Found: provide a national Staying Close support package, as we set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: and while these are being extended to cover academies as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Non-Domestic Rating (Multiplier and Private Schools) Bill Correspondence from the Minister of State

Found: With this in mind, the College is pleased that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes measures

Found: We have welcomed the introduction of legislative measures through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will enshrine the definition of kinship care in legislation

Found: Immediately after the general election, we brought forward the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: form price capping and a reduced use of residential settings if the Children’s WellBeing and Schools Bill

Found: work with MPs and Peers that have supported our aims of ensuring the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces a financial‑oversight regime for strategically

Found: face of potential profit and price controls such as are mooted by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: welcome the commitments to children’s social care reform set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: proposed financial oversight and profit-capping mechanisms through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: britain-increases-taxes-private-equity-carried-interest-32- 2024-10-30/ 21 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill

Found: fair pricing and cost transparency, including through measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: We welcome the measures in the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill to introduce

Found: c079 - Letter from His Majesty’s Chief Inspector on Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill dated 24.10.25

Found: Smith: Moving now to some questions around local government finance, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: recommendation of the Education Committee in its report on Scrutiny of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill provides for family group decision -making meetings bringing

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill provides for family group decision-making meetings bringing

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill provides for family group decision -making meetings bringing

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill provides for family group decision-making meetings bringing

Found: In its inquiries on the Children’s Wellbeing and the Schools Bill and children’s social care, the Committee

Found: The Government have acknowledged this issue, and in Clause 1 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: The Government have acknowledged this issue, and in Clause 1 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Information Sharing, including work on information sharing provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Allowance and enabling implementation of the social care commitments in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: providing a national Staying Close support package as set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: For instance, in 2025, Period Positive engaged with the UK Schools Bill, calling on the government to

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, Families First Partnership programme, the recently published

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of pausing the implementation of the new Clause 4 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill until comprehensive public consultation and impact assessments have been completed.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

An assessment of the potential impact on parental rights and informed consent is included in the Bill ECHR impact assessment, available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/59867/documents/6253. Conditions for processing are a matter for local data controllers now, and that will remain the case under this new duty.

To clarify, clause 4 introduces an information sharing duty and makes provision for a consistent identifier to be used across organisations that have safeguarding and welfare functions to support record linkage. Its use has therefore been limited to safeguarding and welfare. Safeguards have been built into this provision, and data protection principles still apply meaning information may only be shared where it is necessary and proportionate. In addition, both measures are clear that any benefits of sharing must outweigh any potential detriment to the child.

As required under Article 36(4) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the department has formally consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required by the department for the information sharing duty element of clause 4 because personal data will be processed locally. For the consistent identifier element of clause 4, it is currently the position that the department will not be a processor of personal data, so a DPIA is not required as it stands. We will keep this position under review and, should it ever be the case that the department will process personal data as part of either element of clause 4, we would conduct and publish a DPIA.

During the passage of the Bill, the department has committed to undertake public consultation, including with parents, and will comply with requirements for impact assessments.

Clause 4 will be commenced at a later date, rather than immediately upon Royal Assent, to allow for consultation on statutory guidance, further consideration of impact, as well as ongoing piloting and technical design of the consistent identifier. The department will only proceed when we are confident in the benefits, cost, security, and governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to undertake a consultation with parents, schools, and child protection experts on the new Clause 4 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

An assessment of the potential impact on parental rights and informed consent is included in the Bill ECHR impact assessment, available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/59867/documents/6253. Conditions for processing are a matter for local data controllers now, and that will remain the case under this new duty.

To clarify, clause 4 introduces an information sharing duty and makes provision for a consistent identifier to be used across organisations that have safeguarding and welfare functions to support record linkage. Its use has therefore been limited to safeguarding and welfare. Safeguards have been built into this provision, and data protection principles still apply meaning information may only be shared where it is necessary and proportionate. In addition, both measures are clear that any benefits of sharing must outweigh any potential detriment to the child.

