To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the University College London report Physical punishment and child outcomes in the UK, published on 10 June, particularly its findings about the effect that hitting children has on their behaviour and wellbeing.

My Lords, we already know that regular physical punishment encourages children to bully other children and damages their relationship with their parents. The UCL research has now shown us that it also damages their educational attainment and future prospects. When will the Government take not just a small step but follow the example of Wales and Scotland and dozens of other countries and give children equal protection under the law of assault as the adults around them have? The Government plan to protect children from online harms. How about protecting them in their own homes?

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on her lifelong professional commitment to children and young people. Might doubters in England be persuaded if we explored replacing the common-law defence of reasonable chastisement with a statutory defence of reasonable restraint of a child?

My Lords, do the Government recognise that this report shows quite clearly the link between a failure to protect children from abuse and poor outcomes for those children? If parents who are not coping with parenting are to access family hubs and all the other support services, the law has to give a clear message that children should not be assaulted. You cannot assault an adult repeatedly; therefore, you should not be damaging a child’s life chances by repeatedly assaulting the child.

My Lords, I turn to the point mentioned by my noble friend Lady Walmsley about the experiences of Scotland and Wales. Have the Government looked at the assessments that have been made by those Governments on safeguarding and the number of incidents reported to them of harm to young children?

My Lords, it would be wrong to speak today of physical punishment without raising the evil murder of the baby Preston Davey. As the Minister knows, we on the Conservative Benches welcome her structural reforms to social care, but there is still a gap. As the Munro inquiry and repeated case reviews have found, the assumptions, biases and culture of individual agency workers are still a major problem.

These need to be addressed so that individuals will act to protect children without fear or favour. How does the Minister propose to address these issues?

My Lords, it is already the case that the serious assault of a child is illegal. What we are talking about is smacking children. Is there any evidence that, since that has been introduced into countries, parents are being prosecuted—that is what it means; prosecuting parents—and that that has helped the situation?

My Lords, did not the Preston Davey case prove that the current situation is simply not working? That poor boy was sexually assaulted and abused for months. The question has to be asked: why did no one from any agency pick this up?

My Lords, does the Minister agree that there has been overwhelming acceptance in Wales of the policy that was introduced by the former Labour Government? In the recent election, there was hardly an issue on this matter arising. Will she take the opportunity to discuss with her two colleagues who are former First Ministers of Wales how this policy has been implemented?

My Lords, we welcome the evidence in this report, in particular the inclusion of the voices of children and young people. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act is a key step towards delivering the Government’s mission to break the link between young people’s background and their future success, and will deliver new measures to support children’s behaviour, well-being and protection. This sits alongside earlier support for children and families through our £2.4 billion families first partnership programme and our Best Start Family Hubs.

There is no place for antisemitism in our society.

On 18 January, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a review into antisemitism in schools and colleges. It will examine whether institutions have the right systems to identify and address antisemitism and prejudice effectively. The review will be launched as soon as possible.

The department has already committed £7 million to support programmes that build confidence and resilience in tackling antisemitism across schools, colleges and universities.

Teachers should not promote partisan political views and should present issues in a factual, balanced way so that pupils can learn how to think critically and independently. We have published guidance for schools on political impartiality, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools.

Universities must have strong systems to prevent and address harassment. Under Condition E6, providers must implement clear policies for preventing, investigating and responding to harassment of all kinds. If the Office for Students finds a breach of E6, it can use a range of sanctions, including financial penalties and de-registration.

The department is running an evaluation of the families first for children pathfinder programme until 2028, with the next publication scheduled for 2027. This report will assess the aggregate impact of the full reform package, which includes multi-agency child protection teams, and will highlight progress on indicators such as multi-agency collaboration, information sharing, and decision making.

Alongside formal evaluation, the department continues to monitor progress and extract learning more broadly, including through data returns, local monitoring and working closely with the ten pathfinder areas.

