Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts

Thursday 18th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, I start by noting that, although there are a smaller number of noble Lords in the Chamber, the quality of the contributions has nevertheless been truly significant. I thank my noble friend Lord Layard for bringing this to the Chamber and for continuing to share his enormous expertise and passion in this area, ably supported by the noble Lord, Lord Macpherson. I emphasise that this Government absolutely understand the importance of apprenticeships and the scandal of reduced opportunities for young people and are fully engaged in discussions on how to address this and move forward.

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[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, this group focuses on the thorny issue of complaints. The amendments in the name of my noble friend Lord Jackson of Peterborough would introduce a new right of appeal for parents who have made a complaint that has not been upheld to a maintained school, academy or non- maintained special school.

At the risk of stating the obvious, most schools follow the law; they follow guidance and non-statutory guidance. I remember one teacher saying to me, “We live our lives by the bell. Of course we follow the rules”, but I accept the examples that my noble friend cited. We know that the volume of complaints is rising considerably, sadly assisted by tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models. As my noble friend Lady Spielman said on her amendment, to which I was pleased to add my name, a complaint can be made to the Department for Education, Ofsted and the TRA, as well as to the school itself. Most worryingly, the school is sometimes excluded and complaints are made to all the other agencies but not to the school.

I am grateful to the charity Parentkind for its research into complaints, which shows that the vast majority of parents are happy with their child’s school, but also that 38% of the 2,000 parents in the sample interviewed had filed a formal complaint in the last year. Head teachers report separately from the Parentkind research that, on average, they are dealing with five complaints a week.

As my noble friend Lord Jackson explained, his amendment would support parents who are not satisfied with the school’s response to a complaint and provide a different mechanism to enforce their legal duties. I find it troubling that this amendment is needed, particularly the second element, as there are significant safeguards to ensure that schools meet their legal duties. I would have hoped that the existing system, which allows a complaint to be referred to a panel chaired by an independent member, would be sufficient. However, I think the Committee will agree that my noble friend has raised some extremely worrying examples including—and this might be insulting to snails—about the pace of the response received from the department.

I turn to the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lady Spielman. As she set out, it aims to simplify and streamline the complaints process. We are trying to address the current problems in the system whereby parents can make complaints to multiple places, which leads to confusion, frustration on the part of parents, delays and extra work and stress for school leaders. I know that is something that the Secretary of State is very alive to and has promised to come back with ideas on in the schools White Paper, which is coming very soon, I think—but perhaps I put the “very” in.

Our amendment would ensure that complaints are dealt with by only one party at a time, and that it is the most appropriate one. The Minister will be aware of cases where tremendous pressure is placed on the leadership of schools, including on some occasions when false and vindictive allegations are made. I remember visiting a school where a parent had alleged that over half of the members of staff had behaved inappropriately towards their child. Each complaint was made to multiple organisations and had to be dealt with individually, which took a huge toll on school leaders and their colleagues. Indeed, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has said:

“We are hearing more often from school leaders who have seen a significant increase in complaints, including a big rise in those that are clearly vexatious or baseless. This can harm their wellbeing, and cause unnecessary stress and workload”.


He also agrees that:

“Too often complaints are escalated unnecessarily, including sometimes to multiple agencies at the same time”.


I hope that I am safe in saying that I do not think that either my noble friend or I are wedded to the particular approach that we have in our amendment, but we are wedded to supporting schools and parents so that complaints can be dealt with swiftly and clearly, with a minimum of stress and expense, human or financial, to all involved. I look forward to hearing from the Minister the Government’s plans in this area.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I thank noble Lords for their contributions and for raising this very important area around parental complaints and appeals and the introduction of a central school complaints system. The Government completely understand the concern on this matter. As I shall go on to mention, the increase in the number of complaints is quite staggering, when you see the statistics laid out.

Amendments 485, 487 and 488, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, would allow parents and carers of children in maintained schools, independent schools, including academies, and non-maintained special schools to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Amendment 489, also tabled by the noble Lord, would allow for regulations to amend secondary legislation on the rules and procedures of the First-tier Tribunal. I note the detailed examples that the noble Lord highlighted to us.

Amendment 502YM, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, would introduce a central complaints system to handle all school-related complaints in England, and for these complaints to be held in a central database accessible to the Department for Education and Ofsted. I hope we have made it very clear throughout the passage of the Bill, and I repeat it, that the Government’s mission is to break down barriers to opportunity by driving high and rising standards, so that all children are supported to achieve and thrive. This area fits into the discussion of these amendments.

When parents and carers believe schools are not delivering the standards expected of them, they of course have the right to raise complaints with schools—that is of the utmost importance. All schools are required to have a complaints policy in place that is promoted and effectively implemented. However, we believe that the introduction of an additional level of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal would create increased burden on a school system that is already under enormous pressure, as we have heard, from the increasing number of parent and carer complaints.

Importantly, the existing system already allows for the escalation of complaints where parents and carers believe complaints have not been handled compliantly or a school has not adhered to education law. When non-compliance is identified, the Secretary of State for Education has powers to intervene in a way that is proportionate and necessary to bring resolution to the parent’s or carer’s complaint.

We have accepted and acknowledged the issues and concerns being raised, by both schools and parents and carers, about the current school complaints system, both the pressure it places on schools—we have heard some good examples of that—and the frustration it can cause for parents and carers. As the noble Lord, Lord Storey, highlighted, the increase in parent and carer complaints is a growing concern across the sector. That is why we are working through the Improving Education Together group, bringing together colleagues from across the sector to improve the school complaints system. Our aim is to reduce the burden on schools and leaders, while also maintaining parents’ rights to raise concerns, including by exploring ways to reduce unnecessary duplication. We want to create a better and clearer system for parents and to improve the relationship between schools and families.

The noble Baroness, Lady Barran, highlighted the work that Parentkind has done in this space. I am very pleased to inform the Chamber that the Secretary of State went to the launch of its latest publication on this subject on Tuesday—when, ironically, we were in the Chamber. That was a very important step forward. She set out that we are resetting relationships between schools and parents, so that trust levels are high and any issues are resolved informally before becoming complaints.

The other pressure that I need to draw attention to, and why we are very concerned about introducing additional burdens, is from SEND-related tribunals. The number of appeals has risen by over 40% in the past year alone. I think that it is well known that we are working with the Ministry of Justice to bring more capacity into that system. That will be addressed in the SEND reform review that will be published later in the autumn.

The noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, raises an important point about AI. I had not thought of it in that way, but of course people are finding new applications all the time, just putting their few words into ChatGPT or whatever and coming out with a whole document built on that. I want to reassure her that the department is fully aware of this situation and is looking at ways to support schools in this space, including revision of the department’s guidance to schools on this very important matter.

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[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Can the noble Baroness say now, or write to me and put the letter in the Library, clarifying whether, in relation to simplification of the complaints system, which obviously the Secretary of State has said she would like to do and which is at the heart of the amendment in my name and in that of my noble friend Lady Spielman, that requires a change in primary legislation or whether it can be done in secondary legislation? If it requires primary legislation, I am sure that colleagues in the department would be able to craft some kind of commencement clause—I am not sure quite what sort of clause it would be—that would allow that to happen without us having to wait several years for more legislation.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises a very important point, and these will all be matters that are being considered as the Secretary of State takes this important work forward. I can get a written note and put it in the Library to outline the way forward and where we are at this moment.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her well thought through and considered response. It ranged wider than I expected, but just for the avoidance of doubt, of course I deprecate any unreasonable or vexatious complaints against teachers from parents that might veer into anti-social behaviour of the type she mentioned in terms of WhatsApp groups. I am happy to put that on record.

This has been a very thoughtful and important debate and I am grateful to noble Lords who took part, not least the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and my noble friend Lady Spielman, who both brought great expertise and experience to the debate—the noble Lord from his time on Liverpool City Council and my noble friend from her leadership of Ofsted.

At its heart, this debate has revolved around a single clear question: do we believe that the laws passed in Parliament should be enforceable in schools? People are worried about a litigation culture, yet the evidence demonstrates that the current system of bureaucratic brick walls and institutional inertia is the true source of conflict and frustration. We have heard concerns about costs, but I ask again, what is the price of the status quo? What is the cost of a department that fails in its duty, and of parental trust in schools evaporating?