As required under Article 36(4) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the department has formally consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required by the department for the information sharing duty element of clause 4 because personal data will be processed locally. For the consistent identifier element of clause 4, it is currently the position that the department will not be a processor of personal data, so a DPIA is not required as it stands. We will keep this position under review and, should it ever be the case that the department will process personal data as part of either element of clause 4, we would conduct and publish a DPIA.

During the passage of the Bill, the department has committed to undertake public consultation, including with parents, and will comply with requirements for impact assessments.

Clause 4 will be commenced at a later date, rather than immediately upon Royal Assent, to allow for consultation on statutory guidance, further consideration of impact, as well as ongoing piloting and technical design of the consistent identifier. The department will only proceed when we are confident in the benefits, cost, security, and governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce safeguards to help ensure that the digital identity system introduced under Clause 4 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill protects children’s privacy and data protection rights.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

An assessment of the potential impact on parental rights and informed consent is included in the Bill ECHR impact assessment, available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/59867/documents/6253. Conditions for processing are a matter for local data controllers now, and that will remain the case under this new duty.

To clarify, clause 4 introduces an information sharing duty and makes provision for a consistent identifier to be used across organisations that have safeguarding and welfare functions to support record linkage. Its use has therefore been limited to safeguarding and welfare. Safeguards have been built into this provision, and data protection principles still apply meaning information may only be shared where it is necessary and proportionate. In addition, both measures are clear that any benefits of sharing must outweigh any potential detriment to the child.

As required under Article 36(4) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the department has formally consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required by the department for the information sharing duty element of clause 4 because personal data will be processed locally. For the consistent identifier element of clause 4, it is currently the position that the department will not be a processor of personal data, so a DPIA is not required as it stands. We will keep this position under review and, should it ever be the case that the department will process personal data as part of either element of clause 4, we would conduct and publish a DPIA.

During the passage of the Bill, the department has committed to undertake public consultation, including with parents, and will comply with requirements for impact assessments.

Clause 4 will be commenced at a later date, rather than immediately upon Royal Assent, to allow for consultation on statutory guidance, further consideration of impact, as well as ongoing piloting and technical design of the consistent identifier. The department will only proceed when we are confident in the benefits, cost, security, and governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has (a) conducted or (b) plans to conduct a risk assessment on the implications of the new Clause 4 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for data security and the protection of sensitive family information.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

An assessment of the potential impact on parental rights and informed consent is included in the Bill ECHR impact assessment, available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/59867/documents/6253. Conditions for processing are a matter for local data controllers now, and that will remain the case under this new duty.

To clarify, clause 4 introduces an information sharing duty and makes provision for a consistent identifier to be used across organisations that have safeguarding and welfare functions to support record linkage. Its use has therefore been limited to safeguarding and welfare. Safeguards have been built into this provision, and data protection principles still apply meaning information may only be shared where it is necessary and proportionate. In addition, both measures are clear that any benefits of sharing must outweigh any potential detriment to the child.

As required under Article 36(4) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the department has formally consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required by the department for the information sharing duty element of clause 4 because personal data will be processed locally. For the consistent identifier element of clause 4, it is currently the position that the department will not be a processor of personal data, so a DPIA is not required as it stands. We will keep this position under review and, should it ever be the case that the department will process personal data as part of either element of clause 4, we would conduct and publish a DPIA.

During the passage of the Bill, the department has committed to undertake public consultation, including with parents, and will comply with requirements for impact assessments.

Clause 4 will be commenced at a later date, rather than immediately upon Royal Assent, to allow for consultation on statutory guidance, further consideration of impact, as well as ongoing piloting and technical design of the consistent identifier. The department will only proceed when we are confident in the benefits, cost, security, and governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has her Department made of the potential impact of Clause 4 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on parental rights and the principle of informed consent.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

An assessment of the potential impact on parental rights and informed consent is included in the Bill ECHR impact assessment, available here: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/59867/documents/6253. Conditions for processing are a matter for local data controllers now, and that will remain the case under this new duty.

