My Lords, while I might have felt offended by the exodus of so many people at the end of Oral Questions, I am reassured by the large number of people who want to contribute to this debate today. It is an honour to move the Second Reading of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, for there are few topics that unite Members of both Houses more deeply than the well-being of children. The numbers of contributors demonstrate that today.
This Bill has been ably steered through the other House by my ministerial colleagues, and I want to acknowledge those across political parties and from key external organisations who have spoken so passionately and sensitively in support of child safeguarding and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive. Their voices have been invaluable in shaping this debate, and their commitment to protecting children’s present and future is deeply appreciated. I am also particularly pleased to be working alongside my noble friend Lady Blake, whose expertise and dedication in social care and education is invaluable. I am grateful for her support as we take this Bill forward together in this House.
This Bill represents an enormously important opportunity to improve our children’s social care and school systems. The chance to make meaningful change to the lives of children and families through legislation of this kind is rare, and I look forward to the thoughtful, impactful debate ahead. It also delivers on manifesto commitments to drive high and rising standards in our schools, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to achieve and to thrive.
I know that all Members of this House share the fundamental belief that our children deserve more, but, currently, children’s life chances are limited by systemic obstacles. Children at risk of abuse are falling through the cracks of our safeguarding systems. At the same time, while the best schools and trusts have shown how collaboration, strong leadership and innovation can transform education, many schools are still held back by a system that simply does not work well enough.
The Bill will strengthen protections for vulnerable children and ensure that those in care have the security and stability they need to thrive. But it also goes beyond these essential safeguarding reforms and ensures that opportunity is encouraged in every school. Every child deserves access to excellent teaching and a school system that gives them the foundations to succeed, no matter where they live or their circumstances. The Bill sets out a comprehensive package of support to advance significant improvements across the education and care systems, encouraging innovation and excellence, while ensuring fair and accountable systems that work for every child.
For too many children today, their background has a decisive negative impact on the life they are able to build. Ensuring that every child starts their school day nourished, focused and ready to learn is fundamental to our commitment to breaking down barriers to success. That is why this Bill delivers on the manifesto pledge to place a duty on every state-funded primary school to introduce free breakfast, making them accessible to all children, regardless of background.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the comprehensive way in which she has set out the purpose of this key legislation. His Majesty’s Official Opposition welcome the Government’s ambition to protect children and ensure that they have the best opportunities in life, regardless of any challenges they may have faced during their childhood.
As your Lordships’ House is aware, this Bill comprises two halves. While both parts focus on the well-being and future of children across the country, there are some real and distinct differences between them. The former seeks to improve the children’s social care system. Noble Lords know that outcomes for children in the care system remain stubbornly poor, despite efforts from repeated Governments to improve them. Part 1 includes many elements that were recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, commissioned by the last Government and published in 2022. As noble Lords are aware, it was ably led by the now honourable Member for Whitehaven.
There are areas in Part 1 where we will seek to probe, develop and clarify the practical implementation of the Bill, but, in the round, the importance of this part is recognised and the need for legislation is understood. It is a huge responsibility to do one’s collective best to represent the interests of children and young people who have been so disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
In doing so, we will focus on areas where we think the Bill could be strengthened, including support for kinship carers in particular and foster carers more broadly. We are keen to see support for care leavers be as effective as possible. We will encourage the Government to consider what support can be given to mothers who have already had one or more children removed from them by the local authority. We will press the Government to improve the protections for children deprived of their liberty—some as young as seven; a truly chilling thought. We will press for greater clarity on the implementation on family group conferencing and seek an explanation for the approach the Government are adopting to the introduction of a unique child identifier.
My Lords, I agree with a couple of things the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, said, including that we have the great and the good of education gathered in this House today. There are many here who have been involved in education, and in the current education system’s construction, for a long time, and I look forward to hearing what they have to say. I have worked against some of them and I have worked successfully with others; they may have cursed me or praised me, but we have striven forward.
