Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

My Lords, I rise very briefly in support of the proposed new purpose clause from the noble Baroness, Lady Barran. This is an enormous Bill on children’s well-being and schools. It could be two enormous Bills. What we have seen in this House with many other Bills is that, when we have an enormous Bill, all sorts of people and organisations want to hang things on it like Christmas tree baubles and it becomes unworkable, so I welcome this proposed new purpose clause to give us some sort of sustainable and impactful legislation, hopefully, at the end.

Nobody has mentioned children with special educational needs, which, as the noble Baroness knows, is my special interest in this. I support the proposed new purpose clause because it brings us back to the interests of all children, including those with profound needs and disabilities, who are very difficult to accommodate in the usual school system. We are not alone in that. I can point to studies from Sweden, Denmark and all across the world about the difficulty of grappling with this challenge.

Profound disability remains strongly associated with poor educational outcomes. We know from experience—although sadly not from data, because we do not collect it—that these children achieve lower overall grades than children without profound disabilities. This cannot be put down just to people having a learning disability. For example, only one in two children with CP has a learning disability. I know that there are children with high-functioning cognitive abilities who have been accommodated in mainstream schools throughout their entire lives, but when it comes to choosing GCSE subjects they are offered only a very restricted choice. Why is that deemed acceptable?

Studies have shown that parents of children with profound disabilities lack confidence in their local authority’s ability to make suitable arrangements for their children. The two sides look at it from very different perspectives. Parents view the system as being obstructive, inconsistent and unaccountable. Provision often tends to reflect what local authorities are able to provide. As the noble Baroness, Lady Cass, mentioned, it is vital that health and education professionals come together in this space and form expertise around what the child concerned requires to have the best possible life chances. As families wait for EHCPs to be agreed and as children develop and needs change, this is a fluctuating and ever-changing system.

If the Bill can do one thing to remove those barriers, which often are not understood by educational providers, it will improve the safety and well-being of children. But we need to remember, which is why I support this proposed new purpose clause, that the Bill covers all children with all abilities, whether or not they are in school and whether or not local authorities can provide the services they need.