To clarify, clause 4 introduces an information sharing duty and makes provision for a consistent identifier to be used across organisations that have safeguarding and welfare functions to support record linkage. Its use has therefore been limited to safeguarding and welfare. Safeguards have been built into this provision, and data protection principles still apply meaning information may only be shared where it is necessary and proportionate. In addition, both measures are clear that any benefits of sharing must outweigh any potential detriment to the child.

As required under Article 36(4) of the UK General Data Protection Regulations, the department has formally consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required by the department for the information sharing duty element of clause 4 because personal data will be processed locally. For the consistent identifier element of clause 4, it is currently the position that the department will not be a processor of personal data, so a DPIA is not required as it stands. We will keep this position under review and, should it ever be the case that the department will process personal data as part of either element of clause 4, we would conduct and publish a DPIA.

During the passage of the Bill, the department has committed to undertake public consultation, including with parents, and will comply with requirements for impact assessments.

Clause 4 will be commenced at a later date, rather than immediately upon Royal Assent, to allow for consultation on statutory guidance, further consideration of impact, as well as ongoing piloting and technical design of the consistent identifier. The department will only proceed when we are confident in the benefits, cost, security, and governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department plans to provide Local Authorities with extra funding to support training of social workers and council workers to improve understanding of home education.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department ran a public consultation on the proposed duties and measures for Children Not in School in 2019. The consultation was open to all to contribute, including academic experts in educational pedagogy, and the department responded in 2022. We have continued to engage with home education experts since then as part of development of the measures for inclusion in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and on plans for implementation of these post-Royal Assent.

Funding and training will be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department consulted academic experts in pedagogy in home education on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department ran a public consultation on the proposed duties and measures for Children Not in School in 2019. The consultation was open to all to contribute, including academic experts in educational pedagogy, and the department responded in 2022. We have continued to engage with home education experts since then as part of development of the measures for inclusion in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and on plans for implementation of these post-Royal Assent.

Funding and training will be provided to support local authorities to fulfil their new duties under the Children Not in School measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of differences in teacher qualification requirements by multi-academy trusts and local authority-maintained schools on the consistency of educational standards.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Evidence shows that high quality teaching is the most important in-school factor that improves outcomes for children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is the professional qualification for primary and secondary teachers and underpins high quality teaching by ensuring teachers meet the Teachers’ Standards. It is right that we expect teachers to be professionally qualified and the department is taking steps to ensure consistency in educational standards across all state funded primary and secondary schools. Teachers in local authority-maintained schools and special schools are already required to have QTS.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are seeking to extend the requirement to academies, so all pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from well-trained, professionally qualified teachers. This change will ensure that teachers too benefit from the knowledge and training that underpins QTS across both local authority-maintained schools and academies.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department has consulted with a) NSPCC, b) Women's Aid, and c) other charities, on the potential implications of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on children who have been victims of abuse from a parent.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

​​The department has engaged with a number of charities on policies where they have a direct interest, as part of wider consideration of the Bill’s impact on children and families.

We have spoken to the NSPCC on multiple occasions about the Bill and have engaged closely with the Domestic Abuse commissioner on Family Group Decision Making.

Moreover, as part of their consideration of the Bill in the House of Commons, the Public Bill Committee invited written evidence from outside organisations and members of the public and took oral evidence from relevant stakeholders. The NSPCC and a number of other charities provided evidence, which has informed Parliamentary debate and ongoing thinking on the Bill’s measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to carry out a data privacy impact assessment for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is ensuring that measures outlined in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill align with data protection principles, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

The department has met its obligation under Article 36(4) of UK GDPR to consult with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on relevant measures involving the use of personal data, such as the Children Not in School registers.

The department is engaging with the ICO to ensure that any data protection risks identified are properly mitigated and is carrying out data protection impact assessments, where relevant.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address rising costs of placements for children in care, and to ensure the availability of high-quality, affordable placements nationwide.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Every child in care should have a safe, loving home which is also value for money for the taxpayer.