Part 1 of the Bill reads like the Government dealing with the hardy perennials of the care system. There is much in there that has already provided us with debate after debate, many of which were quite depressing. I thank the Government for bringing this forward so that we can all have a look at them. There are many issues which we have heard about in an untold number of debates, and they have not gone that well. The way that the Government choose to implement the passing on of information might be one of the most interesting issues, because often mistakes have arisen due to a lack of co-ordination. I look forward to seeing how we can advance and check that, as far as we can by debate, to make sure it is going to work properly. This is not an easy topic, as most people involved in it would accept. There may not be perfect answers, but improvement is certainly possible. We should have had a cohesive look at this, together, a while ago, so I thank the Government for bringing it forward.
Many of my noble friends, including my noble friend Lady Tyler, are going to weigh in on a lot of the Bill. Looking round at these Benches, I see others who I cannot imagine will be quiet. We have discussed this a lot, and I hope we can have an open mind, given the experience here in the House, as we go through the Bill.
I will be spending more of my time and consideration on Part 2 of the Bill. Before I go into that, I will say something about a matter that is not included. Anybody who has been in this House for any length of time would be very surprised if I do not mention special educational needs in a speech on education. Let us face it, at the moment, that area is a hideous mess. The primary beneficiaries of the system are lawyers and those who give expensive diagnoses. That is the definition of failure. My honourable friends in another place moved amendments on this matter; we should look at those again, and possibly propose more. We have got to see if, through the Bill, we can at least set the grounds for easier intervention.
My Lords, by any measure, this is a landmark Bill and I welcome very many of its provisions. However, in the very short time available today, I will focus only on the part of the Bill that concerns child protection and safeguarding, in particular in Clauses 2 to 4. I will do that because child safety remains the first priority of schools, the education system and the Government, and we should never forget that.
Schools themselves are safer places than they were back in the days when I chaired the Soham inquiry. The vetting and barring scheme, more rigorous staff interviews, designated safeguarding leads and better training for all staff have played their part in that. But, as the Children’s Commissioner said recently, schools also play a wider and
“fundamental role in keeping children safe and protecting them from harm”.
Children simply trust schools; they trust teachers and they trust teachers’ assistants, and those teachers are often the first to know if children are facing challenges in their lives. So it is important that we ensure that the knowledge that schools have is available to all who are tasked with protecting children. That is why the Bill places a duty on safeguarding partners—local authorities, the police and health—to secure the participation of education settings in multiagency safeguarding to ensure that the education view is heard.
That is a step forward, but I agree with the Children’s Commissioner and others that schools should not just be participants; they should be equal partners to properly underline their status and responsibility in the safeguarding process. I also think that the Bill should recognise and reference faith-based and community organisations in the safeguarding process to avoid gaps in oversight, especially of marginalised children. Well-being and safeguarding are not the sole responsibility of the statutory organisations; they are also the responsibility of community organisations that play such an important part but at the moment are overlooked in the Bill in the way that they can sometimes be overlooked on the ground.
My Lords, I begin by expressing my thanks to all noble Lords who have reached out to me following the announcement that I will be taking up the role of Convenor of the Lords Spiritual next month. I look forward to working with all noble Lords. I also look forward to hearing today the maiden speeches from the noble Lords, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley and Lord Biggar, the latter a fellow clergyman and a theological mind of some high repute.
Debate during the recent passage of my own Private Member’s Bill through this House highlighted the severe disadvantages faced by many care leavers. Research by Barnardo’s showed that 39% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 are not in education, employment or training, compared with 13% of young people in general. We are failing almost two in five of those who have care experience. Moreover, care leavers I met through the charity Become highlighted how much depends on the whim of their particular local authority. Young people who move away for work or further education are especially prone to losing support. We need a universal offer for young people leaving care that local authorities are obliged to meet.
At a later stage, I will be seeking to explore the shape of such an offer, potentially including free prescriptions, bus travel, help with rent deposits and guarantees, eligibility for the over-25 rates of universal credit and greater support for those who go on to apprenticeships or university. Moreover, as care-experienced people are disproportionately represented in almost every area of disadvantage, from homelessness, unemployment and poverty to poor health, low educational attainment and involvement in the justice system, I have been looking at amendments to embed care experience in equality assessments so that public bodies put care leavers at the heart of decision-making. I am grateful for the comments from the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, regarding foster parents, who provide such a vital service in helping children flourish and thrive. I would hope to join him in testing how the Bill can be strengthened to better support them.
