Updated September 19th. This page focuses on amendments to the Children Not In School clauses dealing with consent for withdrawal from school, compulsory registration, plus harsher penalties for parents in the school attendance order process.
Lords Committee finished on Thursday September 18th, so the next stage for home education will be REPORT (probably in NOVEMBER) where the government may table amendments and peers can also bring forward their own amendments.
NOTE THAT AS OF 18.9.25 with the bill reissued after committee ended, CNIS is now 31-36 (rather than 30-35 as it was for committee in the Lords, or 25-29 as it was through the latter stages of the Commons)
The 2 choices for keeping up with the Children’s Wellbeing Bill are the GOV.UK bill page with all its separate tabs for “news” “stages” “publications” etc, or the Parallel Parliament site where everything is on one page. This page should be read in conjunction with https://edyourself.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/wellbeing-bill-lords-may-july-2025/
All references here are to the Parallel Parliament page https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/bills/2024-26/childrenswellbeingandschools
From the top, the Parallel Parliament bill page has
- preamble about the purpose of the bill
- links to gov.uk pages plus next event and last event
- progress bar showing how far through parliament
- latest key documents
- further parliament dates announced by government (pink background)
We then find bill documents in chronological order which is what I am analysing here.
Marshalled List
Debate in the House of Lords is structured around amendments put forward by peers as explained here https://edyourself.org/changing-a-bill/#lords
Amendments to CNIS Clauses
The main thing to note is that there were over 200 hundred amendments for clauses 30-35 showing that there is a lot of interest and controversy in this area.
Categories of CNIS Amendments
CNIS clauses at committee were 30-35 (main ones 30-32) NOTE THAT AS OF 18.9.25 with the bill reissued after committee ended, CNIS is now 31-36 (rather than 30-35)
- Clause 30 – consent for withdrawal from school of certain categories of pupil, with the local authority determining the child’s “best interests” if the child is registered at a special school OR if there is a child protection referral or CP plan DEBATED ON JULY 3RD, SEE https://edyourself.wordpress.com/tag/july-3rd/
- Clause 31 – compulsory registration and details required for register from parents and from education providers DEBATED ON SEPTEMBER 2ND
- Clause 32 – new uses of school attendance order process (not just unsuitable education) plus greater penalties for failure to comply DEBATED ON SEPTEMBER 2ND
Amendments to Children Not In School were tabled by the following peers: Baroness Barran [C]; Lord Lucas [C]; L Frost [C]; L Young [C]; L Russell of Liverpool [XB]; L Watson [L]; L Storey [LD]; Bns Fox [NA]; L Wei [C]; Lord Crisp [XB]; Bns Jones [G]; L Hacking [L]; L Meston [XB]; Bns Benjamin [LD]; L Parkinson [C]; Bns Whitaker [L]; L Nash [C]; L Agnew [C]; L Bourne [C]; Bns Bakewell [LD]; Bns Garden [LD]; L Moynihan [C]
C= Conservative; L = Labour; LD = Liberal Democrat; XB = Crossbench; NA = Non-affiliated; G = Green
Onscreen View Without Download
As an alternative to downloading a 144 page PDF, I have put the latest Children Not In School clauses of the bill onto a spreadsheet which can be viewed and shared here https://shorturl.at/eJleP In this way it is possible to see what the proposed amendments seek to change or query. AS OF 19.9.25 THIS WILL BE UPDATED SHORTLY FOLLOWING AMENDMENTS IN LORDS COMMITTEE
Government Amendments
At this stage, the only amendments which always go through are government amendments. These are tabled in the name of the responsible minister in the Lords which is Baroness Smith of Malvern. It is therefore possible to do a keyword search for “Malvern” to check the number of government amendments
NB the government already made amendments to the CNIS clauses while the bill was still in the Commons, mostly to add Wales, but also there was a concession about school attendance orders if no substantiated child protection concerns which is now reflected in clause 32 line 18 [436I(2)] NOTE THAT AS OF 18.9.25 with the bill reissued after committee ended, CNIS is now 31-36 (rather than 30-35)