Between May and September 2025, the department consulted nearly 500 practitioners from children’s social care, education, health, police, and probation. Key findings included:

• Regardless of role, practitioners experience the same barriers when trying to share and receive information.
• Practitioners spend a disproportionate amount of time finding and gathering information which can result in less time for decision making.
• Regardless of sector, practitioners view social care and education information as highest priority.
• Practitioners have three core needs: a) ensuring they are talking about the same child/family, b) understanding who holds information about that child/family and c) having a secure way to share relevant information quickly.
• Practitioners also raised a desire to be able to view core data in one place.

We are using these insights to inform future work, ensuring that design and development align with practitioner needs. User research will continue to maintain a user-centred approach throughout.

The department is considering the possible benefits and costs of a national register of foster carers as part of our wider work in reforming the children’s social care sector. There are a range of proposals for such a register, all of which require careful consideration.

The national minimum standards for fostering sets out a clear minimum expectation that all “foster carers should receive at least the national minimum allowance for the child, plus any necessary agreed expenses”.

In January 2025, we shared information about how to report underpayment of the national minimum allowance to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) for investigation. The LGSCO have reassured us that they will investigate any reports of underpayment raised with them and ensure action is taken to rectify this.

Fees paid to foster carers are not determined by the government. Instead, fostering services set their own rates based on various factors, such as the skills of the foster carer and the level of support the child requires. The department currently has no plans to carry out a comprehensive review of foster care fees. We encourage local authorities to work together to develop consistent regional offers of financial support to foster carers.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is concerned with strengthening child employment legislation. The department’s proposed measures will offer children greater opportunities for meaningful, suitable employment whilst ensuring it does not have a negative impact on their health, development and education. It will not change the length of time children are able to work per week, but it will provide greater flexibility on when those hours are taken.

The child employment measures in the Bill will work alongside, but are distinct from, existing legislation related to child performance. The current regulatory framework for child performance ensures that a licence must be obtained before children can take part in certain types of performance, both professional and amateur, and in paid sport and modelling. Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding all children in their area and are therefore responsible for licensing. A licence will only be granted once the local authority is assured that the child’s education, health, and wellbeing will not suffer, and that the conditions of the licence will be observed.

The requirement in the Bill to introduce compulsory registers of children not in school in every local authority in England and Wales would include young performers if they were not on the school roll, if they were part of a flexi-schooling arrangement, or using unregistered alternative provision. The registers will support local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas and to take action if they are not receiving a safe or suitable education.

Both existing child performance regulation and the department’s proposed child employment measures in the Bill have children’s needs at their heart and seek to balance access to opportunities, safeguarding and a high-quality education.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is concerned with strengthening child employment legislation. The department’s proposed measures will offer children greater opportunities for meaningful, suitable employment whilst ensuring it does not have a negative impact on their health, development and education. It will not change the length of time children are able to work per week, but it will provide greater flexibility on when those hours are taken.

The child employment measures in the Bill will work alongside, but are distinct from, existing legislation related to child performance. The current regulatory framework for child performance ensures that a licence must be obtained before children can take part in certain types of performance, both professional and amateur, and in paid sport and modelling. Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding all children in their area and are therefore responsible for licensing. A licence will only be granted once the local authority is assured that the child’s education, health, and wellbeing will not suffer, and that the conditions of the licence will be observed.

The requirement in the Bill to introduce compulsory registers of children not in school in every local authority in England and Wales would include young performers if they were not on the school roll, if they were part of a flexi-schooling arrangement, or using unregistered alternative provision. The registers will support local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas and to take action if they are not receiving a safe or suitable education.

Both existing child performance regulation and the department’s proposed child employment measures in the Bill have children’s needs at their heart and seek to balance access to opportunities, safeguarding and a high-quality education.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is concerned with strengthening child employment legislation. The department’s proposed measures will offer children greater opportunities for meaningful, suitable employment whilst ensuring it does not have a negative impact on their health, development and education. It will not change the length of time children are able to work per week, but it will provide greater flexibility on when those hours are taken.

The child employment measures in the Bill will work alongside, but are distinct from, existing legislation related to child performance. The current regulatory framework for child performance ensures that a licence must be obtained before children can take part in certain types of performance, both professional and amateur, and in paid sport and modelling. Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding all children in their area and are therefore responsible for licensing. A licence will only be granted once the local authority is assured that the child’s education, health, and wellbeing will not suffer, and that the conditions of the licence will be observed.

