The Department for Education has not exactly been forthcoming with details about money for the Children Not In School measures set out in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. MPs should be aware of this fact when the Bill is debated in the House of Commons at Report on Monday March 17th and 18th. You can contact your MP via this link https://www.writetothem.com/
The (non)information about money is hidden in a 34 page document describing in general terms the supposed costs versus likely savings in regard to the Children Not In School clauses of the Wellbeing Bill [PDF LINK]. For some reason this has never been published on the main bill page and there appear to be no plans to rectify this.
This money document is called the Children Not In School Registers Regulatory Impact Assessment and appears HERE https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments
It is worth reading the CNIS RIA as the theme throughout is that parents will scarcely be affected and that local authorities will actually end up saving money (as opposed to needing extra money)
Clause 27
The money pit for local authorities would seem to be clause 27.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill says that in future local authorities [LAs] will have to keep registers of children who are not in school [clause 26], and may use the school attendance order process for parents who fail to provide information for the register [clause 27].
The authority will issue a first (preliminary) notice for a school attendance order. (Fines are mentioned in the Bill but these are for providers not for parents)
At this early stage of the school attendance process local authorities would be expected to speak to the child at home, including visits to several homes if parents are not living together.
At the next stage the authority would have to find a school place for every single child in the SAO process, so they could tell the parent which school would be named on the order. Pages 63-64 of the Bill go into great detail about “School nomination notice: restrictions” so clearly there is a lot for the authority to consider and to work round.
To enforce the attendance order the authority would then have to complete the paperwork for prosecution and defend the case if parents pleaded Not Guilty (a defence being that the child was in fact receiving education suitable to age ability aptitude and special needs)
The School Attendance Order process is set out in clause 27 of the Wellbeing Bill pages 58-68 inclusive. You can read the bill onscreen HERE https://shorturl.at/eJleP without having to download a giant PDF. I have highlighted clause 27.
Parliamentary Questions LA Staff Time
My MP Abtisam Mohamed who was Cabinet Lead for Education and Skills at Sheffield Council before becoming an MP has asked 2 questions about local authority staff time and money. At the time of writing on March 13 only 1 has been answered, but the answer is very interesting as it reveals the Department’s intention to set potential costs against supposed savings when calculating “new burdens” which is also a theme running through the CNIS Regulatory Impact Assessment cited above [LINK].
Home Education: Local Government
UIN 34081, tabled on 26 February 2025
Abtisam Mohamed
Labour
Sheffield Central
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of local authority employees working with home educating families that are only employed during school term time; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on the working hours these staff will need to undertake in the future.
Awaiting response: due for answer by 3 March 2025
UIN 35629, tabled on 4 March 2025
Abtisam Mohamed
Labour
Sheffield Central Commons
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the School Attendance Order process in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on local authority staff time.
Answered on 12 March 2025
The department is legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to make School Attendance Orders a more efficient remedy to ensure that children are in receipt of suitable education. This includes making it an offence for parents to withdraw a child subject to a School Attendance Order from school without following the proper procedure. This means that parents convicted of breaching a School Attendance Order can be prosecuted again if they continue to breach it without local authorities having to restart the process from the beginning, which will save resources.[My emphasis]
Other measures which will impact on local authority staff time include additional statutory timelines on parts of the process, a new requirement for local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments, and a new power for local authorities to request to see the child in their home(s).
Where additional local authority resources will be required to undertake new duties created by these School Attendance Order changes, the department is considering these additional requirements and will conduct a full new burdens assessment as is required. [My emphasis]
Parliamentary Question Attendance Order Prosecutions
Schools: Attendance
UIN 34434, tabled on 27 February 2025
Abtisam Mohamed
Labour
Sheffield Central
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department’s Children Not in School Registers: regulatory impact assessment for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, if she will publish the statistics on School Attendance Order fines for the last 10 years.
Answered on 7 March 2025
…In reference to the request to publish historic data on the usage of school attendance orders, the department does not hold information on the use of fines for breach of those orders. Fines for non-compliance are a result of a criminal conviction, and that data is recorded and held by the Ministry of Justice.
MY COMMENT: Whoever wrote the impact assessment mentioned in the question (which has never been published on the main bill page, see UIN 34432 ) says “We can predict from Ministry of Justice data that the number of families ultimately subject to a fine for breach of a SAO will be low compared to the overall number of SAOs that are issued.” However, the Minister now says that the department itself doesn’t have access to this information.
Parliamentary Question New Burdens Assessment
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
UIN 34431, tabled on 27 February 2025
Abtisam Mohamed
Labour
Sheffield Central
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the New Burdens Assessment will be completed before the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill receives Royal Assent.
Answered on 7 March 2025
The department has conducted initial new burdens impact assessments, in line with normal practice, for measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Once the new burdens assessments have been finalised, where it is assessed there is a new burden on local government, all additional net costs will be funded by central government in line with the New Burdens Doctrine. [My emphasis]
Amendments For Report
Abtisam Mohamed has tabled amendments 8-12 for Report which will take place in the House of Commons on March 17th and 18th. Amendments 8-12 are about NOT using the school attendance order process for “Conditions C and D” (register failings)
Amendments 15,17,18 and 19 for Report are about making home visits discretionary rather than compulsory.
Information For MPs
Related Pages