King's Speech: Key points and reaction

Under the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, there will be a requirement for all primary schools to run free breakfast clubs, while all schools will have to limit the number of branded items of uniform pupils require to keep costs down for parents.

It will also require local authorities in England to keep a mandatory register of children not in school and bring multi-academy trusts into the inspection system.

Other bills being introduced by the new Government and mentioned within the King’s Speech include a:

• Skills England bill – bringing together employers, unions and other to boost skills training, reforming the apprenticeship levy.
• Employment rights bill – introduced in the first 100 days of the Government – banning zero-hours contracts and fire and re-hire practices, add extra rights with flexible working and make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal an immediate right.
• Mental health bill – modernise mental health provisions including how people can be detained and treated under the Mental Health Act.
• Draft equality bill – setting out equal pay rights for people from minority ethnic groups and disabled people, including mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for bigger employers.

The Government will also legislate to restrict advertising of junk food, as well as the sale of high caffeine drinks, to children.

'It is important the Government understands there are different ways to ensure children who need it can access before-school provision'.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said that ‘greater consistency between academies and maintained schools is long overdue’, it also said it ‘stands ready to open dialogue with the new Government to understand how the new requirement for all schools to provide breakfast clubs will work in practice.'

General secretary Paul Whiteman said, ‘It is important the Government understands that there are many different ways to ensure children who need it can access before-school provision, including local partnerships and the utilisation of existing childcare providers. It goes without saying that such provision will need to be adequately funded, with a particular focus on staffing costs.’

'Low-income families remain in the thick of a cost-of-living crisis. They don’t have the luxury to wait for the economy to grow'.

The National Education Union (NEU) said that while the introduction of universal breakfast clubs is a ‘step forward, the aim should be free school meals for all pupils', while the Joseph Rowntree Foundation argued that what is missing from the new Government’s legislative programme is social security reform.

‘Low-income families remain in the thick of a cost-of-living crisis. They don’t have the luxury to wait for the economy to grow. We hope to see plans soon to tackle hardship and strengthen our social security system that is failing to protect people’, explained Abby Jitendra, JRF Principal Policy Adviser.

On the skills bill, the Sutton Trust warned of the risk of reducing new apprenticeship opportunities if employers use levy funding for the learning and development of existing staff. It said the reforms must be accompanied by a plan to ‘significantly increase apprenticeships targeted at young people from less well-off backgrounds.’

On child poverty, Aveek Bhattacharya, research director at the Social Market Foundation said, 'Despite growing pressure on the Government to prioritise the issue, the word “poverty” was missing entirely in the King’s Speech, and makes just four appearances across the 105 pages of background briefing notes. Expanding breakfast clubs and legislating for a smokefree generation are worthy ventures, but they hardly constitute an anti-poverty strategy.'

Responding to the King’s speech, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said, 'The new Government pledged an ambitious approach to tackling child poverty but there was little to help achieve that aim in the speech today. The two-child limit is the biggest driver of rising child poverty and teachers, struggling parents and even children themselves can testify to the harm the policy is causing to kids day in, day out. All eyes will now be on government’s first budget, which must commit to scrapping this policy. Delaying its abolition will harm many more young lives and undercut the government’s poverty-reduction plans.'