The Educator Magazine U.K. Jan-April 2025 issue - Magazine - Page 22
Children’s bill to
keep children safe
from exploitation
Major reforms to protect thousands of vulnerable children
hidden from sight will take another crucial step forward today.
Source: Department for Education and The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP
Major reforms to protect thousands of
vulnerable children hidden from sight will
take another crucial step forward today,
as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools
Bill is debated in Parliament (8 January
2025).
Children not in school registers, stronger
powers for councils to make sure children
are getting the right education, and a
unique identifying number for every child
are part of major reforms to help tackle
the tragedy of children vanishing from
education and protect young people
from exploitation, grooming and abuse.
The recent Child Safeguarding Practice
Review Panel Annual Report 2024
highlighted that children experiencing
harm outside the home, including
exploitation, were likely to be not
enrolled in school, missing education
or have poor school attendance, and
that’s why the bill will also strengthen
multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
to quickly identify significant harm.
This comes as the government
announced action this week on three key
recommendations from the Professor
Alexis Jay review to address significant
failings to keep children safe.
According to the latest government data,
around 111,000 children and young
people are home educated, up from an
estimated 55,000 before the pandemic.
This is alongside the 150,000 children
missing education all together at some
point during the last year. The bill will
bring in unprecedented safeguards for
home educated children, ratchet up
powers for councils and compel local
authorities to establish dedicated,
multi-agency safeguarding teams to
keep track of children.
Measures will also put more cash back in
working parents’ pockets by capping the
number of branded items schools can
require as part of their uniform.
This could save some families over £50
per child during the back-to-school shop,
ensuring parents have as much
flexibility as possible to shop around
and save money. It will also give every
parent of a primary school child a legal
entitlement to a breakfast club, saving
them as much as £450 per year.
