Shortly after the General Election in 2024, the newly elected Labour government announced a Children’s Wellbeing Bill – a new piece of legislation that set out a range of policies such as a register of children not in schools, restrictions on branded items in school uniforms and greater powers for Ofsted to tackle illegal schools.

However, just before Christmas, the Children’s Wellbeing Bill suddenly morphed into the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and included a whole host of measures intended to overhaul the way that state schools are managed and supported.

So what changes to our state school system have been put forward in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill? Is the Labour government right to question the previous government’s approach to overseeing state schools? And why has this Bill sparked accusations of ‘educational vandalism’ from its critics? 

 My guests are Freddie Whittaker, the Deputy editor at Schools Week, and Leora Cruddas, Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts.

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