Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Marie Collins Foundation (CWSB177)

Submission to Call for Evidence: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

For information purposes, the Marie Collins Foundation is a UK charity uniquely focused on addressing and responding to the significant problem of Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse (TACSA). Our field of engagement includes direct and indirect support and advocacy work with victims and survivors of TACSA; research endeavours on this topic with academic partners and the overall promotion of the lived experience of victims and survivors of TACSA, to inform and influence improved prevention and response to TACSA, both domestically and internationally. We also create and deliver specialist training to professionals across the globe to equip them for better intervention and support for those who have experienced TACSA and to promote a victim focused, recovery approach.

Given that our expertise is concentrated to TACSA and direct work with victims, survivors and families, we are offering our assessment on two areas of the bill which relate to our work and specialist knowledge. However, we do wish to offer a general comment on the bill as a whole.

We believe the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill contains some good overall measures to create a better strategic safeguarding structure for children. This is to be welcomed. We note the focus on improving care for marginalised children, as well as the effort to provide stable and safe education for all children. Breakfast and uniform policies will equalise school experience and engagement for children growing up in poverty. Reduction of vulnerability and adverse experiences, including poverty, is a vital protective factor for children, from all forms of abuse and harm. We are supportive of the bill’s overall aims, in this regard.

We have two specific areas for comment:

· Part 1, (Sections 2-4): child protection and safeguarding.  The addition of education as a statutory safeguarding partner is vital and we support this measure. Education plays a central and important role in day-to-day engagement with children. The addition of education as a full branch of the safeguarding architecture will allow for the proper identification of children who are either at risk or experiencing significant harm. This enables a true joined-up approach to safeguarding, eliminating lacunas where children could be overlooked. It is important that the education sector is given the same full weight and voice as local authorities, health and police in safeguarding and child protection. Schools are generally the only arena where children are seen every (week)day and observations about their wellbeing can be observed and noticed over the course of time. This is a unique and vital perception into the holistic wellbeing of the child. As a statutory safeguarding partner, education will consolidate the full range of ecosystems which can feed into a child's safety and wellbeing. This is especially important when we know TACSA occurring within school environment and relationships. The information-sharing measures within the bill are welcome, too. In creating a statutory duty to share information, this will reduce professional reluctance to share or equivocate on whether to share information that is relevant for the purposes of safeguarding children. We also sense this will be complimentary to the government’s proposals around implementing the IICSA recommendation on mandatory reporting.

· Part 2: children not in school. While we appreciate the basis for much of what is contained in this section of the bill, we are concerned about children who have experienced TACSA and how they are responded to by schools, in the wake of their abuse. We have experience working with children and families who have been treated very poorly by school leadership and boards of governors. These are children and young people who have been the victims of TACSA (not perpetrators). These children have experienced trauma as a result of the abuse, which often makes it incredibly challenging for them to engage fully in lessons. At times, they have been expected to attend the same class and lesson as the fellow pupil who abused them online. As a result, they often find it hard to engage and cooperate with lessons. In some cases, these children have then faced school expulsion, disrupting their entire educational pathway. This adds to their traumatic experience, particularly when the perpetrator remains in school, even following some measure of school discipline. We would like to see an amendment to this bill which addresses this significant flaw in school policy. We propose that children who have experienced TACSA should never be excluded from school and denied their right to an education.

Karen Garland (Research & Policy Officer)

30.01.25