This accountability vacuum does not remain empty for long: it is filled by an entire ecosystem of unaccountable third-party advisers and activists. This is not, I suggest, a failure of individual teachers but a systemic failure. In the absence of clear enforcement, the law becomes muted and professionals are left rudderless. Into this void step commercial subscription services. I will give one final example in this debate. The Key is an organisation ironically first established by the Department for Education before it was privatised. When the previous Government consulted on draft guidelines for schools on gender-questioning children, The Key actively counselled schools that it would be unlawful to follow that guidance.

The accountability these amendments would introduce is not just for schools; it is for the entire advisory industry, which is funded by stretched school budgets. When the advice of these organisations is tested before a tribunal and found wanting, schools will quite rightly cease to pay for it. The market for bad advice will therefore, for the first time, face a correction.

These amendments are not a radical proposal. They do not seek to create conflict: they seek to provide a clear, fair and independent forum for its resolution. They would not undermine professional judgment, but they do subordinate it to the rule of law, which is as it should be. They give parents a voice and give the law teeth.

In conclusion, the choice is simple. We can endure the current inertia, condemning parents to a system that does not work, or we could take a meaningful step to restore accountability, uphold the will of Parliament and ensure that, when a parent has a legitimate concern that a school is breaking the law, they have somewhere to go. I believe we must choose the latter. For now, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment but will consider returning to it at a later date.

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I also echo the sentiments of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Malvern, in acknowledging the care, the thought, the intellectual firepower and a few hours of work that have gone into scrutinising the Bill from across the House. I also want to thank personally a number of external experts who have certainly shared their insights with me and have taken great care and trouble to support us on a number of our amendments. We all do this because we care about the children whom the Bill seeks to support. We may not agree, but we all care.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

Before I start summing up, I just have a comment to make: if loosening ties is good enough for instructions in this Chamber, maybe schools should consider it. I am sorry; we are getting to the last group of amendments here.

These are all exceptionally important amendments that we need to consider. It is a rather strange grouping but there is a theme running through them. I will turn to the noble Lord, Lord Young of Acton, first because his amendment led the group. The whole thrust of this is that it would require schools to remain open to all pupils during civil emergencies unless the other place decided otherwise. I stress that every emergency is different and unpredictable; that is the nature of the beast that we are talking about. We all learned the lesson—some of us were more involved than others—that planning is best when it is agile and takes a whole-system approach, and is responsive to the emergency faced. For example, I will never forget the chilling moment when I got a call from our director of education to say that a teacher had been murdered in one of our schools, all of the emotions that brought in, and the effect on all the children in the school and the staff, and the huge response required at the time.

I am acutely conscious of the impacts that closing schools has on children, and protecting children and young people in emergencies will always be a priority for the Government. I commend those school leaders who kept schools open during the pandemic—albeit for limited numbers of pupils, but the vast majority of schools were open during that time and we should remember that. They did extraordinary work to keep those settings open. They received very strong local support in, I have to say, often a very conflicting and chaotic environment where directives were not clear; there was an enormous amount of confusion during that whole period.

It would not be appropriate here to pre-empt the findings of the Covid inquiry into the decisions made by the previous Government. We must let the inquiry go into a real level of detail. It is of course timely that the children’s module is starting the week after next. We will all watch the evidence that is gathered through that process with great care and great insight. However, I want to raise the issue that, for those of us who had to deal with the directives, there was a question: why were zoos, theme parks and pubs opened before schools? That is the sort of question that we need to try to get an understanding of.

School leaders already manage complex legal duties. No one would close a school lightly. The Government publish guidance to help settings prepare and tailor their approach for different emergencies. For health emergencies, non-statutory guidance backed by public health advice generally works well, and the current framework enables this without new legislation. DfE would work with a range of experts if faced with such decisions at scale again, and we will consider the role that the Children’s Commissioner plays. I would be interested in hearing the views of the Children’s Commissioner at this present moment on whether her office actually has the resource to take on the responsibilities being suggested in the amendment.

Something that might be of interest is that Exercise Pegasus, the UK’s largest-ever pandemic preparedness simulation, started this week. It is a vital step in ensuring that our systems, people and plans are ready for the next pandemic, whenever it may come. DfE officials are participating fully in it, as is Minister Gould in the other place. A Written Ministerial Statement on Pegasus came out earlier in the week, and I recommend that we all look at the experience that has been gathered through that process. Additionally, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is looking carefully at legislation around future public health emergencies, drawing on those lessons and ensuring that we are never again in the position of unpreparedness that we faced in March 2020.

