Education Committee quizzes experts on Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Policy expert Sam Freedman and NEU leader Daniel Kebede will be among witnesses at an Education Committee session on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Meeting details
Across three panels, the Committee will scrutinise how the legislation could work in practice to provide free breakfasts in all state primaries, clamp down on uniform costs, place new regulations on academies, and give local authorities more power over admissions policy.
The session comes after the Government laid an amendment to the Bill clarifying that the legislation would not set a cap that forces academies to reduce teachers’ salaries.
There will also be questions about proposals for all schools to be taught the National Curriculum. Academies and free schools – which make up the majority of secondaries – are currently not legally required to teach the curriculum.
MPs will be interested to hear how local authorities would carry out their new role of maintaining registers of children not in school – a measure the previous Education Committee called for in the last Parliament.
Safeguarding measures such as restrictions on home schooling if social services have concerns about a family, and giving Ofsted powers to inspect unregistered schools, will also be scrutinised.