Mr Connor Rand

In a week where much has been said about protecting children, it is great to see the Government acting on the safety and wellbeing of children. For children to be safe, they need to be visible. A situation where children can fall off the radar of the authorities tasked with protecting them is clearly unacceptable, but we know it happens. We know that in a minority of cases, children can be taken out of school and out of the protections that schools provide, and come to harm. That is why introducing a register of children not in school is such an important and common-sense measure: it is right that parents will no longer have an automatic right to home-educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation; it is right that local authorities can identify children not in school, in order to ensure that they are safe; and it is right to introduce a unique identity number for children that facilitates information sharing by the services charged with protecting them. As the Children’s Commissioner said, writing these landmark measures into law will be “of huge significance for any child currently at risk of harm in this country”. I am proud that the Government are so swiftly taking forward such measures. My final point on home education is that it is important to recognise that the steep increase in home-schooling is in part the result of parents of children with special educational needs feeling that those needs are not being met in mainstream education. It is therefore vital that the Bill runs parallel to the important work that the Government have already started at the Budget to reform and invest in a SEND system that has been severely neglected for too many years. Many other Members have talked of the huge importance of every child having a legal right of access to a breakfast club, and of the action we are taking to ensure that school uniforms are affordable. Nothing damages child wellbeing more than child poverty. Of course there is much more to do, but, alongside the Government’s child poverty strategy, these are concrete steps that will make a real difference to families in my constituency and across the country. Taking action to make a difference, changing things instead of calling for yet another review, serious work instead of parroting nonsense on social media, and passing legislation instead of scoring points—this is serious work from a Government who understand the importance of ensuring that all our children have the best possible start in life.