Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduced to Parliament
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was introduced to Parliament this week, setting out a wide range of measures that seek to put children’s interests at the heart of government policy. For example, requiring all primary schools to offer free breakfast clubs and placing a ban on more than three branded school uniform items. Notably, the Bill will also end automatic forced academisation for failing schools, however this will remain a discretionary power that the secretary of state can use.
Education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, says the Bill will deliver ‘better protections for young people and real join up between children’s social care, schools and local services.’ To achieve this, the Bill will introduce registers of children who are not in school for every council in England. This will include children who are flexi-schooled, or attend alternative provision whilst remaining on roll of another school. Parents will now need the consent of the local authority to home educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. This will also apply to children who attend special schools. A unique identifier will be allocated to every child, similar to an adult’s national insurance number. This will allow information about the child to be shared by different services, such as health and education, to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks.
Local authorities will be given greater powers to ensure school admission decisions reflect local needs. Currently, local authorities can direct maintained schools to admit children – the Bill will extend this power to academies. Local authorities will also be able to welcome proposals for all types of new schools, not just academies, and they will be able to put forward their own proposals for community or foundation schools or pupil referral units.
The Bill will extend the statutory teachers’ pay and conditions framework to those working in academies, including headteachers. It is hoped this will give schools greater flexibility to attract and retain the best teachers. However, some academy trusts currently pay staff above the national pay scale. Some have expressed concerns that staff may see salary cuts as a result. Academies will also have to follow the national curriculum, but not until after the curriculum and assessment review has concluded and the government has responded.
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Teachers report misbehaviour is affecting their wellbeing
The Department for Education (DfE) has released the results from the March, April and May 2024 School and College Voice omnibus surveys. In May, 78% of teachers and 58% of leaders said that pupil misbehaviour affected their wellbeing to a great or to some extent over the previous week. Across all school phases, four in ten teachers reported that pupil misbehaviour had interrupted all or most of the lessons they had taught. On average, leaders reported that 5 minutes had been lost for every 30 minutes of lesson time, whilst teachers said they had lost 7 minutes – both rising by a minute compared to responses in the March 2024 survey.
In regards to pupils’ mental health, 77% of primary school teachers, 76% of secondary school teachers and 87% of special school teachers agreed or strongly agreed they could identify behaviour that may be linked to a mental health issue in April 2024 – an increase compared to June 2023. A larger proportion of teachers across all school phases agreed they knew how to help pupils with mental health issues to access support offered by their school.
Similarly, a large majority of teachers agreed they had the knowledge and skills to support pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). However, the most common barrier to supporting pupils with SEND for primary (85%), secondary (70%), and special school teachers (71%) was lack of available staff – with a lack of available time coming second.
Alarmingly, the survey shows that more than a quarter of secondary school leaders recorded a weapons incident in Spring 2024. Examples of weapons include knives, swords, air rifles, guns or projectile weapons. When asked specifically about knife crime in May, 53% of secondary school leaders and 16% of primary school leaders said their school was dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue. This represents a rise from 47% in secondaries and 11% in primaries in March. The proportion for special school leaders has remained about the same (25%).
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MPs launch inquiry to address the growing crisis in SEND
The Education Committee has launched a parliamentary inquiry to find new solutions to the growing crisis in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Committee will consider how education can be more inclusive by making changes to the curriculum and providing training for practitioners. MPs will also look at how to increase the capacity of SEND provision, including finding ways to help local councils plan sufficient SEND school places and examining capital investment in this area. This follows a significant increase in demand for SEND support over recent years, with data showing a 140% increase in children with an EHCP between 2015 and 2024.
Data reveals that nearly two in five decisions on education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for pupils with SEND took more than six months last year – despite the deadline being 20 weeks. Therefore, the inquiry will examine the EHCP system and look for potential alternatives without reducing the level of support available. They will also consider the effectiveness of multi-agency working across education, health and social care.
Under the inquiry, MPs will also consider reforms to the way SEND is funded, given the huge deficits accrued by local authorities that are spending millions of pounds on SEND support each year. The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that 43% of local authorities will have deficits exceeding or close to their reserves by March 2026, putting them at risk of issuing bankruptcy notices. This contributes to a cumulative deficit of around £4.6 billion. Currently, however, there is no identified solution which can be implemented quickly and ensure children with SEND continue to have their needs met.
Chair of the Education Committee, Helen Hayes MP, comments ‘despite the best efforts of professionals in schools and local authorities, across the country, children are being let down.’ She says the Committee will play its part in making evidence-based recommendations that the government can implement. The call for evidence is now open and will close on 30 January 2025.
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Our SEND specialists can also complete a full review of your current SEND provision, sharing high-quality action plans and practical recommendations to place inclusion at the heart of your school.
We would like to take this moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas!
A heartfelt thank you to all our colleagues in schools and trusts – it has been a true pleasure working alongside you all over the past year. We can be incredibly proud of all we’ve achieved in our shared mission of putting children first.
Enjoy a well-deserved festive break and we will see you again in the new year!
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