The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was announced on 17 December 2024. Headline grabbing provisions include measures to help with school uniform costs and introduce free breakfast clubs in all state-funded primary schools in England.

Uniforms

The Bill will amend the Education Act 1996 to limit the number of branded uniform items, that relevant schools can require pupils to have during the school year, to three; four for secondary pupils if one item is a tie. This includes a bag and any clothing required for school for any lesson, club, activity or event facilitated by the school.

Relevant schools are:

• Academy schools (including special academies)
• Alternative provision Academies
• Maintained schools (which includes community, foundation or voluntary schools and community or voluntary special schools not in a hospital)
• Non-maintained special schools and pupil referral units, other than where established in a hospital.

National Curriculum

The Bill will require all state-funded schools, including Academies, to teach the National Curriculum. It will amend the Academies Act 2010 so that Academy schools will be required to teach the National Curriculum as part of their curriculum. This means parents can be assured that their child is getting the benefits of the reformed curriculum, no matter what type of school they attend. The Government intends to bring this measure into force once a reformed curriculum has been developed following the advice of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and it will be rolled out to Academies alongside other schools.

Protecting vulnerable children

The Bill introduces a series of safety measures focused on preventing vulnerable children from falling through any gaps in services. These include:

• For all children, if a local authority decides that their home education is unsuitable, local authorities will now have the power to intervene and require school attendance. The Bill proposes a compulsory Children not in School Register in every local authority in England, so local authorities can identify all children not in school in their area and ensure that they are receiving a suitable education. Parents will no longer have an automatic right to home educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan.
• A plan to have a single, unique identifier number for children across services, similar to how an NHS number works to improve information sharing across agencies. This new law will mean more confidence for those responsible for requesting and providing sensitive information – speeding up the process and providing a clear legal basis for sharing information on the grounds of safeguarding and promotion of welfare.
• Strengthening the role of Education in safeguarding. Schools are the second largest referrer of cases into children’s social care but the current law does not require all nurseries, schools or colleges to be included in safeguarding arrangements. All schools, nurseries and colleges will be under a duty to alert local authorities, police and health services, giving educators a greater role to influence decision making; this will include Independent Schools. There are also clauses in the Bill relating to the registration of Independent Schools and the suitability of a proprietor.
• Consistent and effective join-up between children’s social care, police, and health services with education. The aim of the legislative change is twofold, to ensure that:
  • all education settings, including schools, colleges, early years and childcare settings, and alternative provision, are named as relevant agencies by default so that they are automatically included in safeguarding arrangements in a local area; and
  • local safeguarding arrangements include representation from education as an agency at both operational and strategic decision-making levels.

What happens next?

The Bill will be subject to debate in Parliament and will no doubt be amended during its passage. It is likely to become law sometime in spring 2025. Some provisions will come into force the day the Act is passed (such as the powers to make regulations and orders), others will come into force as late as 2027.

Contact us

For further information on how we can support you with matters relating to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, please contact a member of our Education team or complete an enquiry form, below.