Following the announcement of a new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the National Children's Bureau has issued the following statement:
“Today, the government has introduced its Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to Parliament as its first major piece of legislation focused on children. NCB welcomes the opportunity it brings and the commitment to a ‘child-centred government’, while recognising that robust policy change must be paired with proper investment to address the existing gaps in provision and support.
NCB will be working closely with our wider coalition partners, including the Children’s Charities Coalition, Schools Wellbeing Partnership, Anti-Bullying Alliance, Special Educational Consortium, End Child Poverty Coalition and Children and Young People’s Health Policy Influencing Group, to scrutinise the proposed legislation and advocate for more robust, systemic change.
In particular, we look forward to working with parliamentarians, including through the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children, to interrogate the proposed reforms to children’s social care and the plans to remove barriers to multi-agency information sharing, and to ensure the bill leads to a genuine step-change in children’s wellbeing and inclusion.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill could be a once in a generation opportunity to improve the lives of children and young people. We join the Children’s Charities Coalition in welcoming its potential to transform how we help our most vulnerable children and families, but urge the government show more ambition and to increase investment in key areas such as mental health support and children’s social care and commit to eradicating child poverty."
You can read the Children’s Charities Coalition statement here.