. I know that she will be very excited about breakfast clubs coming to her new constituency of Portsmouth North. Attendance is a key priority for this Government, and it goes right to the very top—the Prime Minister has set out that he is also keen to make attendance a key priority. Children have to be in school to learn the skills that they need for life and work. I know that breakfast clubs will make a big difference in making that happen.

Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Sixth sitting)

Debate between Amanda Martin and Stephen Morgan

Committee stage
Tuesday 28th January 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

We heard from the right hon. Member for East Hampshire about the involvement of larger and smaller-scale providers in children’s social care, and the Bill covers the other places that children and young people can make their home in. I think we all agree that there is a need for a wide range of options, so that we can determine what is best for individual children and young people when they are finding their home.

Clause 13, however, is particularly relevant to larger-scale providers because of the sheer number of children who would be affected should one of those providers experience unexpected or unreported financial difficulties. No young person should be faced with losing their house overnight, and this measure would help to secure provision for those children in a planned way, as opposed to a reactive situation where a number of places have to be found overnight.

The clause also follows the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendation to emulate the equivalent schemes we find in adult social care. That is long overdue in child social care. It adds safeguards that allow for transparency and security, which we welcome when we are dealing with children’s social care and the homes that they will hopefully have for a long time.

[Stephen Morgan]

We are aware that a provider of children’s social care places suddenly closing their provision as a result of financial failure could have a significant detrimental impact on the care and stability of children and young people where they live. Currently, local authorities have no way of knowing whether a private provider or its corporate owners are at risk of failing financially. If a large provider were to fail and suddenly exit the market without warning, it could be difficult for local authorities to find alternative placements for those children or places that appropriately meet their needs. That is why we are developing a new financial oversight scheme in children’s social care, as recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority, which will for the first time increase the financial and corporate transparency of difficult-to-replace children’s social care providers and allow accurate real-time assessment of financial risk.

The scheme will give local authorities advance warning of failure, so that they can take swift action and minimise disruption to the most vulnerable children. Those in the scheme will be required to submit a recovery and resolution plan containing information on risks to providers’ financial sustainability and plans to reduce those risks. The Secretary of State may also require providers or a corporate group member in the scheme of heightened financial risk to undergo an independent business review. We will provide details of the RRP and the IBR through guidance.

I thank the shadow Minister for his comments and questions and my good and hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North for her insightful contribution. The shadow Minister asked a number of questions about how the scheme will work in practice ahead of the regulations, and made a number of points about which providers will be in scope of the financial oversight scheme.

It is worth saying that the scheme will be proportionate and target only difficult-to-replace providers and their owners according to their size, market share and geographical concentration. The scheme will apply to private, voluntary and charity providers of children’s homes, including dual registered special schools and independent fostering agencies operating in England. We will also extend the measure to supported accommodation, and we in the future may look to extend it by regulation to residential family centres. Local authorities routinely manage placements of individual children in the event of closures of smaller services, so we do not think those need to be covered by the scheme.

To answer other questions raised by the shadow Minister, the Bill sets out the foundations of the financial oversight scheme, exercisable through the Secretary of State’s powers. We know that the children’s social care placement market is dynamic and we will use these measures and powers to set out the detail in regulations, which will enable my Department to review and update the details in line with future changes to the market. We will publish guidance alongside the regulations, setting out how the scheme will operate in practice and enabling providers to understand what the scheme requires of them.

The shadow Minister asked why Ofsted is not leading the financial oversight scheme. The forensic financial analysis required to fulfil the scheme’s aims extends beyond Ofsted’s remit as a largely quality-focused regulator. Given that Ofsted is not a financial regulator, we will build on my Department’s existing capabilities and market oversight functions to undertake the specialist work required to develop the scheme. A Department-led scheme means that we can play a stronger co-ordination role should a difficult-to-replace provider exit the market, enabling a quick multi-agency response.

Finally, how many providers will be covered and how many placements they represent, we want the financial oversight scheme to deliver an effective oversight function that is proportionate and not overly burdensome. We therefore want to introduce a scheme that covers difficult-to-replace providers only, as recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority. We will determine how many providers will be subject to the scheme as we develop the regulations. Providers who meet the conditions will include private, voluntary and charity providers; we may look to scale the number of providers in the scheme up or down in future ,according to market developments, to ensure that we continue to meet the aims of the scheme.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 13 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 14

Power to limit profits of relevant providers