- News & Comment
-
Online Shop
Online Services
Looseleafs
Law Reports
Books and eBooks
-
CPD & Events
Webinars
Events
- Authors
- About Family Law
- Contact
The Children’s Commissioner has submitted written evidence to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee.
This evidence builds on oral evidence provided by the Children’s Commissioner on 21 January, on a wider briefing on the Bill that was provided to the Committee and published on the Children’s Commissioner’s website, and on prior correspondence with the Committee.
There are a number of measures that the Commissioner believes should be included in the Bill. She believes this is the right opportunity to give children the same protection from common assault as adults by removing the defence of ‘reasonable punishment.’ This would remove shades of grey that lead to children being harmed and make it harder for professionals to support parents.
A Consistent Identifier (Clause 4) has the capacity to be a transformational building block for children’s services. Almost uniformly, failures of children’s services involve the failure to share information.
The Commissioner welcomes measures to improve the process for depriving children of their liberty (Clause 10). This should ensure that any children’s home able to accommodate a child deprived of their liberty safely should be enabled to.
Parents are responsible for their child’s education and the Commissioner is fully supportive of parents’ right to educate their children at home. She would like to see the provisions to safeguard children at risk (Clause 24) strengthened so that a parent would need a local authority’s consent to remove their child from school if that child is receiving support from children’s social care where there are concerns around abuse or neglect.
The Commissioner has long called for the introduction of a Children Not in School Register (Clause 25). She would like to see this measure strengthened so that parents educating their children at home receive more support. As a minimum that should include exam centre places.
Children have clearly told the Commissioner – through The Big Ask and The Big Ambition surveys – that when they go to a great school, they are more likely to appreciate their teachers, attend, and attain. The Commissioner wants to see a regulatory and accountability system (Clause 44) that ensures every child enjoys the benefits of a brilliant education. When children aren’t getting that, whether it’s an academy or a local authority school, there should be swift intervention to raise standards.
The Commissioner welcomes measures to improve the process for depriving children of their liberty (Clause 10). This should ensure that any children’s home able to accommodate a child deprived of their liberty safely should be enabled to.
Parents are responsible for their child’s education and the Commissioner is fully supportive of parents’ right to educate their children at home. She would like to see the provisions to safeguard children at risk (Clause 24) strengthened so that a parent would need a local authority’s consent to remove their child from school if that child is receiving support from children’s social care where there are concerns around abuse or neglect.
The Commissioner has long called for the introduction of a Children Not in School Register (Clause 25). She would like to see this measure strengthened so that parents educating their children at home receive more support. As a minimum that should include exam centre places.
Children have clearly told the Commissioner – through The Big Ask and The Big Ambition surveys – that when they go to a great school, they are more likely to appreciate their teachers, attend, and attain. The Commissioner wants to see a regulatory and accountability system (Clause 44) that ensures every child enjoys the benefits of a brilliant education. When children aren’t getting that, whether it’s an academy or a local authority school, there should be swift intervention to raise standards.