The department is empowering local authorities to secure the best placements for looked after children at a price that is fair to the taxpayer. We know local authorities cannot do this alone, so we are also taking action at a national level to reshape the market. Through our package of measures, including those set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we will rebalance the market, improve competition, regulation and commissioning of placements, shine a light on the level of profit being made, and bring greater visibility to the prices local authorities are paying.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the identification of young carers across other health services in the context of plans to change the Mental Health Act Code of Practice.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authorities must take reasonable steps to identify young carers in their area and assess their needs. To support local authorities in their child protection duties, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, strengthens this by introducing a duty on safeguarding partners to enhance multi-agency working with children and families.

Reforms to the Mental Health Act will encourage recording young carers in Advance Choice Documents, providing crucial information for professionals during crises. The Mental Health Bill also ensures carers are actively involved in patients’ statutory care plans, supported by guidance in the revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice.

NHS England is improving young carer identification and support through general practice guidance and better data sharing across health, education, and social care. In partnership with the Department for Education, it is leading a cross-Government project with young carers and voluntary organisations to reduce inequalities and strengthen support pathways.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill on multi-academy trusts.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills to the answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 903828.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to send information to home educating parents on the registration measures within the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Following the Bill’s attainment of Royal Assent, the department intends to make regulations and publish statutory guidance outlining how local authorities must publicise the registers and the duties of parents in relation to the registers.

We will consult on the guidance ahead of implementation, so home educating parents can share their views on how they would like to receive information on the registration measures.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken with local authorities to improve children services.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department is committed to children’s social care reform to ensure opportunity for all children. Our policy statement ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, outlines our vision and core legislative proposals. We have subsequently introduced several measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, a key step towards delivering the government’s Opportunity Mission.

Specifically, we have confirmed the national rollout of Family Help, multi-agency child protection and Family Group Decision Making reforms. These reforms are being delivered through the Families First Partnership (FFP) programme, a national government programme to support Safeguarding Partners, including local authorities, to implement the reforms. In 2025/26 the reforms are backed by £541 million of funding, more than doubling direct investment in preventative services.

Through the FFP programme, the government is giving families and children access to better local support services to break the cycle of late intervention and help more children and families to stay safely together.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department made of the adequacy of the use of single unique identifiers for schools, in the context of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Provision in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to introduce a single unique identifier (SUI) for children is based on extensive user research, including engagement with schools and education settings. Our 2023 report, ‘Improving multi-agency information sharing’, highlighted that while schools use identifiers such as the unique pupil number (UPN), these are not recognised across other agencies that process and share information relating to safeguarding and welfare, creating fragmentation and risk.

To address this, the department began pilot activity in April 2025 to test the feasibility of using the NHS number as a consistent identifier within health and children’s social care. Future piloting will test this across wider safeguarding partners, including education. The intention is not to replace identifiers that are currently used in education, but to design how the SUI can work alongside existing identifiers to improve information sharing and strengthen safeguarding.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure provisions in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill maintain data protection requirements.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department recognises its responsibility to ensure the highest standards of data privacy and transparency in respect of personal data, and we are ensuring that this is prioritised as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill progresses.

We are ensuring that measures outlined in the Bill align with data protection principles, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

The department has met its obligation under Article 36(4) of UK GDPR to consult with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on all measures involving the use of personal data. We continue to engage with the ICO for measures relating to the single unique identifier and the children not in school.

The department is engaging with the ICO to ensure that data protection risks identified are properly mitigated and will publish summaries of the assessments once they are complete.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consultation her Department undertook with parents of home educated children on the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes a proposal for compulsory Children Not in School registers and an accompanying duty on parents to give information for these registers. The department consulted on this proposal as part of its ‘Children Not in School’ consultation, which ran between April and June 2019. The consultation received almost 5,000 responses, 74% of which were from parents and young people.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds data on families with home-educated children who are unable to (a) secure a place in a GCSE examination centre and (b) afford exam entry fees.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department does not hold data on families with home educated children who are unable to secure a place in a GCSE examination centre or afford exam entry fees.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will introduce the first ever duty on local authorities to provide support for home educating families in their areas who are registered with them and who request support. This support could include advice and information on how to access examinations.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many phases of roll-out of free breakfast clubs will there be; when is the next phase due to start rolling out; which schools will be eligible for the second phase roll-out; and when can all state primary schools expect to have free breakfast clubs.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The government is committed to deliver on its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged children. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill means that those schools with children on roll from Reception to Year 6 are required to offer a free breakfast club before the start of each school day. This will ensure every child, regardless of circumstance, has a supportive start to the school day.

