Schools Bill must ensure accessible breakfast clubs & parental choice

3 mins read

Monday 10 February 2025

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is currently at the Committee Stage of its passage through parliament.

This is when MPs scrutinise the bill line-by-line. They’ll consider amendments put forward to change the bill, and look at evidence that members of the public and experts have submitted.

The Public Bill Committee must report back on its work by 5pm tomorrow, Tuesday 11 February.

Contact is a member of the Special Educational Needs Consortium and the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP), the two leading coalitions of organisations and parent groups in the sector. Together, we have submitted evidence to the committee on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Breakfast clubs must be inclusive

We welcome the provision of universal breakfast clubs. But the bill does not do enough to ensure these clubs will be inclusive to children with SEND.

Some children need specific dietary accommodations. Some need extra staff support during meal times. It is likely that some children will be unable to get to the clubs on council-provided transport.

We want the bill to set out a requirement for schools to make reasonable adjustments to include children with SEND. And we want local authorities to co-operate with schools to ensure children can get to breakfast clubs and those with education, health and care (EHC) plans have any support needed detailed in the plan.

Home education and school attendance

The bill requires that in certain circumstances, local authorities must approve parents’ requests to home educate their child. Alongside this, local authorities will keep a Children Not in School register.

Many parents home educate their child because they don’t feel the school is providing the support they need. We do not want to see parental choice limited or children kept in unsuitable settings as a consequence of this bill.

We recommend:

  • Safeguards to prevent local authorities from using the register to pressure families into unsuitable school placements..
  • Clear rights of redress for parents who disagree with local authority decisions on home education.
  • The creation of an Attendance Code of Practice that prioritises a support-first approach.

Other proposals

We welcome the duty for local authorities and schools to cooperate on admissions and place planning. 

But place planning must prioritise the inclusion of SEND-specific provisions. SEND units within mainstream schools must not be segregated.

We also want the bill to do more to improve multi-agency working across education, health and social care. This should include streamlining processes for families accessing support.

You can read the full SEND Consortium and DCP submission.