Amendment 502P, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, would require new schools to be built to deliver net zero carbon in operation and to be resilient to climate change, and would require action plans to be developed for all existing schools to reach net zero and be adapted to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. I confirm that the Department for Education already requires all centrally funded school building projects to be net-zero carbon in operation. New schools delivered by the department are designed to be climate resilient to a 2 degree rise in average global temperatures, as has been stated, and future-proofed for a rise of 4 degrees centigrade. They need to incorporate sustainable drainage systems and deliver a greening factor of at least 35% to promote biodiversity, and I confirm that this is ongoing.

The DfE sustainability strategy introduced an expectation for all schools to develop a climate adaptation plan, supported by a network of climate ambassadors who, through nine regional hubs, provide free expertise and support to nursery schools and colleges to develop and deliver impactful climate action plans. The DfE has partnered with Great British Energy to support schools in decarbonising their buildings through the installation of solar power and other energy-efficiency measures, such as installing LED lighting.

On the three questions posed by the noble Baroness, I think everyone knows that taking exams at the hottest time of year can be extraordinarily difficult. It is not always extremely hot at that time of year—as we all know, our climate is unpredictable at this time—but that is under consideration. I will have to get back to her on the other questions that she raised around data and information gathering.

Amendment 502YA is a very thoughtful amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, who speaks with enormous experience and gave very appropriate examples. I think the way we feel about this is that teaching about emergencies has to be age appropriate. We must work sensitively to ensure that it extends to not overstating risks and helping pupils contextualise what they learn, without causing alarm. That is the very delicate balance we have to tread on this. Of course, there are particularly obvious safety measures we can help to get across, as the noble Baroness outlined. But there are areas in which we need to rely on schools. They are exceptionally well placed to know how to plan for emergencies and how to talk to pupils appropriately. There is guidance available to them, including from the department.

In addition, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly known as Martyn’s law, received Royal Assent this year, as we have heard. It will require certain premises, including educational settings, to prepare for potential events and be ready to keep people safe in the event of an attack. As such, we think it would be confusing and unnecessary to accept this amendment while Martyn’s law is being introduced within the next 24 months.

Amendment 502YB was proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and states that we need an initial 12-month and then biennial review of the level of preparedness of grant maintained schools and other schools for increasing extremes of climate, particularly high temperatures. Of course, in Australia wearing hats is compulsory, and I think kids having suncream is compulsory as well. Other parts of the world have moved ahead of us, and we need to learn from other experiences. We understand the concern expressed in this amendment, but we have to be very careful about adding to the burden of the sector around collecting the data she suggests and the review. I think we need to be very sensitive to this and make sure everything is done proportionately, while making sure children and young people are safe.

The considerations set out in the amendment should be included in settings’ climate action plans, to be dealt with at a local level. However, for the preparedness of buildings and grounds, we will potentially develop new methods of data collection in the future to help us understand the preparedness of school settings for managing climate change emergencies.

I do not think I need to say an enormous amount more about uniform provision. We issued guidance to support schools in developing and implementing uniform policies which states that schools should take a sensible approach to allow for exceptions to be made during extreme weather.

On the suitability of transport provision, we know some schools provide transport—minibuses, for example. We do not provide guidance or collect information on this transport. Health and safety on educational visits guidance sets out our advice on considerations necessary to plan, organise and risk assess educational visits.

For the level of emergency planning to protect pupil health and well-being, including regulations and rules about maximum temperatures in classrooms, the workplace regulations apply to schools and cover temperatures in indoor workplaces. This is supported by other legislation which requires schools to maintain their premises to ensure the health and safety and welfare of pupils. It is for individual schools to have policies in place for emergency response and safeguarding.

Finally, Amendment 502YK, also in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, looks at the rather vexed issue of ventilation and air cleaning in schools and reducing the transmission of respiratory diseases as well as other measures to reduce transmission of other diseases with annual reporting on progress. I agree that good ventilation is vitally important. The department already publishes guidance on ventilation which is consistent with expert advice given by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, SAGE, during the Covid-19 pandemic on ventilation requirements to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and by extension other airborne infections. I am sure all noble Lords will remember those shots of airborne particles circulating around a room without ventilation and the difference that opening windows and other factors made.