My Lords, I draw attention to my interests as set out in the register. I just want to talk very briefly about schools today. I say clearly that I have seen at first hand the transformative power of academies to deliver excellent education where there has been failure. When academies were introduced—and I was involved enthusiast—they were a tool for the urgent improvement of schools, not an ideological symbol. The idea was simple but radical: open up to new energy and expertise, allow great leaders the freedoms to create enthusiastic teams and raise standards and, crucially, to make sure there was accountability so that schools that were failing children, particularly from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, could not carry on failing the next cohort. It worked, and many of us around this House were involved in that mission.
I fear that we have lost sight of the original purpose. The debate in recent times has shifted from standards to structures, outcomes to ideology. Today, over 80% of secondary schools are academies—the landscape has fundamentally changed. Academisation alone cannot be the answer when it is already the dominant model. In some cases it has delivered hugely, but it is not a panacea. What we need now, again, is to refocus relentlessly on standards and outcomes for every child in every school, whatever its structure and whatever the badge on the school gate. We should remember what has worked and replicate that, including earned freedoms.
We should be totally and utterly impatient and relentless about poor quality in any school, whether academy, maintained, free school or faith. Any school that is failing its pupils should be given a short, focused period to improve dramatically. If it cannot, leadership must change. Handing over a school to a poorly performing provider of whatever label is not acceptable, ever. Quality and rigour are what matters. Every year a child spends in a failing school is a year of potential lost, and the disadvantage gap and regional disparities persist.
My Lords, there is much to commend in the Bill, not least because it seeks—as did the last Government—to strengthen collaboration between education and social services for the benefit of the life chances of all our children.
However, it is regrettable that, while the Government claim their enthusiasm for driving up school standards, the Bill attacks the very freedoms of academies which have achieved just that since their introduction. In that time, as has already been said, the UK has moved from 21st to seventh in international league tables in maths, and in science from ninth to seventh. In the many cases where academies have replaced failing schools, they have given fresh hope to children, often in disadvantaged areas.
I also question the wisdom of loading local authorities with so many obligations to set up new bodies and practices at this very moment when they themselves are facing massive change and uncertainty through the Government’s plans for devolution. Those changes will of course be necessary; it is just the timing that seems to be a bit questionable, especially as some of them are due to come into force within two months after the Act is passed, according to the Library. Will devolution be fully in place in two months? Will we know which local authorities still exist in their present form and which do not in a completely different framework? I do not think so, and it would be helpful if the Minister could comment on this point in her wind-up. It seems to me that there is something of a mismatch of expectation at this stage.
I welcome the planned involvement of Ofsted in unregistered and therefore illegal independent schools, and, importantly, private providers, including those for SEND pupils. I also welcome—very guardedly, because it is an extremely sensitive area—the introduction of a register of children not in school. Many of those educating their children at home, which can include SEND pupils, understandably regard the measure as intolerable intrusion. Perhaps it might be better if it applied only to children already known to social services, but views on this will emerge as the Bill goes through this House.
My Lords, my remarks will focus primarily on technology in school, but I want to take this opportunity to say that, over the time I have spent in your Lordships’ House, I find myself increasingly in situations where children’s needs are being now balanced with the proportionality principle of others’ adult freedoms, with no recognition of the broad swathe of rights that we are obligated to give them. I start by saying that the well-being Bill should represent that broad swathe of children’s rights and meet their needs in that sense.
It strikes me that one of the easiest and cheapest things we could do is to give them a break from the well-documented intrusions of digital tech while at school, which, as a 15 year-old earlier this week said to me,
“gives us brain rot, prevents us sleeping and stops us talking to each other”.
Ministers cite excessive device use at home as the greater culprit, rather than the smartphone disruption at school, for the decline in children’s well-being and attainment, but that logic normalises smartphones’ constant presence in a child’s life and actually does nothing at all to tackle phone use at home.
Evidence that I will bring to Committee shows that restrictions are helpful to school communities, not only for learning but for peace in the school community and for friendship and human flourishing. The current guidance—which is excellent—puts pressure on teachers that statutory rules could relieve.
