Five key education announcements

The election of the Labour government and appointment of a new ministerial team at the Department for Education in England has resulted in a flurry of changes and new proposals. Here, we pick out five key education policy announcements that Adoption UK will be following closely over the coming months. 

Register of children not in school 

This proposal is not a new one. It was recommended in the Badman Report of 2012, and included in the Schools Bill under the last government which failed to complete its journey through parliament in 2022. 

The new government confirmed its commitment to introducing the register as part of a Children’s Wellbeing Bill announced in the King’s speech in July. We don’t know the details yet, but the proposal is to create a legal duty for local authorities to maintain a register of children not in school and to provide more support for home-educating families. 

We know that around 10% of adoptive families will home educate in any given year, and the overwhelming majority will have withdrawn their child from school because their needs were not being met and would prefer their child to be in school if the right school could be found.  

Adoption UK will be responding to consultations with suggestions as to what additional support local authorities might usefully offer, such as access to examination centres, extending pupil premium plus funding to those educated at home, and a published ‘local offer’ for all home-educating families. 

We will also be seeking reassurances that any impact assessment of this proposal will include recognition of the needs of care experienced children, including adopted children, and urging the government to reduce the number of families who feel forced into home education by ensuring that schools are trained, equipped and resourced to meet the needs of care experienced children and young people. 

Special Educational Needs 

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will also include measures to require all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions, especially the admission of children with special educational needs. Local authorities will be given greater powers around school admissions to make sure admissions decisions account for the needs of local communities. 

While adopted children have priority access to school places during the normal admissions round (entering Reception or Year 7), Adoption UK will be following the development of this proposal with interest. It has long been a complaint of some parents and education professionals that there are schools which appear to be reluctant to offer places to children with SEND, and this can have a serious impact on adopted children with SEND who need to change schools outside of the normal admissions round.  

In discussions with ministers and policy makers, Adoption UK will also be making the point that schools admissions is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to offering SEND provision that truly meets the needs of children and young people, their families and their schools. 

Curriculum Review 

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will bring forward a new requirement for all schools, including free schools and academies, to teach the national curriculum. The government followed up this detail in the King’s speech by announcing a review of curriculum and assessment in schools, to be headed by Professor Becky Francis CBE. 

The review will seek evolution, rather than revolution, but is committed to addressing barriers to achievement, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, reviewing the overall volume of assessment (while retaining public examinations like GCSEs) and ensuring all children have access to a breadth of opportunities including the arts, sport, vocational learning, digital skills, oracy and life skills. 

Adoption UK will be highlighting several of many challenges that the current curriculum and assessment framework can create for care-experienced children and those with SEND. We will be working with DfE representatives to ensure that the needs of care experienced children are part of the conversation. 

Free Breakfast Clubs 

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will propose free breakfast clubs in every primary school. We know that, for some adoptive families, this type of provision can help to smooth the transition from home to school in the mornings. However, much depends on how these provisions are staffed and whether children who need extra support are able to access them. 

Adoption UK will be contributing to any public consultation on this proposal, seeking assurances that that the needs of children with SEND and other support needs will be catered for in any universal breakfast club provision. 

Unique Single Identifier  

The introduction of a ‘unique single identifier’ was a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party and is likely to be part of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill announced in the King’s speech. 

This number is intended to be a single number that holds children’s records together and enables more effective information sharing between services. It is not yet clear which services will be included and whether it will run alongside existing numbers – like the NHS number or Unique Pupil Number (UPN) – or replace these. 

Adoptive families are likely to have specific concerns about the introduction of the unique single identifier, especially around how the anonymity of adopted children will be protected and how information will be stored, used and shared by services and government agencies.  

Adoption UK will be recommending a consultation ahead of this new system being introduced and an impact assessment to ascertain how it will affect looked after children, previously looked after children, and other vulnerable groups, such as children fleeing domestic abuse.