Dear Friends,
This Bill is coming back to Parliament for Report Stage on 17-18 March. It will greatly extend state control over children’s and families’ lives – the opposite of protecting children’s wellbeing!

Please write urgently to your MP telling them why you are opposed to it (see our briefing here). It’s really important they hear from as many of us as possible. We’ve put a template letter below and on our blog – you are welcome to adjust it however you want, but please remember to send us a copy of what you write.

If you don’t know who your MP is, you can find them here.

TEMPLATE LETTER TO MPs

Dear MP
Re: Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill
I am your constituent and I am extremely concerned about the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill (CWS Bill) now going through Parliament (Report stage 17/18 March). This Bill will further undermine children’s right to the love and care of their mother and our right to be together as a family. I urge you to speak out against it.

I am particularly outraged that the tragic murder of Sara Sharif is being used to increase state powers over children – the very powers that led social workers and the family court to take Sara from her mother and give her to a father they knew to be violent. Her murder had nothing to do with home education – her school reported her bruises to Social Services and they did nothing to protect her.

I am the mother/carer/relative of … [put your personal situation here:]   This Bill would affect me because … [put your reasons here – some are listed below:]

I/We are particularly opposed to the Bill because it would:
– Extend the powers of professionals over all aspects of children’s and families lives. Children do not need multi-agency “child protection” staffed by more professionals spying on their mothers. (Clause 2) 
– Introduce a “consistent identifier” (a name or number) for each child from birth. This takes state monitoring to an unprecedented degree as if children belong to the state rather than with their mother and families. A similar proposal in Scotland (“the named person”) was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court because it breached the right to “private and family life”. (Clause 4)
– Authorise children subject to Deprivation of Liberty orders to be housed in alternative placements beyond just a secure children’s home. This will lead to more children placed in unregulated homes where they are even more likely to be abused and neglected with impunity. (Clause 10)
– Cap profits made by private providers rather than outlaw for-profit provision altogether. (Clauses 14 &16)
– Greatly restrict the right to home education. This is discriminatory and unfair. It would particularly affect children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These children are most likely to be neglected and bullied in mainstream education but the Bill does not address any of the problems with SEND. (Clauses 24-29)
– Allow social workers compulsory home visits and right to enter children’s homes without permission. Where refused, a legal order will be made which could result in prison or the power to make life-changing decisions relating to the health of your child without parental consent. This is the most extraordinary abuse of state powers.

You must be aware that: there are more children in “care” than ever before; over 4.3m children live in poverty and impoverished mums and kinship carers face accusations of “neglect” and having their children taken by social services; Councils are being bankrupted as a result of paying millions to private companies running residential homes for profit, while mothers and families are denied support to keep children safe. You must also know that the outcomes for children in care are shocking yet are never considered when decisions are made to remove them from their mothers.

Ignoring all the evidence, this Bill would extend the control of the “corporate parent” over ALL children’s lives and do nothing to address the crisis of poverty, the neglect of children with special needs (SEND) by the education system or the massive expansion of the privatised child removal industry. 

I/We urge you to speak up for children and their families, and tell the government that they should begin by making Section 17 of the Children Act (which entitles struggling families to support) mandatory, instead of leaving it up to Local Councils who then pay through the nose to have children removed.

I would like you to see the evidence to the Public Bill Committee from Support Not Separation – see here.

I would be happy to meet with you to discuss this further.
Yours sincerely
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ADDRESS