While Ministers are slow on smartphones, they are increasingly evangelical about bringing edtech into the classroom. I recognise that there is very good evidence that those with disabilities or special needs benefit from such tech, but for most children there is no such evidence at all. There is no oversight, no pedagogical criteria, no understanding of its efficacy and no proof of learning outcomes. In a similar vein, I have now sat down with four Ministers of Education and explained the risks of uncertified safety tech, yet we still do not have minimum standards. It is another—not the first—accident waiting to happen.
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Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Order Paper · Order Paper
Breakfast clubs have proven benefits: they boost attendance, improve academic attainment and enhance children’s social and emotional well-being. However, access remains fragmented; despite the good work of the national school breakfast programme, it reaches only around 2,000 primary schools, covering only a fraction of those in need, and funds only 75% of the cost of food and delivery, leaving schools to cover staff wages and other expenses. This Bill goes further than simply expanding the existing programme; it makes a fundamental shift in how we support children’s education and well-being.
From April, 750 schools across all nine regions, including 45 special schools, have led the way in free, daily breakfast clubs, saving parents up to £450 a year. Early adopters will be part of a test-and-learn phase to strengthen delivery of national rollout. We will learn what works and develop the programme, and this Bill will ensure that the opportunities provided by free, universal breakfast clubs reach all primary children.
In a country where 3.5 million children are growing up in absolute poverty, we must ensure that no child’s future is determined by their family’s financial circumstances. And breaking down barriers to opportunity goes beyond just the classroom. This Bill will also help by limiting the number of branded items of school uniform and PE kit that schools can require, reducing unnecessary costs and putting money back in parents’ pockets.
Our responsibility is greatest to those children who most need our protection and safeguarding. We must learn from the tragic cases of children failed by the system, so this Bill delivers on important recommendations from significant recent reviews, including the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the child protection review published by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and a study into children’s social care placements published by the Competition and Markets Authority. Our measures are also informed by evidence from effective local practice.
Our priority is to keep children and families together wherever it is safe to do so. By helping more families to stay together, we can improve outcomes for children and reduce the number of children who need to enter the care system. This Bill strengthens early support, ensuring that those at risk of family breakdown can create a plan that prioritises their child’s needs. It places a duty on local authorities to offer a family group decision-making meeting before an application for a care or supervision order is made, potentially preventing many children from going into care and instead allowing them to remain safely with their families.
To support more children staying with relatives, friends or other connected persons, this Bill will require all local authorities to publish a kinship local offer. Every child deserves a stable, loving and permanent home, and this Bill takes meaningful steps to make that a reality. To strengthen safeguarding, we are placing a duty on safeguarding partners to fully include education and childcare settings in their arrangements, ensuring no opportunity to protect children is missed. We are also requiring local safeguarding partners to establish multi-agency child protection teams in every area to take decisive action when necessary.
For too long, poor information sharing has contributed to serious child safeguarding incidents, including in reviews following the death of, or serious injury to, a child. To ensure that no child goes unseen or unsupported, the Bill sets the foundation for the introduction of a unique identifier for children and strengthens the regulatory regime in place for independent educational institutions. Parents have the right to have their wishes regarding their child’s education respected, but that education must be suitable and that child must be safe. The Bill stablishes mandatory registers for children not in school full-time, so that we know where children are and that their education is safe and suitable.
When care is necessary, it must work for children and not for profit. In 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care found that levels of profit in the care placement market were well above those that would be expected in a well-functioning market. To prevent children’s social care placement providers from profiting at the expense of vulnerable children, we are introducing a new power to enable the Secretary of State to cap profits if profiteering is not brought under control through our other interventions. Because care does not end at 18, we will require all local authorities to provide eligible care leavers with “staying close” support where their welfare requires it, ensuring that young people leaving care have stability and the right help to build a bright future.
Every child is entitled to a high-quality state education. While there has been progress over the years, our system is simply not working well enough for everybody. Standards vary widely, with a stark contrast between the experiences of children in the best and worst schools. The gap in average key stage 4 attainment between the best-performing and worst-performing schools is now equivalent to more than two GCSE grades per subject. Too many schools are stuck—trapped in cycles of underperformance without the capacity or momentum to improve—and children with additional needs are not getting the support they need. The attainment gap for disadvantaged children at key stage 2 and key stage 4 has remained persistently high and has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. There are large and persistent attainment gaps at all stages of education; currently, 39% of children are not meeting expected standards in all of reading, writing and maths as they leave primary school.
