Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill

This page is where you can find out what is happening with the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in parliament. It also includes a reference list of all my pages and posts about the Children Not In School chapter of the bill. Last minute changes were made to the bill in the House of Lords on January 28th 2026.

After the bill finishes in the Lords it has to go back to the House of Commons for MPs to agree the changes made by the Lords. If MPs don’t agree, then the bill goes back and forth between Commons and Lords, known as ping pong. THIS WILL APPLY PARTICULARLY TO THE LAST-MINUTE NON-GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT ALTERING THE INTENTION OF THE BILL BY EXTENDING THE SCOPE FOR CONSENT FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM SCHOOL.

Late Report Amendments Baroness Barran

What We Now Know After January 28th

Background

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill puts forward proposals for compulsory registration of children not in school and says that in future some parents will need permission to home educate or to continue home educating. There will be specific scenarios where the local authority gets to decide what is in the child’s “best interests.”

What Wellbeing Bill Means For Home Education

When Will Changes Happen

It takes a long time for a new law to be made. Anything you have read about the proposed new law does not change the current law; the government has to get all the details of the new law in place first.

There is a further time after the bill became law during which details of secondary legislation (regulations and statutory guidance) are hammered out before the measures come into force.

If as expected the bill receives Royal Assent by Easter 2026 then the earliest the measures could come into force would be the end of 2026. THE PILOT SCHEME FOR MANDATORY MEETINGS WITH THE LA IS LIKELY TO START EVEN LATER https://edyourself.org/government-amendments-for-lords-report/

This has been confirmed in a parliamentary Written Answer: “The department will share clear guidance on what information parents should provide to their local authority to avoid irrelevant information being given. This will form part of the statutory guidance we will issue following a public consultation. That consultation will take place following the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill reaching Royal Assent.”

How Laws Are Made

A bill must go all the way through both Houses of Parliament before it can become law. This is called “Passage of a Bill”. It is important to note that the CW&S bill started in the Commons (unlike the 2022 Schools Bill which started in the Lords). HERE is the link for the stages of the bill. This library briefing provides useful information on exactly how a bill goes through parliament.

Parallel Parliament Bill Page

https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/bills/2024-26/childrenswellbeingandschools has all the bill information displayed on a single page which is clearer than on the official parliament page below.

Parliament Bill Page

The parliament home page for the bill is where you can find the current version of the bill, plus tabs for News, Stages, and Publications. The contents of the bill will change as it goes through parliament; you can track this via the Publications tab.

NB Department for Education [DfE] Policy Summary Notes [LINK] are published separately elsewhere (UPDATED JANUARY 2026 WITH GOVERNMENT AMENDMENTS FOR REPORT IN THE LORDS), plus all the detailed Impact Assessments are on a separate page (UPDATED JANUARY 2026 WITH GOVERNMENT AMENDMENTS FOR REPORT IN THE LORDS)

Onscreen View Without Download

As an alternative to downloading a 144 page PDF, I have put the latest [Lords version 19th September 2025] of the Children Not In School clauses of the bill onto a spreadsheet which can be viewed and shared here https://shorturl.at/eJleP

Bill Pages and Posts

Listed in reverse date order, latest at top. Where relevant I am also circling back to previous posts and pages bringing them up to date; significant updates to existing pages and posts are flagged up on my NEWS page.