Family group decision-making and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

 

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill brings forward many of the commitments first set out in Keeping Children Safe: Helping Families Thrive. At its core, the policy direction is clear: children should grow up in family settings wherever possible. When children cannot remain safely at home, the emphasis is on kinship and foster care rather than residential provision. Alongside this, the government signals an intention to address the long-standing issues in the care market and ensure the system functions more effectively for vulnerable children and families.

Structure of the Bill

 

Part One introduces new statutory duties for local authorities, including the requirement to offer Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) before initiating care proceedings. It also seeks to regulate the use of agency workers within children’s social care.

Part Two strengthens the role of education partners in safeguarding. It proposes multi-agency safeguarding teams that bring together police, health, education, and local authority professionals. Education providers would also take on additional responsibilities for children’s wellbeing, including mandatory breakfast provision and more robust arrangements for identifying and responding to children missing from education.

 

Key measures affecting children’s social care

 

Family Group Decision Making

• Local authorities must offer FGDM before applying to take a child into care, ensuring families are actively involved in planning and decision-making.

Child protection and safeguarding

• Education and childcare providers become formal partners in local safeguarding arrangements.

• Multi-agency child protection teams are established, drawing together education, social work, health, and police.

• A single unique identifier for children is introduced to support safer, more consistent information-sharing.

 

Support for children in care, leaving care, and in kinship care

 

• Kinship carers are defined in law, and each local authority must publish a kinship local offer.

• Virtual School Heads will extend their oversight to children in need and those in kinship care.

• Local authorities must offer Staying Close support to care leavers and provide clearer information on the transition to independence.

 

Accommodation of children

• The Secretary of State may require regional cooperation arrangements for planning and commissioning placements.

• A statutory framework is created for depriving children of their liberty in specific settings.

 

Regulation of children’s homes and fostering agencies

• Ofsted gains enhanced oversight of organisations operating multiple homes or fostering agencies.

• Financial oversight is strengthened, including powers to cap provider profits.

 

Care workers

• The Secretary of State may regulate the use of agency workers in children’s social care.

• Protections against ill-treatment or wilful neglect are extended to 16- and 17-year-olds in certain care and detention settings.

The Bill is currently progressing through Parliament and is at second reading in the House of Lords.

 

Implications for CoramBAAF local authority members

 

Two areas stand out for local authorities:

 

• The new statutory duty around Family Group Decision Making, which will require significant practice, workforce, and commissioning considerations.

• The requirement to publish a kinship care local offer, which will need to be meaningful, accessible, and co-produced with kinship families.

 

In parallel, the government intends to ensure every local authority has access to a regional fostering recruitment hub. These hubs are designed to raise awareness of fostering, support prospective carers from the outset, and strengthen the support offer for existing foster carers.