Further, we have an absence crisis, with approximately one in five children missing a day of school each fortnight. That needs to change. High and rising standards in every classroom must be the right of every child, delivered through a broad, high-quality curriculum taught by skilled and dedicated teachers. That is why we have established the independent, expert-led curriculum and assessment review, which will deliver a broad, rich and innovative curriculum to ensure that all children and young people have the essential knowledge and skills to set them up for work and life. Teaching quality is the most important in-school determinant of pupil outcomes. That is why this Government are committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers across our mainstream secondary and specialist schools, and our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.
This Bill is a charter of common sense, providing a core guarantee of quality education in every school, no matter where you live. The Bill will establish a pay floor by requiring all schools to adhere to a minimum pay level. This will help ensure a competitive pay structure, supporting the recruitment and retention of the best educators. Additionally, academy trusts will be required to consider the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document when setting staff conditions, further promoting fairness and consistency across the education system.
The Bill will ensure that when the national curriculum is reformed, it will be an entitlement for all children in all schools, and that new teachers either have or are working towards qualified teacher status, followed by a period of statutory induction. To provide greater certainty for families, the Bill strengthens collaboration between schools and local authorities on admissions and place planning.
It also introduces more flexibility in how we support struggling schools. When academies were introduced—by the last Labour Government—they were the disruptors in the system, challenging and supporting the schools that most needed it to improve. Now they are the system: over 80% of our secondary schools are academies. We need new challenge, new urgency and new tools to drive improvement where schools just are not doing well enough for our children.
That is why this Bill enables a range of interventions to address underperformance. While academisation will remain a key tool for tackling failing schools, the Bill gives the Government more discretion to apply the most appropriate solutions to individual cases, including supporting the deployment of our RISE teams. These teams are made up of proven leaders with a track record of improving schools and delivering for children. As we announced on Tuesday, an additional 45 advisers joined last month, tripling the total number to 65. This will enable us to expand our reach from an initial 32 schools to more than 200, reaching over 120,000 children and putting us on track to engage with up to 600 schools by March 2026. Through these reforms, we aim to ensure that every child can attend a high-quality local school and receive the education they deserve.
This Bill makes vital, practical changes to our children’s social care and education systems, and there will be tangible improvements for every young person as a result. This Government have been clear in setting out their mission to ensure that a child’s future should not be determined by their circumstances. I know that this principle is widely shared across the House. By addressing the systemic barriers that too often hold our children back, we have a unique opportunity through this Bill to create a more equitable and successful environment, where all young people have the chance to achieve and thrive. I beg to move.
More broadly, we remain sceptical about the Government’s approach to the regulation of children’s homes and fostering agencies. We fear that this will result in more bureaucracy and no change in the supply picture. Given that research by Ofsted showed that up to 50% of children in children’s homes had a foster placement specified on their care plan, there is a pressing need to address the fundamental issues which limit the number of foster carers. We are aware that many organisations, including the Children’s Commissioner, have called for childcare and education agencies to be full partners in local safeguarding arrangements. We anticipate that, on many of these issues, we will be probing the Government, alongside noble Lords from all sides of the House.
It would be fair to say that we cannot share the same enthusiasm and support for the second part of the Bill, which relates to schools. We believe that the measures in this part of the Bill simply will not provide the best possible education for our children. If passed, these elements of the Bill will override years of cross-party support and will reverse the very system that has seen English children move up the PISA rankings across the board in reading, science and maths. This Bill risks undermining the overwhelming consensus of the last 20 years on the benefits that come from giving greater autonomy to local schools and trusts, while having high standards of transparency and accountability. It is this system that has seen English schoolchildren become the best in the western world at both reading and maths. To change this without clear evidence to justify it is both serious and risky.
We foresee far-reaching and negative consequences arising from some of the provisions in the second half of the Bill, and we are not alone in this view. The Confederation of School Trusts is very concerned about the provisions which seek to remove the academy freedoms that have so greatly improved our education system. One only need look at the contrast with Scotland and Wales, which have not adopted the English reforms, to see the evidence in stark relief. As His Majesty’s Government themselves did when in opposition, we will respectfully explore, question and, in some cases, challenge outright.
