The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill cleared its first hurdle after MPs gave it a second reading in Parliament on Wednesday (January 8).
A Conservative amendment designed to block the Bill, and including a call for a national inquiry on grooming gangs, was rejected by by 364 votes to 111, majority 253. The Bill later received a second reading without the need for a further formal vote.
The Government’s draft child protection legislation cleared its first Commons hurdle following a bitter Prime Minister’s Questions in which Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said failing to back a probe would fuel concerns about a ‘cover-up’.
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The debate on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in the House of Commons -Credit:PA
The Conservatives had tabled the motion to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill demanding a new national inquiry into gangs which, if approved, would have prevented the legislation from making progress. But MPs voted to reject the motion by 364 votes to 111, majority 253.
The division list showed that supporters of the amendment included 101 Conservatives, five Reform UK, two DUP, the TUV’s Jim Allister, UUP MP Robin Swann and Independent Alex Easton, and no Labour MPs.
Shouts of ‘no’ could be heard when MPs were asked if the Bill should receive a second reading and a division was initially called but it was later cancelled. The Bill will undergo further scrutiny at a later date.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aims to ensure all state schools – academies and those run by councils – follow the same pay and conditions framework.
Academies, which are independent of local authorities, currently have the freedom to set their own pay and conditions for staff, and some academies exceed the national pay scales for teachers.
But the new Bill would ensure all teachers will be part of the same core pay and conditions framework, whether they work in a local authority-run school or an academy.
Other measures contained in the Bill include requiring all state schools, including academies, to teach the national curriculum.
It will also allow councils to open new schools which are not academies, and it will end the forced academisation of schools run by local authorities which are identified as a concern by Ofsted.
The Government also plans to bolster child protection, with a new register of all home-schooled children in England.
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