The main purpose of the bill is to: 

• Provide guarantees for parents and pupils setting out what they can expect from a 21st century schools system. These will equip every child, every family and everyone who works with them to meet the challenges ahead, and so help secure this country’s success now and in the future.

The main benefits of the bill would be:

• Families aware of, and crucially receiving, what they are entitled to expect from the schools and the wider schools system.
• Children and young people better equipped to meet the opportunities, demands and challenges of adult life through an updated school curriculum covering the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
• Recognition for teachers through a new licensing scheme that recognises their professionalism and boosts their public standing.

The main elements of the bill are:

• Guarantees – through new pupil and parent guarantees the Government is committing for the first time a series of specific entitlements for all and providing a means of redress if expectations are not met.
• 21st century schools – building on over a decade of increasing school standards, this Bill would deliver the building blocks for a world class 21st century schooling system that meets the needs of every pupil so they can achieve their full potential.  In future schools will work more in partnership and have greater flexibility in how they spend their budgets. The Bill would also allow for the introduction of our new School Report Card.
• Curriculum reforms – learning from wide ranging consultation and international evidence, the Bill would introduce reforms to the school curriculum so children and young people are equipped with the knowledge and skills they, and future employers, want and need. The Bill would reform the Primary curriculum following Sir Jim Rose’s review to provide greater flexibility for schools to tailor teaching to the needs and interests of their children while also focusing on the basics of literacy, numeracy and Information Communications Technology (ICT). The Bill would also put Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) on a statutory footing and ensure for the first time that all young people receive at least one year of sex and relationships education.
• Licence to practise – improving teaching underpins every effort to deliver the best possible education for all pupils, and through a new licensing system this Bill would professionalise the workforce and provide teachers the status they deserve.  This would create a new learning culture in every school’s teaching staff which puts professional development at the forefront and so improve teaching quality across the board. This will also clearly demonstrate to parents that high-quality teaching standards are being maintained
• Safeguarding the vulnerable – strengthening the powers of local authorities and others with regards to registration, inspection and intervention will mean effective systems are in place to protect those that most need it.  The Bill will introduce a new home educators’ registration system and take new powers for Secretaries of State to intervene in youth offending teams that are failing and potentially putting young people and their communities at risk.
• Increasing public confidence in family courts – providing a commitment to review the publication of information relating to family proceedings and report to Parliament.

Related documents:

There are a number of relevant documents and consultations, which can be viewed on the website of the Department for Children, Schools and Families: www.dcsf.gov.uk:

• Formal 12 week consultation period following publication of 21st Century Schools: A World-Class Education for Every Child (December 2008) followed by the White Paper Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system (June 2009)
• A School Report Card: consultation document (December 2008) followed by A School Report Card: Prospectus (June 2009)
• Review of the Primary Curriculum by Sir Jim Rose (April 2009)
• Review of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education by Sir Alasdair Macdonald (April 2009), followed by a full consultation
• Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman (June 2009)
• Home Education - registration and monitoring proposals. An eighteen week consultation with stakeholders (11 June 2009 to 19 October 2009) The Government hopes to publish a response by the end of November.  
• Consultation on Disclosure of information in family proceedings cases involving children (December 2004) and response paper (July 2005)
• Consultation paper Confidence and Confidentiality: Improving transparency and privacy in family courts (July 2006) and response paper (March 2007)
• Second public consultation paper Confidence and Confidentiality: openness in family courts – a new approach (June 2007) and response paper Family Justice in View (16 December 2008)

Devolution:

On the whole the Bill extends to England. Some clauses, as noted apply just to Wales, and others cover both England and Wales. It also extends to a very limited extent to Northern Ireland but only for the purpose of maintaining the current position in Northern Ireland, as the Bill amends provisions for England and Wales which also currently extend to Northern Ireland. The amendments are therefore technical, and not substantive.

The Children, Schools and Families Bill seeks to make amendments to:

• Education Act 1996
• School Standards and Framework Act 1998
• Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998
• Education Act 2002
• Children Act 2004
• Education Act 2005
• Education and Inspections Act 2006
• Education and Skills Act 2008
• Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.