Let me begin with the area about which we have the greatest concerns: the clauses relating to academies. These are the most significant, as they seek to undo the progress made during the last two decades. In 2024, academies represented 80% of secondary schools and nearly 43% of primary schools. For His Majesty’s Government to introduce such wide-ranging and radical changes without support from the sector does not make sense. We respectfully urge the Government to listen to the voices from all around your Lordships’ House, as they did in the other place, to make improvements to the Bill on the pay and conditions of academy teachers.
Academies have been at the forefront of fostering innovation in our school system; they have led the turnaround of some of the most challenging schools in this country. I know that the noble Lords, Lord Harris of Peckham, Lord Agnew of Oulton, Lord Fink and Lord Nash, have all been involved in doing this difficult and crucial work, as has the noble Lord, Lord Young of Acton, in relation to innovation in opening new free schools. The Children’s Commissioner has also raised concerns about the restriction of academy freedoms. We hope that your Lordships’ scrutiny of His Majesty’s Government will allow the time needed to consider the importance of these expert voices. None of this is to suggest that improvements could not be made to the current system of regulation of our schools, but a forward-looking, positive and aspirational vision for all our schools appears to be lacking in this Bill.
The Bill also fails to introduce a ban on the use of smartphones in schools. Although the previous Government’s guidance to schools on banning smartphones was a positive first step, it is not enough. Only 11% of schools have an effective ban in place. Scores of scientific studies have linked both better mental health and school attainment to removing smartphones from classrooms. We recognise that this is not universally welcomed by head teachers, but we are most concerned that, in this case, we should use the precautionary principle when dealing with the mental health of children. I am very much looking forward to the valuable contribution that the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, will make today, following the excellent debate she led on this subject last November.
There are also concerns that the breakfast clubs being introduced by the Bill will have practical issues, and we will seek to table probing amendments. Of the 750 schools involved in the early adopter programme, 79 have already dropped out. We understand that some have given a funding shortfall as their reason for leaving. The CEO of the Warrington Primary Academy Trust said that the scheme is in danger of falling flat because of it. There are certainly practical issues which need to be addressed before the scheme can be rolled out nationwide. It would be appreciated if the Minister took the opportunity to explain in her closing remarks the Government’s position on this drop-out rate.
I turn to the proposal in the Bill to introduce laws governing the specific number of school uniform items a school can require a child to have. We worry that this approach could backfire, with children feeling under pressure to wear the latest fashion, which is actually more expensive than their uniform. This blanket approach does not allow schools to provide free uniform, or account for them providing it at a discount. It can be more expensive to buy unbranded items. We will explore this further in Committee.
Protecting the well-being and education of children is essential to the future of the country, to economic growth and to reducing the burden on the NHS. His Majesty’s Official Opposition accept that some parts of the Bill form part of the Government’s manifesto commitments, and we will seek to ensure that these areas work well in practice.
Today’s list of speakers reads like a Who’s Who of education experts. On our Benches alone we have three former Secretaries of State for Education, and the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Peckham, is also present. To quote the media, what earns the noble Lord hero status is that this Conservative Peer
“has done more to help working-class children than any Labour politician since Attlee and Bevan.”
I am also very much looking forward to hearing the maiden speeches of the noble Lords, Lord Biggar and Lord Mohammed of Tinsley.
It would be impossible to get all the speakers today in a room together at the same time were it not for your Lordships’ House. There are aspects of this Bill on which we hope the Government will listen to the collective experts sitting all around your Lordships’ House—including on their own Benches—who have been involved in the leadership of multi-academy trusts. We hope that the Government will think again, because surely, children deserve no less.
We must look across the education system, at all its aspects. Academisation has not helped, as a school can now be a failing school because of low academic standards. I start with a declaration of interests. I am dyslexic and I am president of the British Dyslexia Association, and I am chairman of a firm for assisted tech, some of which is used in education. If we do not make it easy for structure and help to be given to schools, we are always going to have problems in this area. To a dyslexic, the emphasis on passing English felt, at times, almost like a personal assault. Pupils have to learn synthetic phonics—if I have got that right—but a bad short-term memory can mean that you sometimes get it wrong. The system does not work well for those with a bad short-term memory, but that is the way teachers are supposed to teach. A greater degree of flexibility in teaching methods, which will be a great strength, is important. If we can get guidance on the way that the national curriculum and the special educational needs structure is envisaged as changing under the Bill, I will be very grateful.
