These proposals, which are included in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, are central to the government’s ambition to promote the welfare of children, facilitate the provision of support and ensure that all children can achieve and thrive. The introduction of a single unique identifier for children is a Manifesto commitment.

Concerns about privacy should not be a barrier to the legitimate collection and sharing of information that would keep children safe or promote their education. The Department takes children’s rights and privacy very seriously. We have undertaken several detailed Impact Assessments to ensure that the proposals in the Bill support and safeguard these rights including a Child’s Rights Impact Assessment and Equalities Impact Assessment. Further, we have published a European Convention of Human Rights memorandum.

Keeping children safe from harm is a multi-agency endeavour. Practitioners supporting children and families must find, receive and share relevant information to assess risks effectively. That is why the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces provision in law now, paving the way for a Single Unique Identifier to be specified and the organisations required to use it, later, via regulations.

An identifier has potential to increase confidence that practitioners from different agencies are talking about the same child and increase the ease and possibility of linking data together across datasets. We want appropriate agencies and practitioners to spend less time chasing information and more time acting on the full picture of relevant information about the child. This will enable practitioners to provide the right services at the right time to meet the needs of children and families.

In regard to the Children Not in School measures included in the Bill, these are aimed at ensuring that all children are in receipt of a safe and suitable education, whether they are educated at school or otherwise. The introduction of these measures will also secure for the first time, a legal duty for local authorities to provide support and advice to home educating families should they request it.

Local authorities have an existing duty under Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to identify children of compulsory school age in their areas who are not in school and not receiving a suitable education.

However, their ability to fulfil this duty is currently undermined by the fact that parents have no obligation to proactively inform their local authority that they are home educating. England and Wales are in the small minority of Western countries where there is no requirement for parents to register as home educators.

Therefore, the proposals for compulsory Children Not in School registers in each local authority and accompanying duties on parents and certain out-of-school education providers to give information for these registers, will simply ensure that local authorities have an accurate record of where children are being educated across England and Wales.

The mandatory information that parents will be required to give for the Children Not in School registers is limited to: their child’s name, date of birth, address, the parents’ names and addresses, and details of other individuals or organisations that are providing the child with education. This is the information that local authorities require to identify a child and to understand where and how they are receiving education.

If local authorities identify that a child is not in school and is not receiving a suitable education, it is essential that they can support that child into education as quickly as possible. That is why we are making improvements to the existing School Attendance Order process by introducing statutory timelines on certain parts of the process, for example.

We agree that safe and suitable home education is not a safeguarding risk and many parents and carers provide enriching experiences for their children. However, some children who have been withdrawn from school under the guise of home education have been seriously harmed or died due to abuse or neglect and action is needed to prevent this.

The proposal in the Bill to introduce a requirement for parents of children who are on child protection plans, subject to section 47 child protection enquiries, or at special schools to get permission from the local authority before they withdraw their child from school to home educate them is a proportionate check to ensure that home education is in the child’s best interests.

The consent requirement is not an automatic removal of a parent’s right to home educate, and the vast majority of parents will be able to continue to home educate without seeking permission to do so.

Department for Education