So far, the department has delivered 2.6 million breakfasts and has offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. Following the success of the early adopters, we will start the first phase of national rollout of the clubs from April 2026. We are investing a further £80 million into the programme to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. This will benefit around 500,000 more children.

Further information, including specifics on eligibility, funding and expectations for schools will be provided later in the Autumn term. This will include detailed guidance as well as a wider package of support.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on (a) inequities and (b) levels of discrimination against (i) children in care and (ii) care leavers.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.

By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.

The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.

The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on care leavers within the (a) workplace and (b) criminal justice system.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.

By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.

The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.

The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on care leavers' quality of life.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.

By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.

The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.

The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of making care experience a protected characteristic on the educational attainment of children in care.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government is committed to tackling the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes experienced by care-experienced young people. We believe the most effective way to address this is by raising awareness of the challenges they face, which will be achieved through introducing corporate parenting responsibilities across government departments and relevant public bodies.

By placing a duty on government departments and relevant public bodies, the corporate parenting duty will create a culture shift to support improved outcomes for young people in the care system and those with care experience.

The legislation captures the bodies that we believe have the biggest impact on the lives of children in care and care leavers, including departments and bodies linked to educational attainment, employment support, and the criminal justice system. The government does not have plans to amend legislation to make care experience a protected characteristic.

The impact of the measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on business, equalities and child rights has been evaluated and is accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff were involved in conducting the Equality Impact Assessment of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, published in March 2025; and how many hours were spent by (a) Departmental staff and (b) external consultants in its preparation.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department published an equality impact assessment for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill upon introduction of the Bill to Parliament. This was last updated 21 March 2025, to reflect changes to the Bill during its Commons passage.

This assessment was prepared by officials responsible for the measures in the Bill. Given the broad scope of this Bill, it is not possible to provide the number of hours spent preparing this document.

No external consultants were involved in the preparation of the equality impact assessment.

The department will continue to monitor the equalities impact of all policies as the Bill progresses through Parliament and update the published impact assessment.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department for Education has issued any guidance, formal or informal, to further education colleges or local authorities encouraging them to restrict direct applications from electively home educated students aged 14–16 to avoid any administrative burdens which might be placed on them by the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill; and if not, what steps they are taking to ensure that public statements by such institutions do not misrepresent government policy.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

​​The department has not issued any guidance, formal or informal, to further education colleges or local authorities encouraging them to restrict direct applications from electively home educated children.

​Home educating parents can supplement their child’s education through attendance at part-time further education courses, as part of securing an efficient, full-time and suitable education for their child. The department supports parents’ right to exercise this choice, and this position will not change with the implementation of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

​Decisions regarding the availability of such courses are at the discretion of each college, who may make decisions based on factors such as available capacity and resources, and may liaise with their local authority as part of this. Funding for part-time courses below level 3 is available to colleges so long as the 14-16 funding arrangements detailed in the funding rates and formula guidance are followed.

​To support implementation of Bill measures, the department will issue statutory guidance to aid local authorities and parents.​

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to section 58 of the Children Act 2004, if she will take legislative steps to remove the defence of reasonable punishment for parents.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, a key part of the government’s Plan for Change, represents the most transformative piece of child protection legislation in a generation, including wholesale reform of the children’s social care system and the introduction of measures to improve information sharing between education, police, health, justice and social workers to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks.