The system is almost certainly a contributing factor to the high number of pupils not in school. We will talk a lot about home education in the Bill, and the biggest group of home-educated pupils I first met were those whose special educational needs provisions were not being met. Those parents, often reluctantly, took their children out of school. It has now become a more acceptable way forward, but I remember papers on off-rolling, and the noble Lord, Lord Agnew, getting passionate about the fact that it was breaking the spirit of academies. If the system is one in which your career, your school and your status can be destroyed by not having the correct pass rates, I might think about getting rid of undiagnosed or improperly diagnosed dyslexics and other neurodiverse groups if I was in that situation. A better identification process would be massively helpful, and we must make sure there is space for it.
Whatever the strengths of academies, they have to work with local authorities. We must look at moving this forward and getting it right. Academies are now the dominant group. Acceptance that we do not need wholesale change was reached when the previous Government decided that they would not go for compulsory academisation, as there were local authority schools that were doing a good job. The consensus now is that the converted academies—those that were forced to change—are the weakest group, if I remember correctly, although there is not too much in it. I welcome the fact that we are going to get them working together on matters such as the allocation of school places.
On school uniforms, specifying a few items is a little silly. Why not put a maximum budget on what you can charge for school uniforms? Encouraging second-hand school uniforms might be one solution.
When it comes to the much-vaunted breakfast clubs, I can say only this: the bus is occasionally late. In rural areas, making sure that the bus gets to school on time will be a challenge. How the Government propose to interfere with local transport systems will be an interesting discussion. We think that the extra calories should be given at lunchtime. There might be a compromise solution, such as school brunch—though I fear that sounds like a daytime TV programme. We applaud making sure that people are properly fed, but we think this is a difficult way to do it.
There is not much to say about the rest of the Bill, other than on the joys of Clause 63. Henry VIII has raised his head again. The last time we had a big education Bill, when the previous Government were in charge, the Henry VIII powers were up front; this time, they are tucked away at the back. If I am wrong about this, I look forward to the Minister telling me why I am wrong. Changes can be made by regulation, but we know how difficult it is to change regulations because we cannot amend them, only reject them all—and we are told it is a constitutional crisis every time we try to get rid of an order. Can the Minister explain how this will work, so that it will not be a case of the Secretary of State saying, “Thou wilt change”, with virtually no element of parliamentary oversight? I look forward to working through the Bill. There is no shortage of expertise to dig down into it. I hope we will come to a better conclusion.
I will make one final point—as I see the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, looking at me. Would it not be a good idea if we could find one little section in the Bill that encourages outside bodies such as sports clubs to enhance the activity of school sport, with same being done for drama and music? It would be a nice idea if we took the opportunity to correct that bit of the education system, because we all know—and it is proven—that if you do it only at school, you stop when you leave school. Maybe we can change that in this Bill.
As has already been said, the common thread in the findings of every child abuse inquiry since the case of Maria Colwell more than 50 years ago has been the failure of agencies involved to share information. Your Lordships’ own Public Services Select Committee, which I sat on at the time, concluded in 2021 that data sharing between government departments and between local agencies was a long-standing problem that
“endangered vulnerable children and their families”.
Currently, social care services are not always told when the police arrest a child or when a pupil is on a waiting list for mental health services.
I am delighted that the Bill seeks to address data sharing, and I am especially pleased to see the very long-overdue proposal to introduce a consistent, unique identifier for children. That should make it easier to create a comprehensive profile for a child and achieve smooth transitions when children change schools or move local authority areas. The question for me—one which we should be asking ourselves in Committee—is whether the changes proposed even now go far enough to reverse decades of learned behaviour. I have long argued that our society has prioritised the protection of data ahead of the protection of children. That has to change. This is the chance to change it, and we should take it.
Moving briefly to other areas, I have received some very concerning representations regarding the impact of the Bill on the yeshivas that supplement home schooling for many of my Jewish neighbours in Salford, especially in the Haredi communities. The Government’s own human rights memorandum notes that
“institutions which are likely to be predominantly affected are yeshivas”.
