Improve data sharing across services, with a single unique identifier, to better support children and families
13/06/24 – The 2024 Labour Manifesto announced that the Labour party would improve data sharing across services, with a single unique identifier, to better support children and families.
17/07/24 – The Children’s Wellbeing Bill was announced in the King’s Speech 2024. Details of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill include ‘requiring local authorities to have and maintain Children Not in School registers and provide support to home-educating parents, to ensure fewer children slip under the radar’ and ‘giving Ofsted more powers to investigate unregistered schools and tackle patterns of poor care in children’s homes to keep children safe’.
09/09/24 – The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education, Stephen Morgan, told the House of Commons that the bill would be introduced as soon as time allows.
17/12/24 – Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduced to Parliament, which included introducing compulsory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England. 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. For all children, if a local authority deem the education and/or home environment unsuitable, local authorities will now have the power to intervene and require school attendance. The government is piloting using a single unique identifier number for children across services – similar to how the NHS number works for adult social care – to test how this can improve information sharing to better protect children’s safety.
08/01/25 – Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill had its second reading.