New homeschooling laws after murder of Sara Sharif

The right to home education will no longer be automatic for parents of the most at-risk children, under proposed legislation being unveiled in parliament today.

- AINE FOX

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being introduced in the Commons – on the same day 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s killers are sentenced, in a case which raised questions over safeguards around homeschooling.

Sara, whose battered body was discovered at her family home in Woking, Surrey in August last year, had been pulled out of school by her family in the last months of her life, despite teachers having noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services.

The case – which last week saw her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, convicted of her murder, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, of causing or allowing her death – prompted Sir Keir Starmer to say there were “questions that need to be answered” on protections for children.

Ahead of the bill taking the first step towards becoming law in England, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said too many children have been “failed” by the state.

The proposed legislation includes giving local authorities power to intervene and require school attendance for any child if the home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe.