Today’s King’s Speech builds on some of the positive progress of the Government’s first two years. With 37 pieces of legislation designed to open opportunity for all, rebuild public services and strengthen security on all fronts, the direction of the King’s Speech welcome. However, there was room for more ambition, and are still some very noticeable and important gaps if the Government is to spread opportunity to all children and young people.

An Education for All Bill

We have been supportive of the direction and ambitions set out in the Education Secretary’s Schools White Paper, and we are pleased that the proposed Education for All Bill will create the legal conditions to make many of the White Paper’s aims become a reality. This has the potential to lead to a more preventative, flexible, and supportive system enabling many more children with SEND to get the help they need to thrive in mainstream education.

As we set out in our response to the White Paper, we strongly welcome many of these reforms and the package of funding which accompanies them. But we want to see the legislation go further, to make inclusion a design principle of education and the accountability system,  strengthen the role of health partners in meeting mental health need, tackle off-rolling, exclusion, reduce elective home education, and to introduce a measure of pupil wellbeing to ensure that outcomes reflect the full experience of children and young people.

Silence on social media 

We are disappointed to see no mention of any plans for legislation on social media in the King’s Speech. There is now overwhelming evidence that children and young people are being exposed to addictive design, harmful content and unsafe online environment - and yet our legal framework is behind the times and relies on a reactive approach. There was a clear opportunity to introduce a public health approach to regulating social media in the Kings Speech, placing stronger duties on companies to design safer platforms for young users and to reduce exposure to harm following the Government's consultation on social media this spring. This issue cannot be kicked into the long grass. 

Votes at 16

The much-awaited legislation to extend the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds is welcome, reflecting the importance of young people’s voice in shaping their future. This legislative change should be accompanied by stronger support for media literacy and critical thinking, particularly in the context of misinformation.

Reforming the health system

The absence of a clear, ambitious strategy for children’s mental health risks leaving one of the most pressing challenges facing this generation without a meaningful government response.

A forthcoming Health Bill is expected to focus on NHS reform, including plans to abolish NHS England. 

With one in five children experiencing a common mental health problem, and services currently failing to meet the vast majority of need, this legislation could go much further, creating a legal basis for the government’s manifesto commitment on early support hubs, and creating a requirement for sustained investment in children’s mental health, in recognition that current funding levels fall far short of need. 

Tackling the NEET crisis

Our recent research is clear that many young people who become NEET have experienced unmet needs much earlier in their lives - particularly around mental health, education and wider social support. Without addressing these underlying drivers, we risk treating the symptoms rather than the causes. That is why we believe a genuinely effective approach must include a holistic package of early support, including accessible mental health provision, stronger support in schools, and joined-up local services that intervene before young people reach crisis point. 

In this context, we are concerned by suggestions that the response to rising NEET levels could include reducing welfare support for young people. Cutting benefits is unlikely to improve outcomes and risks pushing some vulnerable young people even further away from opportunity.

We await the Milburn and Timms Reviews, and we hope that the Government will continue to build on its Youth Guarantee by focusing more on early intervention, integrated support, and sustained investment, ensuring that every young person is supported to thrive, rather than penalising young people who have often already been failed by different systems to support them to succeed. 

Violence against women and girls 

We welcome the Government’s commitment to halving violence against women and girls and the ambition through the Policing Reform Bill to clarify VAWG as a core policing priority. It was good to hear the Government’s belief that women and girls have a right to live in a world free from violence. 

With high and rising teen misogyny, exploitation and violence, we would welcome legislation that clarifies the legal framework and the role of policing, education, and wider partners in tackling teen VAWG. This should also include legislation to introduce the recommendations of the Casey Review so adult men who groom and have sex with 13–15-year-olds receive mandatory charges of rape, mirroring the French legislation.

The next three years

The Government has three years left to meet its manifesto commitments to raise the healthiest generation of children, turn the tide on rising NEETs, build an ambitious Young Futures programme, reduce child poverty, halve VAWG, and transform the early years. These remain welcome missions but the time for consultations and caution is over. The King’s Speech sets out the Government’s legislative priorities for the next Parliamentary session, and it should bring fresh opportunities to press down on the accelerator of reform. 

We urge the Government to be bolder and braver, particularly on children’s mental health and on social media, and recognise that children and young people deserve to feel the Government believes boosting their life chances is one of their biggest priorities.