The Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill: what you need to know

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aims to increase communication between schools and social care departments to ensure more vulnerable children receive the support they need before it’s too late.

The amendment seeks to regulate the help provided by councils to vulnerable children and prevent the current situation where there is what some have described as a ‘postcode lottery’.

At present, there are significant differences in the levels of support that vulnerable children receive based on where they live. Where a family in crisis might receive support in one part of the country, in another they may not due to discrepancies in the way different local authorities interpret the threshold for intervening.

The changes to the bill aim to improve consistency and to ensure that some children, who might previously have slipped through the cracks, will now receive the support they need.

The background to the bill

Named Sara’s Law, the bill is named in memory of Sara Sharif, a ten-year-old girl who was found dead in her family home. The bill was put forward to parliament on the day Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother were sentenced for her murder. Sara had suffered at the hands of the family who were supposed to care for her. After she was found, it was discovered that she had suffered a total of 71 recent injuries.

Her shocking case has led to questions being raised about whether more should have been done and what steps can be taken to ensure other vulnerable and at-risk children like Sara are protected in the future.

About the bill

Sara had been removed from school to be home-educated just four months before she died. One of the key changes in the bill is the introduction of a register which will ensure that children who are removed from school are recorded and identified.

Each child will have a unique identifier number, making them identifiable across agencies and services such as the police, health services and education providers. This will help different services to share important information regarding an individual child and their situation, helping to keep track of any child who might be at risk and to create a more complete picture of each individual situation.

Home schooling has been increasing in recent years. There was a significant increase during and following the pandemic, and a further sharp rise in 2024.  Under the bill, parents of a child who is under a child protection plan will no longer automatically have the right to homeschool their child. They will need permission from their local council. If their home environment is assessed and deemed to be unsuitable or unsafe then under the bill local authorities will have the power to intervene.

The Department for Education has described the bill as “the single biggest piece of child protection legislation in a generation.”