The requirement in the Bill to introduce compulsory registers of children not in school in every local authority in England and Wales would include young performers if they were not on the school roll, if they were part of a flexi-schooling arrangement, or using unregistered alternative provision. The registers will support local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas and to take action if they are not receiving a safe or suitable education.

Both existing child performance regulation and the department’s proposed child employment measures in the Bill have children’s needs at their heart and seek to balance access to opportunities, safeguarding and a high-quality education.

The department knows that many local authorities have an existing family group decision making (FGDM) service in place, including many who use the family group conference model. In some local authorities, independent coordinators are recruited to facilitate or ‘chair’ FGDM meetings and, in other areas, social workers are trained to deliver the service.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the department is seeking to place a duty on local authorities to offer an FGDM meeting to all parents and those with parental responsibility whose children are on the edge of care, unless this is not in the best interests of the child. This will ensure that families have the opportunity to participate in planning and decision-making at this critical point.

As part of this, the department will be developing guidance about best practice in delivering FGDM. This will include guidance on how to ensure that facilitators of the FGDM process have the appropriate skills and training. We are conscious of the additional resources that local authorities will require to fulfil this measure, which may include recruiting or training extra staff. That is why this government has committed to an uplift of £13 million for the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant for 2025/26, which will be used to support the rollout of FGDM across the country for all families on the edge of care. This money can be used to expand a local authority’s existing service, including training additional facilitators for FGDM.

The department has no plans to issue guidance under sections 10(8), 10(10) and 12B(4) of the Children Act 2004.

Safeguarding partners (police, health, local authorities) are under a duty to make arrangements to work together and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. These responsibilities are set out in the 2023 statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’. The department will review this guidance regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect evidence, learns from children’s social care reform and aligns with legislative changes.

In November, the department published its ambitious, wide-ranging plans for children’s social care reform in ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, setting the wheels in motion to break the cycle of crisis intervention and rebalance the system back towards earlier help for families. In December, the department introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This is a landmark piece of legislation, introducing a series of measures with a focus on delivering a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.

Local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare.

All local authorities must adhere to statutory guidance including ‘Working together to safeguard children 2023’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2. The guidance is clear that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children relies on providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge.

Ofsted inspects whether local authorities are delivering appropriately for children.

On 18 November 2024, the department published ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’, which is attached and can also be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67375fe5ed0fc07b53499a42/Keeping_Children_Safe__Helping_Families_Thrive_.pdf. This sets out this government’s approach to reforming the system of support for children and families, including rebalancing the system toward earlier intervention through the national roll out of family help and child protection reforms. The local government finance policy statement published on 28 November 2024, by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed that the rollout of these reforms will be supported by £500 million of funding from April 2025. The statement is accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026/local-government-finance-policy-statement-2025-to-2026.

Family Help is a seamless, non-stigmatising offer of support delivered by multi-disciplinary community-based teams. It combines the strengths of targeted early help and section 17 work, with an emphasis on whole-family working and greater flexibility on who leads work with families, ensuring children and families receive the right support at the earliest opportunity, crucially improving their outcomes and also reducing costs to public services.

Through the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme and Family Networks pilot running in ten local authorities, the department is testing models and approaches to parental support and advocacy, so that parents feel empowered to have a strong voice when navigating the child protection process. Through the same programme, we are also testing stronger multi-agency approaches to support families. This includes new Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and Lead Child Protection Practitioners, who are qualified social workers with strong expertise in child protection and assessments. These teams will see local authority, police, and health and other relevant agencies work together in an integrated way to help families overcome challenges, stay together wherever possible, and thrive whilst keeping children safe.

The introduction of Family Help and reforms to child protection from April 2025 will produce a fundamental shift in the way the department is able to respond to children and families who need help. The changes will form part of an improved end-to-end system that offers a seamless system of support, ensuring children and families access the right support at the right time, delivered by the right person.

More detailed guidance on these reforms will be published in the new year which will confirm the changes we expect local authorities and their partners to deliver, including minimum expectations for delivery and opportunities for local flexibility.