Measures in the bill will give local authorities significantly more powers to monitor children not in formal education, tackling a long-term blind spot that has grown in recent years and that in some cases has contributed to child deaths, education and safeguarding experts say.
The wide-ranging bill, published before Christmas, incorporates proposals to improve safeguarding in education and how agencies work together to protect vulnerable children generally, as well as boosting support for struggling families, looked-after children and care leavers, and powers to curtail the profits of private care providers.
It is measures to improve councils’ monitoring of the growing pool of children that are home educated that have gained most attention, as this was a factor in the murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif by her father and stepmother in Surrey in August 2023.
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