Will the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill help or hinder parents in raising their children in line with God’s word?

A fellow home-educator mother sent out a concerned text message within our community a few days ago, highlighting how the proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill could potentially impede our faith-filled teaching within our own households, a space once revered as sacred and safe.

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As two of my three girls are currently educated by me within our home, I decided to investigate this bill for myself. It was introduced before Christmas and, if passed, is due to be incorporated into British legislation in February 2025. It was created to tighten monitoring of the education system within this nation; a ‘belt and braces’ approach focusing on safeguarding standards, aiming to protect the marginalised and vulnerable.

A joined-up approach between service providers including social workers, medical staff and educators is undisputable in the wake of Sara’ Sharif’s untimely death.

A joined-up approach between service providers including social workers, medical staff and educators is undisputable in the wake of 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s death at the hands of her father and stepmother. The precise details of this case aren’t fully documented, perhaps impeded by religious and cultural constraints, thereby precluding a thorough investigation that might have saved a life. In a defensive response, our ‘liable’ Government plans to confront religious teaching, to control practice, in hopes of deterring further erroneous circumstances.

Aside from this case, it’s apparent that there are other notable deficiencies in our national learning landscape that may have influenced content of the bill, including the pandemic, an increase in neurodiverse conditions and overly subscribed schools.

The Covid era altered the education scene by necessitating home learning, awakening a generation to the possibility of alternative educating methods.

The Covid era altered the education scene by necessitating home learning, awakening a generation to the possibility of alternative educating methods. Furthermore, the NHS reports a rapid multiplication of neurodiverse conditions within the past few years, perhaps induced by anxiety exacerbated by social exclusion, creating an environment that now requires scrupulous monitoring.

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Concurrently, schools are often groaning under over-subscription and insufficient funding, whilst trying to maintain reputation with Ofsted compliant ratings of achievement and attendance. Therefore, children on the fringes who don’t conform, often due to mental health difficulties, are offered a solution of ‘home educating’. However, they receive no assistance or monitoring at home and are confronted with escalating issues and wayward children. It’s impossible to identify motivations of home educators within the 92,000 currently listed, but there’s an undeniable cohort that could benefit from externally imposed measures

The bill proposes objectives that at first glance ostensibly shield children from potential harm, even from well-intentioned but ‘ill-informed’ parents. In reality, the small print will render parents defenceless against state intrusion. By weakening the ability of parents to make life-altering decisions for their children, I believe the consequence will undeniably be a diminishing of the parent-child bond, stripping parental authority and empowering socialist principles outside of biblical teaching. Peer influence will be superseded by invasive propaganda distributed through schools such as gender fluidity, whilst prohibiting parents from denouncing it.

Maria Montessori and Charlotte Mason, both education reformers over the turn of the century, believed in the art of habit-forming, increasing the confidence of children to act autonomously. Whilst Mason preferred the home environment for such character-building activities, Montessori championed the cause of these somewhat prosaic acts of encouraging self-dressing, within the school.

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These and many other influential minds within education asserted that simple acts form the bedrock of education along with life experience, within a secure learning environment. Homes that aren’t currently secure may benefit from inspection, as an interim measure. But ultimately, investment into families, supporting parents in raising God-fearing children, whether at school or home, should be the main objective of any educational reform act, thereby ensuring safer homesteads.

Galatians 5:1 says ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, no longer to be subject to a yolk of slavery’; this bill demarcates a form of slavery; protesting parents who question educators will face fines or imprisonment, a form of fear-based control. Any parent concerned about the emotional welfare of their child will know that inflicting this type of punishment provokes fear. The only antidote is love, grace and freedom with boundaries to keep children safe, rather than exposing them to harmful ideology.

A biblical position asserts that children are given to parents as a gift from God, for them to look after, in accordance with his word, by the power of his Holy Spirit–to be an earthly representative of him. But if parents teach their children biblical truths about identity and who God created them to be, the state may penalise them, thereby jeopardising their God-given relationship by causing friction or total severance of connection if an ‘unfit’ parent were imprisoned.

It’s more than a societal over-reach, it’s an overt rejection of God’s law that will surely see destruction within our society. We can respond by interceding for our nation, our children and future generations – that God’s divine will prevails. I urge you to voice your concerns to your local MP - speak up for justice before justice is distorted and freedom eradicated. This bill has potential to be more detrimental than beneficial.