While the department is looking closely at the impact of the legal changes made in Wales and Scotland in relation to reasonable punishment, we have no plans to legislate at this stage.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, published in June 2025, what progress she has made on implementing recommendation 5.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces a new duty for statutory safeguarding partners and other bodies to share information for the purposes of safeguarding and protecting the welfare of children, including from child sexual abuse and exploitation. This new duty is designed to complement the mandatory reporting duty set out in the Crime and Policing Bill. Together, these measures ensure that once a disclosure is made, the relevant information is not only received but is shared swiftly and appropriately with the bodies best placed to protect the child. In the ‘Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update’, published in April, the department set out that we would consult on a roadmap to a Child Protection Authority by the end of this year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to help improve the quality of local authority children's social care services.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department has announced the biggest overhaul to children’s social care (CSC) in a generation, including increased investment and landmark legislation through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. From April 2025, we are making £500 million available to local authorities to roll out Family Help and Child Protection nationally to transform services and transition towards earlier intervention. This is a landmark moment and will nearly double direct investment in preventative services to over half a billion pounds in 2025/26.

The department’s CSC Improvement and Intervention Programme aims to improve services for children and families by offering support to areas with early signs of decline and intervening decisively when the required level of service is not being provided, for example for councils judged inadequate by Ofsted. This approach tackles the real issues, with a focus on sustainable and cost-effective improvement. Local authorities are supported and challenged through expert improvement advisors, leadership work from the Local Government Association, building regional networks, and our ‘Sector Led Improvement Partner’ programme.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on ensuring that adult (a) mental health services and (b) social care are involved in improving information-sharing through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

No discussions have been had regarding either aspect. The focus in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is to improve information sharing by introducing a consistent identifier for children up to the age of 18. We will consider the role both the adult and child identifiers can play in the transition to adulthood as this work moves forward.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with police forces on improving the (a) identification and (b) protection of children at risk of sexual exploitation.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government is committed to strengthening local and national responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse, through the new national police operation in response to Baroness Casey’s Audit recommendations, which will identify inconsistencies in approach to investigating group based child sexual exploitation (including grooming gangs) and ensure identified best practice and lessons learnt are shared through guidance, including on the identification and protection of children at risk.

Additionally we continue to support existing investments to support policing to tackle this type of offending.

Central to these efforts is the Home Office-funded Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce which provides practical, expert, on the ground support for all 43 forces in England and Wales. This includes identifying best practice and promoting it nationally to ensure any lessons learnt are shared widely, and providing specialist interventions where needed to support forces’ capabilities to identify and tackle group-based offending more effectively. The Home Office engages regularly with the Taskforce and policing leaders on this work which has victims and survivors at its heart.

The Home Office is also investing over £9 million this year in the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme (TOEX), including an expedited rollout of its Capabilities Environment to ensure all police investigators in England and Wales have access to an array of AI-enabled and time-saving tools. This will increase law enforcement’s capability to respond to organised exploitation, including child sexual exploitation by providing dedicated intelligence, analytical and technical expertise.

The Department has regular discussions with policing on the identification and protection of children at risk, particularly in relation to the risk of sexual exploitation due to policing’s duties as a statutory safeguarding partner. This is particularly the case as reforms are implemented through the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

We are also working with the College of Policing and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to consider how forces’ most important resource can be bolstered – its officers. We continue to identify opportunities to strengthen officer training at all ranks to ensure the most effective and up-to-date methods to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse are utilised.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure police forces have sufficient resources to investigate grooming gang offences.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government is committed to strengthening local and national responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse, through the new national police operation in response to Baroness Casey’s Audit recommendations, which will identify inconsistencies in approach to investigating group based child sexual exploitation (including grooming gangs) and ensure identified best practice and lessons learnt are shared through guidance, including on the identification and protection of children at risk.

Additionally we continue to support existing investments to support policing to tackle this type of offending.

Central to these efforts is the Home Office-funded Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce which provides practical, expert, on the ground support for all 43 forces in England and Wales. This includes identifying best practice and promoting it nationally to ensure any lessons learnt are shared widely, and providing specialist interventions where needed to support forces’ capabilities to identify and tackle group-based offending more effectively. The Home Office engages regularly with the Taskforce and policing leaders on this work which has victims and survivors at its heart.

The Home Office is also investing over £9 million this year in the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme (TOEX), including an expedited rollout of its Capabilities Environment to ensure all police investigators in England and Wales have access to an array of AI-enabled and time-saving tools. This will increase law enforcement’s capability to respond to organised exploitation, including child sexual exploitation by providing dedicated intelligence, analytical and technical expertise.

The Department has regular discussions with policing on the identification and protection of children at risk, particularly in relation to the risk of sexual exploitation due to policing’s duties as a statutory safeguarding partner. This is particularly the case as reforms are implemented through the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

We are also working with the College of Policing and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to consider how forces’ most important resource can be bolstered – its officers. We continue to identify opportunities to strengthen officer training at all ranks to ensure the most effective and up-to-date methods to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse are utilised.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that lessons learned from grooming gang cases are applied nationally.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government is committed to strengthening local and national responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse, through the new national police operation in response to Baroness Casey’s Audit recommendations, which will identify inconsistencies in approach to investigating group based child sexual exploitation (including grooming gangs) and ensure identified best practice and lessons learnt are shared through guidance, including on the identification and protection of children at risk.

Additionally we continue to support existing investments to support policing to tackle this type of offending.

Central to these efforts is the Home Office-funded Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce which provides practical, expert, on the ground support for all 43 forces in England and Wales. This includes identifying best practice and promoting it nationally to ensure any lessons learnt are shared widely, and providing specialist interventions where needed to support forces’ capabilities to identify and tackle group-based offending more effectively. The Home Office engages regularly with the Taskforce and policing leaders on this work which has victims and survivors at its heart.

The Home Office is also investing over £9 million this year in the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme (TOEX), including an expedited rollout of its Capabilities Environment to ensure all police investigators in England and Wales have access to an array of AI-enabled and time-saving tools. This will increase law enforcement’s capability to respond to organised exploitation, including child sexual exploitation by providing dedicated intelligence, analytical and technical expertise.

The Department has regular discussions with policing on the identification and protection of children at risk, particularly in relation to the risk of sexual exploitation due to policing’s duties as a statutory safeguarding partner. This is particularly the case as reforms are implemented through the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

We are also working with the College of Policing and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to consider how forces’ most important resource can be bolstered – its officers. We continue to identify opportunities to strengthen officer training at all ranks to ensure the most effective and up-to-date methods to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse are utilised.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to help protect the data of home educated children, in the context of provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill contains provisions requiring local authorities to maintain registers of children who are not in school. These registers are intended to aid local authorities in identifying children who are missing education and support them.

The department is aware of the importance of protecting personal data. Existing laws, including the Data Protection Act and UK-GDPR, will apply to all data that is processed as part of the duty to maintain registers. These laws put in place robust restrictions on data collection, storage and sharing as well as respecting the rights of the individuals to access, rectification and erasure. However, there are circumstances where data sharing is essential, particularly when it concerns a child’s safety or wellbeing. The Bill provides a restricted list of individuals and agencies with whom data may be shared, solely for the purposes of safeguarding a child’s education or welfare. Any breach of these protections by a local authority could be subject to penalties or regulatory action by the Information Commissioner.

We will outline in statutory guidance how local authorities must balance the need to share data for safeguarding and educational support purposes with individuals’ right to privacy.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of requiring academy trusts to incorporate the National Conditions of Service for Teachers in England and Wales 2023 into the contracts of employment of teachers; and if she will bring forward legislation to make such incorporation mandatory.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The National Conditions of Service for Teachers in England and Wales is a national agreement between local authority school employers and teaching and headteacher unions. The government has no input into the agreement or its implementation. As it has no statutory force, while maintained schools are expected to incorporate its provisions into teachers’ contracts, there is no legal obligation for them to do so. Academies will, following the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, be required to “have regard” to the entirety of the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risks of using the NHS number as the consistent child identifier in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill; and whether they will publish their assessment of the ability of the NHS to issue new NHS numbers in bulk, following reports of NHS numbers being stolen following a cyber attack in June 2024.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The potential for the National Health Service number to be used as a single unique identifier (SUI) for children is being explored in a series of pilots, which will include consideration of risk. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill does not specify the use of the NHS number as an SUI, but allows regulations to do so, if it is appropriate.

