The precise to house education will now not be computerized for folks of probably the most susceptible youngsters below new authorities proposals.
Bridget Phillipson, the schooling secretary, will unveil a brand new invoice in parliament on Tuesday – the identical day that Sara Sharif’s killers shall be sentenced – that goals to deal with a number of the safeguarding considerations prompted by the high-profile case.
Underneath the proposed laws, the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice, native councils shall be given the ability to intervene and demand faculty attendance in the event that they deem a baby’s house atmosphere unsuitable or unsafe.
It would additionally take away the automated proper for folks to home-school their youngster if their youngster is topic to a safety investigation or is below a safety plan – that means they’re suspected of being prone to important hurt.
New registers will even be introduced in to determine youngsters not in class, in addition to distinctive identifier numbers to report any points and forestall youngsters from “falling through the cracks”.
Final week Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, had been convicted of her homicide.
Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of inflicting or permitting her loss of life, prompting the prime minister to say there have been “questions that need to be answered” on protections for youngsters.
Throughout the trial on the Outdated Bailey, prosecutors stated Sara began carrying a hijab to cover her accidents and that she was taken out of college in April 2023 after lecturers noticed bruises on her face and referred her to social providers.
Nonetheless, her case was closed after six days.
It later emerged that considerations about Sara’s care had been first raised when she was lower than every week outdated, whereas her mother and father had been recognized to social providers three years prior.
Ms Phillipson stated the invoice can be a “seminal moment for child protection”.
“In recent years, too many children have been failed by their last line of defence: the state,” she added.
“This bill will be a seminal moment for child protection. No more words, no more lessons learnt. This government will put children first at every turn.
“Meaning a child-centred authorities, with higher protections for younger individuals and actual join-up between youngsters’s social care, faculties and native providers.”
The Department for Education said measures in the bill will ensure teachers and schools are always involved in decisions around safeguarding children in their area.
Ms Phillipson’s words were echoed by Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, who said the bill “lays a basis for change in lots of youngsters’s lives – lots of whom have been uncared for or hidden by providers working in silo”.
“As youngsters’s commissioner I’ve known as on successive governments to introduce a novel figuring out quantity for youngsters and a register of all youngsters not in class.
“Writing these two landmark measures into law will be of huge significance for any child currently at risk of harm in this country – it must now be supported by proper data-sharing between organisations so no child can become invisible in the system.”