If this goes ahead unamended, yeshivas will be forced to close. They cannot, and indeed will not, register as educational institutions—that is not what they are. I hope that the Minister in responding will be able to assure us that there will be some comprehensive consultation with faith communities regarding the regulatory framework that is to be applied under Clause 36.
Finally, children who have a parent in prison are at particular risk of going into the care system. The Bill could represent a step forward for the provision of support for such families. Church of England schools, along with colleagues at the Catholic Education Service, are passionate about how we improve the lives of children with incarcerated parents. I know that my right reverend friend the Bishop of Gloucester, who cannot be in her place today, will be looking at how the Bill can be strengthened in this regard. We on these Benches take very seriously our ministry with and among children in our churches, our many church schools—I have almost 200 in my own diocese—and wider society. We welcome the Bill, and we look forward to engaging positively with it as it progresses.
What frustrates all of us is that we know we have the tools to address this, but sometimes we lack the will to use them consistently. The current rebrokering process for academies can take years, during which children continue to be failed, and that has to change. We need to recapture the original spirit of academy reform: clear standards, strong accountability and swift intervention when those standards are not met for all schools.
Accountability is more than data measurements and inspection regimes; it is also about nous. It is about having the courage to act decisively when children are being let down. I used to say when I was there that Ofsted had to be an agent for improvement. Its reports have to lead to change. I remember talking to pupils in some of the very first academies we created. They were so excited about the tangible evidence of investment in their future, the ambition embodied in every aspect of a school. We must not lose that sense of possibility and drive for excellence.
The evidence from strong academy chains and networks shows what works: strong leadership, great teachers, curriculum expertise, behaviour policies that create calm learning environments and, crucially, the willingness to share what works across schools. The goal remains what it always was: to ensure that every child, regardless of background, has access to excellent education. Academies can and do play a crucial role in this mission, but they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
The Bill has clauses that I know will lead to heated debate, and I believe we will improve it as we go along. I will not go there on these details today. Today, my plea to all of us around this House is simple: please let us return to first principles, high standards, strong accountability and swift action where these standards are not met. Let us avoid excuses, justifications, compromises. Let us judge schools by their outcomes and let us act with the urgency that our children deserve.
The noble Lord, Lord Storey, has done very important work on this with his Private Member’s Bill and his concern about the case of Sara Sharif. I have been marked for life by the story I will recount to this House, in my time as an MP, of an egregious case in 2001 which ended in the manslaughter of Lauren Wright, aged eight, at the hands of her father and stepmother. If the Norfolk education and social services had visited the family home, the death of Lauren would have been prevented. The Labour Government of the time refused a public inquiry.
The introduction of school attendance orders should be helpful, especially in the wake of the pandemic and the new world of working from home. Amid worrying reports of school heads feeling powerless to insist on attendance, heads and teachers should be able to feel that they are supported by the provisions of the law and also of the Bill.
A flippant point: I have noticed in my lifelong involvement in education that many, including politicians, frequently pronounce on what should and should not be achieved in the classroom, while all too frequently forgetting that they are not in the classroom and heads and teachers are. Those heads and teachers need the confidence and support of a legal framework within which to work.
Many have commented on the expertise within this House. I believe that these issues can be debated robustly and knowledgeably, with national expertise, to the benefit of all our children, and I look forward to the debates that are to come.
Some tech is wonderful, some is benign and some is in our schools stealing children’s data and their opportunity to learn. Yet we are rapidly wrapping pupils in a world of digital products which isolate them and normalise the screen over the human, with no proof of the benefits. I would say the same thing about early years. Who has not seen a child in a pram with a device strapped to it? At nursery, children are arriving with inhibited social skills and language, yet all my attempts to get mandatory training for early years professionals in technology have been rebuffed by both sides of the House. Government and Parliament must recalibrate that the Covid time-bomb, in which children are developmentally stunted and isolated, is increasingly the new norm of childhood—children are socialised by those brightly lit screens which are focused on the attention economy and ad revenue, not on human flourishing.
In Committee, I will join others in putting forward amendments on these issues. I will also seek to understand the scope of the promised edtech code being produced by the ICO and the Government’s plans to give a data-mining exception to AI companies for all our children’s work and behaviour at school. There are many wonderful uses of technology, but we have to make sure that school is a place of privacy, safety and learning for our children.