Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

John Whitby Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 8th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) (Lab)]

This is an extremely welcome Bill that addresses some long-standing issues in social care and education. There are much-needed measures to ease the capacity pressures on fostering services by offering family group decision making and requiring all councils to publish a kinship offer. There are very welcome measures for hard-pressed families on school uniforms and free breakfast clubs. On behalf of care leavers, I am pleased to see the focus on Staying Close, which offers vital support in the transition from being in care to leaving care. It is very much a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs issue: unless young people have the basics in place, it is very difficult to focus on moving forward.

In my limited time, I want to mention three measures that I am particularly pleased with. There are around 112,000 children currently being educated at home. Parents choose that route for a number of reasons, and I am comfortable that in most cases the decision to home-educate is taken with the child’s best interests in mind. However, there are those who choose to home-educate when difficult questions start to be asked by concerned professionals who are in regular contact with the child. As a foster carer of 25 years, I have seen the consequences of those families managing to avoid the spotlight for far too long by moving house, moving school and avoiding scrutiny.

The Bill is therefore immensely positive for those particularly vulnerable children. It will mean that authorities will know where children are and they can be better monitored through the creation of the register. Children going through section 47 action can have an application to be educated at home refused by the local authority. It is worth saying, however, that parents who are home-educating children with no issues have nothing to be concerned about—I heard the Secretary of State say that just yesterday.

The Bill addresses the exorbitant fees being charged by some of the large children’s placement providers. I was at the national social care conference in November 2023, when, at almost every plenary debate and presentation, someone would mention the statistic that the largest 20 providers of children’s placements collectively made £310 million in profit in 2021-22. That was all off the back of the taxpayer, all paid through our local authorities, and they felt it. The public have felt it as well, because there is simply less money to go around for everything else.

Derbyshire county council’s spending on looked-after children rose from £44 million in 2015-16 to £110 million in 2023-24. That growth in spending is unsustainable and is diverting precious resources away from the children who are most in need of support and into the pockets of shareholders. I therefore welcome the fact that the Bill requires large children’s placement providers to give regular financial information to a newly created financial oversight scheme and gives the Government the power, if necessary, to cap the profits of children’s homes providers and independent fostering agencies.

[Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way on that point?

[John Whitby]

I cannot because I have to go to a Delegated Legislation Committee in a minute. I apologise.

I also welcome the fact that the Bill enables the creation of new local authority schools. Under the previous Government, new schools were required to be academies or free schools, and that policy was based on ideology rather than evidence. Ending that requirement will mean that when new schools are built, they can be opened by the provider best suited to meet the needs of the local community. Ending the restriction will also ensure that when schools fail, a broader range of measures can be taken to give schools the support they need to succeed.

There are a broad range of positives in the Bill. They may not realise it yet, but the future of our most vulnerable children has just become a little brighter.

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

John Whitby Excerpts

Consideration of Lords message
Wednesday 15th April 2026 Commons Chamber

I recognise that there is some concession in the Government’s amendment, but it is too vague in its assurances and open to challenge. As the shadow Secretary of State said, it only asks the schools adjudicator to have regard to the performance of a school. We cannot support it. I implore the Minister to start listening to parents, carers and young people. Whether it comes to school places, the cost of school uniforms, smartphones in schools or access to social media, do not led ideology or pride get in the way.

[John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) (Lab)]

I strongly welcome the Government’s amendments and support the live consultation on these matters. Social media has unfortunately become central to childhood, and the negatives are massively outweighing any positives.

Even when social media is at its most benign, children are spending 40, 50 or maybe 60 hours a week on it. It is intentionally addictive—of course, since we last debated these amendments, a US court has made that determination—and affecting children’s sleep, concentration and wellbeing. Of course, it is much worse than that, with relentless bullying; the promotion of self-harm, eating disorders and suicide; sextortion; misinformation and disinformation; envy and comparison; as well as a significant dose of misogyny and porn. It is therefore not a surprise that there has been a 118% rise in children and young people accessing mental health services in England just in the last decade.

In all child-related matters, we need to listen to the voice of the child. In a recent Harris poll, 39% of Gen Z respondents said they wished that social media had never been invented. There is a significant rise in three to five-year-olds using social media, with 37% doing so, according to Ofcom.

A group called Big Tech’s Little Victims, in association with the National Education Union, recently conducted a social media experiment. It created accounts for four fictional 13-year-olds, signed them up to the main platforms and had a researcher scroll the accounts for 30 minutes a day for a week. The results were staggering: those fictional 13-year-olds were receiving, on average, one piece of concerning content a minute. To reinforce the point, the group put together a reel of the worst bits so that I and other Members could see the racism, sexual violence and misogyny that children are witnessing. We will never stop violence against women and girls until we stop feeding this hate to our children.

Parents up and down the country are in the impossible position of exposing their children to that content or having their child be the one who is missing out. I therefore support the Government’s ambition to act. It is right that laws keep pace with technology; it is right that we consider whether stronger protections for under-16s are needed; it is right that phones should play no part in school life; and it is right that the Government ensure that any legislative changes are legally robust, compatible with existing law, and capable of standing up to scrutiny in the courts.

I welcome Government amendment (b) in lieu of Lords amendment 38, which will require a statement on progress within six months if no regulations have been made. We need to get on with it. I urge everyone to complete the consultation and I urge the Government to act with haste following the consultation’s closure on 26 May.