Say NO to the Schools Bill*
act now and get it stopped
What now?
*We won! Well kind of. The Schools Bill is no more but the government clearly still intends to plough ahead with the harmful attendance measures, with fines and threats, and have again given support for the ‘Children Not in Schools’ registers. We have written to the latest Secretary of State for Education to explain again why these measures are so harmful. We have submitted evidence to the Education Select Committee hearing on attendance measures, as have many of our supporters and many of you.
The current focus is on fighting back against the attendance measures which are already impacting negatively on families. We will watch to see how they intend to take forward the ‘Children Not in Schools’ registers.
Sign the Change.org parents’ petition
Signatures and rising
Add your name to this petition to say no to schools fines and to Stop the Schools Bill. Started by Susan Liverman and Maddie Roberts, two mums with autistic children who struggled going to school they highlight how cruel and counterproductive it is to punish families in this position.
Parent power
On 21st March Susan, Maddie, Ellie of Square Peg, and other parents will ‘hand in’ the petition – on behalf of quarter of a million families – to the government. Join them. Meet 2:30pm at the Georges V statue on Abingdon Street, (London, SW1P 3, United Kingdom) for a short march to Downing Street (0.5 miles) then on to the Department for Education (a further 0.5 miles). More information on their Facebook event.
Speak to your MP in person
Let your MP know what you think about the attendance measures and the registers. Meeting your MP in person will have the biggest impact. You can find out their constituency office contact details here and ask when their constituency meeting times are. You don’t have to go alone.
Write to your MP
- Find your MP and their contact details here
Or use Write to Them - What to say?
Your email doesn’t need to be formal.Tell them why you are concerned. If it will impact you personally tell them a bit about your circumstances or experience. You might want to use quotes from the many experts and organisations who have spoken out about the Schools Bill (see the post below for easy to copy and paste quotes – these are all still relevant).
Tag your MP on Twitter
You can find your MP and if they use Twitter you can find their Twitter handle here
You can tag any MP that you like on Twitter.
Spread the word
Use your available networks – friends, family, groups you’re part of – and reach out to make others aware of what is happening.
Share on social media, there’s lots of images and quotes to make that easier. Plus, personal messages and talking to people in person can be hugely effective too.
Easy to copy and paste quotes
You might find the following helpful to use in writing to your MP, to show the opposition to the Schools Bill. Quotations from No to Schools Bill supporters. Eileen Munro, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy“The Schools Bill increases State surveillance of children...
Quotes and graphics for social media
Scroll through the quotes and graphics and share with your network on your social media platform of choice.
“I think [writing to MPs] has surprisingly more impact than people think. Often when we’re lobbying MPs they’ll say – I just don’t have emails in my inbox about this.”
Silkie Carlo, Big Brother Watch director
Is your MP engaged on human rights and civil liberties?
MPs who do are more likely to be open to understanding why the Schools Bill must be stopped. MPs who signed up to the Big Brother Watch Boycott COVID passes pledge should be open to our arguments.
Is your MP Conservative?
Traditionally the Conservative Party were a party that campaigned against big State overstep like this although their current policies are clearly deeply at odds with this traditional stance.
Conservatives spoke out against ContactPoint. As Eileen Munro has said, “I can’t believe we are back in the same place as ContactPoint, having to have the same fight again.”
Michael Gove put it well when he said’ “ContactPoint can never be secure. We are taking this action because we are determined to protect vulnerable children from abuse, ContactPoint would increase that risk. The government has proved that it cannot be trusted to set up large databases, and cannot promise that inappropriate people would not be able to access the database, It would be irresponsible to implement something that is such a danger to our children. After all the problems we have with this government losing sensitive data we need to do things differently. We need to invest in people. Strengthening relationships, not building another Big Brother system.”
These reasons are still valid today.