Children's Wellbeing Bill - Discussion, links & updates

[Jcollard_FRG]

There are a lot of discussions around the Children's Wellbeing Bill which is due to be taken to Parliament in the next few weeks. FRG held a roundtable event last week and has an upcoming event of a Councillors Network Meeting on 30th January.

At the FGC Managers Network meeting this week some of the discussions included:
Terminology of FGDM and all the variations of Family Meetings
Concerns over lack of clarity and possible interpretation of the Bill eg, PR consent, no mention of independent coordinator, private family time or child involvement
Some local authorities feeling pressure to change the name of FGC

Please use this space to continue the conversation, share ideas, resources and keep updated (click subscribe).

Here are some links for you:

Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/b ... 240151.pdf
Policy Summary Notes: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... _Notes.pdf

There’s a synopsis of our analysis on our website here:
https://frg.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns ... ools-bill/.
The webpage will give you an overview of our analysis, and a more detailed briefing is attached here.

250106-FRG-Parliamentary-Briefing-Childrens-Wellbeing-and-Schools-Bill (2).pdf

(263.27 KiB) Downloaded 603 times

[Lhutchinson_FRG]

There is also an excellent blog written by Sharon Inglis which is well worth a read. Really highlights what a critical opportunity the Bill is for FGC practice.

https://frg.org.uk/news-blogs-and-vlogs ... -families/

[Jcollard_FRG]

- The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is going through Parliament at the moment and includes a new national offer for all families to be offered a family group decision making meeting at the pre-proceedings page. We have been working to try to get the Bill strengthened so that the key principles of family group conferences are part of the offer.

- The Bill also introduces measures to enhance housing and support for care leavers, including the Staying Close initiative. We strongly welcome these measures. We’ve been trying to strengthen it further to include a stronger focus on relationships. That includes:
o Pushing for Lifelong Links to be a national offer and for this to be set out in regulations, with appropriate funding
o Proposing amendments to ensure children in the care system have the same right to reasonable contact with their brothers and sisters, as they do with their parents
o Proposed a new amendment to create a duty to promotion children’s family and social relationships, alongside educational achievement

There is more detail on our Bill work here:
https://frg.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns ... ools-bill/

Follow the progress of the bill here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909

[Jcollard_FRG]

For anyone who missed the FGC Webinar last week 'What is Family Group Decision Making?' , you can find it here....

https://frg.org.uk/news-blogs-and-vlogs ... on-making/