Happy New Year, but the second reading is on the 8th January

You would be forgiven for thinking the Children’s Unhappiness Bill (as nicknamed by me) but known by the Government and officially as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was only going to affect home educators. It is not it is much wider than that.

This bill will affect every parent, and every child. This bill will affect every business, and service that supports children to receive education.

The bill gets its second reading on the 8th January. You can track the bills progress Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Stages – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament including the amendments. This bill needs substantial amendments to prevent it causing harm to families.

Amendments will only happen if people take action. We suggest starting with your MP’s. Make sure they know your strength of feeling, your genuine concerns, your real stories, and how this bill would impact your circumstances now, or would have caused bigger harm in your past circumstances. Signpost them to objective evidence. Particularly where it demonstrates some parts of the supporting information to this bill may not be all it seems. If you have specialist knowledge in any of the areas covered by the bill share the technicalities around practicalities. Discuss why some parts of the bill are not required, as there is already current legislation that is not being complied with or fully utilised or under-resourced.

If the details for the parts of the bill you are interested in are left to secondary legislation, demand proper scrutiny to ensure secondary legislation is only used where it is the functionally correct mechanism

Michelle Zaher 1st January 2025

Educational Freedom