Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Sureena Brackenridge Excerpts

Wednesday 8th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Sureena Brackenridge (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)]

There are a few reasons why I put my head above the parapet and entered frontline politics and stepped from the classroom benches as a former deputy headteacher to the green Benches of this House to represent families in Wolverhampton North East, but none are closer to my heart than this: under the previous Conservative Government, we lost sight of what is most important—that children are happy, healthy and safe. I have seen the best of what education can offer. I have worked with brilliant teachers and hard-working, dedicated support staff. I have worked in schools where 50% of students were disadvantaged—schools that exceeded expectations despite the odds. But I have also seen the deep and growing divides in our education system—divides that do not stop at the school gate but spill out into wider society, and the Bill will take important steps to address them.

Educational inequality is the defining challenge of our time. Disadvantaged students have always faced hurdles, but, in recent years, those hurdles have become insurmountable for many, inflamed by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Schools in Wolverhampton and Willenhall and across the country are battling a worrying rise in school absences. One in five children are now regularly absent, and that figure is rising to one in four. Some 158,000 children nationally are severely absent, missing over half of their school sessions. The scale of the crisis is staggering. It is the equivalent of our Wolves’ Molineux stadium being filled five times over with children who have missed half the school year. Those children are not just missing lessons; they are missing the foundation for a better future.

The Bill takes the important steps to reverse that tide. By strengthening safeguarding for every child, it protects the most vulnerable. By easing the financial burden on families, including cutting costs of school uniforms, and by committing to free breakfast clubs in every primary school, it tackles a simple yet profound barrier to attendance. By creating a truly child-centred social care system and ending extortionate profit making in children’s care, it ensures that the needs of the child come first. I have dedicated my life to education, and I wholeheartedly support the Bill. It is not just a step in the right direction; it is a foundation for the future.