The Young Person’s Guide to the Children and Families Bill: February 2013

Sometimes laws are made that are very important for children. This Bill is what this Government wants to make into the law, as long as Parliament agrees.
We think children should know about new laws that will make a difference to their lives. We have asked for a Young Person's Guide to be written because this law will be very important for children. This Guide tells you what we want the new law to say. We want YOU to know the law we are planning for you.

This Guide is a good summary of what you need to know is in the Bill. It is not the law or the Bill itself. Parliament may change some parts of the Bill before it finally becomes the law. If you need to check something out in more detail, you will need to look at the exact words in the Bill itself.

The Government wants all children and young people to do well. We want to support families. We have done a lot for schools and for the care of very young children. This Bill is about making things better for all children and families. It is also about making things better for children and families who have different sorts of problems in their lives.

This Bill will make changes to help children get adopted faster if adoption is the right thing for them. It will help children who are looked after by the council to do well at school. It will make changes to help the family courts work better for children. It will make changes to help children who have special educational needs at school and when they go to college. It will change the way the Children’s Commissioner works for children.

The new law will help families by giving mums and dads more choices about sharing time off work after a new child is born. It will give everybody who goes to work more choice about the times they go to work. It will help families to get good care for very young children.

We want to put children and young people right at the centre. We want things to work out right for children. We want services to meet children’s needs, not professionals’ needs. We want children to get the help they need without lots of delays. And we want the new law to improve children’s rights in this country.
Thank you to all the people who have given us their ideas and views about what has gone into this Bill.

And special thanks to the children and young people who have given us their views. We took notice of what children told us when we decided what to put in this Bill.
We want this Bill to make things better for children and young people.