House of Commons – Jan. 8, 2025 – 74

I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “That” to the end of the Question and add: “this House, while welcoming measures to improve child protection and safeguarding, declines to give a Second Reading to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill because it undermines the long-standing combination of school freedom and accountability that has led to educational standards rising in England, effectively abolishes academy freedoms which have been integral to that success and is regressive in approach, leading to worse outcomes for pupils;

because it ends freedom over teacher pay and conditions, making it harder to attract and retain good teachers;

because it ends freedom over Qualified Teacher Status, making teacher recruitment harder;

because it removes school freedoms over the curriculum, leading to less innovation;

because repealing the requirements for failing schools to become academies and for all new schools to be academies will undermine school improvement and remove the competition which has led to rising standards;

because the Bill will make it harder for good schools to expand, reducing parental choice and access to a good education;

and calls upon the Government to develop new legislative proposals for children’s wellbeing including establishing a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs.”