Government introduces new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson MP

Protecting children at risk of abuse and stopping vulnerable children falling through the cracks are at the heart of the Government's new children’s bill, introduced in Parliament on 17 December 2024.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will introduce new registers to identify children who are not in school. With better knowledge of where children are, councils can more easily deliver the support that’s needed and ensure a high quality education is being provided.
The bill will also pave the way for a unique identifier number for children across services – like the national insurance number works for adults. 

Parents will no longer have an automatic right to educate their children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. If a child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities will also now have the power to intervene and require school attendance for any child.  

Teachers and educators are often the first to spot warnings of abuse or neglect, and last year, schools were the second largest referrer of cases into children’s social care. Measures in the bill will make sure that teachers and schools are always involved in decisions around safeguarding children in their area.  

Click here to read Bridget Phillipson’s full statement and learn more about the Government’s new measures.

Become a School Governor

Ealing Learning Partnership is recruiting African and Carribean Governors

If you're a parent with school aged children living in Ealing, be advised that the Ealing Learning Partnership (ELP) are actively working to ensure that their schools Governing Boards reflect the borough's diverse community by recruiting Governors from African and Caribbean backgrounds.This follows similar events to recruit Governors from Somali backgrounds.The next event is at 6pm on Thursday 16th January 2025 so there's plenty of time to consider whether this opportunity. As a Govenor you have the opportunity to make meaningful changes to the lives of children in education, so it can be very rewarding.Further information on this can be found on the ELP website here

Garden Court Chambers School Inclusion Project

Guardian article about the School Inclusion Project (SIP)

The School Inclusion Project is a group of 200 lawyers collaborating to fight the increasing number of discriminatory school exclusions.

Read the Guardian article here

October is Black History Month!

October is Black History Month and the 2024 theme is 'Reclaiming the Narrative'

October is Black History Month and the 2024 theme is 'Reclaiming the Narrative'

Yes, we know that Black history is made every day of the year but do you talk about it with your child?  Do you know why the US celebrates our heritage in February while in the UK it’s October?  Do you know everything about your family’s cultural background, and have you expanded on that knowledge and passed it to your children, nieces and nephews? 

If the response to any of those questions is ‘No’, that is the reason why Black History Month exists.  This is our yearly reminder to get back in touch with all that is great, good and wonderful about our Black Heritage. So make an effort to learn, enjoy and bask in your culture this month, you can begin by checking out Black History Magazine which explains the reasoning behind this year’s theme and there are a list of events that you can attend as well as opportunities to purchase the magazine if you’d like to learn more… because we all need to.

Black History Magazine can be found here.

Celebrate Black History Month with a book

Following on from their successful 2023 theme to celebrate the achievements and contributions of black women throughout history. Black History Month (BHM) Magazine hosted a national BHM poetry competition engaging over 3000  poets across the nation, the competition highlighted the indispensable role of poetry in fostering education and cultural expression.

A  panel of esteemed judges shortlisted 105 exceptional poems from a staggering number of submissions,17 talented poets advanced to the final stage before 4 exceptional winners were selected.

​‘Saluting Our Sisters: An Anthology’ is the brilliant result.

If you’d like to read the wonderful entries that made it into the book you can pre-order a copy of the Anthology here.

Find information on 2024’s black history month theme and celebrations in Black History Month Magazine.

Single headline Ofsted ratings to scrapped

The current Ofsted single headline ratings are set to change

Single headline rating for schools will be scrapped with immediate effect to improve school standards and increase transparency for parents, the government has announced today (2 September 2024).

For inspections this academic year, parents will see four grades across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership & management.

This reform commences the introduction of School Report Cards from September 2025, which will provide parents with a full and comprehensive assessment of school performance and ensure that inspections more effectively drive improvement. Recent data shows that reports cards are supported by 77% of parents.

Further information on this can be found on the DfE website.

CEN is 25

CEN has come a long way from a community project fighting to keep ethnic minority children in mainstream education to a movement that collaborates with schools while educating and empowering families to be proactive about their childrens education to secure improved outcomes for them. 

Intervention is prevention, we know that proactive parenting is the key to avoiding school exclusions.

2024 which means that Communities Empowerment Network (CEN) has been ‘fighting for Justice in Education’ for 25 years.

Congratulations to us, our volunteers and all the families who have benefitted from our services.

Remembering Jonathan Bob-Amara

Jonathan Bob-Amara 18.07.68 - 20.12.23

Our former colleague, Jonathan Bob-Amara supported CEN for many years, both as a volunteer advocate and as a member of the CEN team.

Jonathan was held in dear affection by many of the parents and families whom he supported over the years, some of whom still ask for him when they contact CEN.  As a colleague, Jonathan was popular, very supportive to other team members and a great team player.

We continue to wish Jonathan’s family our very best wishes.

Jenn Lewis

CEO

Diversity In The Workplace

Our CEO Jenn Lewis, attended an event hosted by one of our funders, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and whilst listening to the speakers responding to a question about how to make the workplace more diverse, a very quick mental calculation, concluded that CEN's own workforce appeared to buck the trend of white, male domination that exists in the corporate world and even in community-based charities.