Overview

• The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill seeks to standardize pay, conditions, and curriculum requirements for all state schools, including academies, reducing their autonomy.
• Former Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman criticized the bill, calling it a reversal of two decades of progress in school autonomy and accountability.
• Spielman argued the legislation prioritizes union interests over children’s education and warned it could negatively impact education quality in England.
• The Labour government defended the bill as a transformative step to improve teacher recruitment, education quality, and equity across schools.
• The bill also includes provisions for greater oversight of home education and the creation of registers for children not in school.