Jamie Stone

Jamie Stone

Liberal Democrat — Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

Speaking in the House of Commons on 1 December 2025

Debate

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Contribution

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. That point was made in the consultation I had before this debate. To continue, the Bill proposes wellbeing co-ordinators, structured mental health assessments and greater collaboration with community health services to embed wellbeing alongside literacy and numeracy as part of what every school must nurture. These are noble aims. Heaven knows, if a child is struggling mentally, they are not going to learn very much about trigonometry, are they? We must approach the issues that campaigners have with the Bill. Previous Governments have spent decades giving academies and trusts more and more control, only for this Government to take it away again. Sometimes the best way to support wellbeing is to give schools freedom, not more top-down rules. In some instances, an attempt to standardise pay would mean giving our teachers in academies pay cuts. School groups have emphasised to me that the importance of local decision making cannot be underestimated.

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