There is no expectation that the NHS will need to issue new NHS numbers in bulk. Misuse of personally identifiable information is guarded against via governance processes that are the responsibility of data controllers and processors.

Amend the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to define ‘suitability’ &‘wellbeing’ clearly. Protect home ed rights under the 1996 Act, ensure SEND deregistration with appeals, enforce UNCRC compliance with child impact checks, and secure family unity in kinship care, before Lords vote this wk

Found: Amend the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to define ‘suitability’ &‘wellbeing’ clearly.

Government to withdraw the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill immediately, because it downgrades education for all children, undermines educators and parents. We think it will cause harm to children, with their details being digitally stored for anyone to use without permission.

Found: Withdraw the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill immediately

Found: Look out for passing of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, expected in late 2025, and DfE’s

Found: grandparents contributing to the cost of uniforms. 145 Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: MoJ, DfE and DHSC should use the opportunities presented by the new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: number of pupils in England, the government is legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: We are legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so that academies will be required

Found: has committed to reviewing the STPCD to fulfil the ambitions of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: legal duty for councils will be delivered through an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: limiting branded uniform items ahead of the cap coming into force in the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill

Found: occupy a large proportion of teaching time. 19 UK Parliament (2024) - Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: enable and bring effect to many of our recommendations through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: topics including statutory transfers and school land transactions the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: topics including statutory transfers and school land transactions, the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: legal duty for councils will be delivered through an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: We welcome the powers in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to fine providers of these illegal

Found: In addition, we see the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as a key opportunity to create better care

Found: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently before Parliament would, if enacted, give Ofsted

Found: Trade Product Regulation and Metrology Bill Department for Education Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: MoJ, DfE and DHSC should use the opportunities presented by the new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: DfE are bringing forward a broad packageof measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including

Found: MoJ, DfE and DHSC should use the opportunities presented by the new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: occupy a large proportion of teaching time. 19 UK Parliament (2024) - Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: We are legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so that academies will be required

Found: Watson of Invergowrie, Baroness Thornton and Lord Lucas regarding the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: /2025 from Baroness Smith of Malvern to Baroness Barran regarding the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: 15/10/2025 from Baroness Smith of Malvern to Lord Watson regarding the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: 13/10/2025 from Baroness Smith of Malvern to Baroness Barran regarding Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Baroness Blake of Leeds to Baroness Boycott regarding issues raised in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: to Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle regarding issues raised during the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Baroness Blake of Leeds to Baroness Barran regarding issues raised in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: academies, as discussed during the Committee stage (tenth day) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Status (QTS), as discussed during the Committee stage (tenth day) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: provision, as discussed during the Committee stage (day eleven) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: provision, as discussed during the Committee stage (day eleven) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: provision, as discussed during the Committee stage (day eleven) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: An amendment was attached to the UK Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the UK Government

Found: An amendment was attached to the UK Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the UK Government

Found: companies making excessive profit from children’s care homes through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: approach is in line with the powers being introduced for England via the UK Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: other parts of the UK Following the CMA report, England introduced the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill 12 June 2025 Consent recommended Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: and Metrology Bill Consent recommendedxxi 26 June 2025 Consent granted Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: financial impact of any relevant UK Parliament legislation, for example the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Parliament legislation including the Welsh Government’s associated LCM on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Parliament legislation including the Welsh Government’s associated LCM on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: financial impact of any relevant UK Parliament legislation, for example the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Memorandum (“LCM”), and the two Supplementary LCMs (“SLCMs”) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: Committee The Welsh Government’s Legislative Consent Memoranda on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: The Welsh Government’s Legislative Consent Memoranda on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: legislation including the Welsh Government’s associated LCM on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Found: However, as regards the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill a different approach was taken.

Found: including the impact of the children not in school provisions of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill