On April 29th 2026 the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill became an Act of Parliament. In future this will change the law on home education in England and Wales but only after the necessary secondary legislation has been drawn up and agreed.
One of the late changes to the Act while it was going through parliament was to add a provision for home visits as soon as the new Children Not In School register comes into force; the link below explains more.
My MP Abtisam Mohamed tabled a number of parliamentary questions about home visits. These questions were answered by the Department for Education at the last minute before prorogation. (If questions had remained unanswered, they would have had to be tabled again at the start of the new parliamentary session, read more HERE)
The questions were grouped and received a single answer; scroll down or click here to see the actual questions.
Answer
“The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will empower local authorities to request to see a child in any of the homes in which the child lives within 15 days of the local authority recording the child’s home address(es) on their Children Not in School (CNIS) registers. The 15-day timeframe applies, irrespective of school holidays. After this point, the Bill also empowers local authorities to request a home visit for the purpose of determining whether to serve a preliminary notice or School Attendance Order (SAO).
If the parent on whom the request was made refuses the home visit, the local authority must take this into account when deciding whether to issue a preliminary notice or a SAO. As is the case now, parents of children subject to a SAO would only be subject to sanctions, such as fines, if found guilty in court of the offence of breaching the order. Parents may be found guilty if they do not enrol their child at the named school and are unable to demonstrate that they are providing a suitable education for their child and/or, where relevant, that education outside of a school is in their child’s best interests.
The department does not currently collect data on the number of home visits carried out by local authorities in relation to home educated children, nor on the living arrangements or family dynamics of those children.
However, we will provide local authorities with additional funding to support them to carry out their new duties. The amount of funding will be determined via a new burdens assessment.
We will also provide statutory guidance, which will be publicly consulted on, and a training package to support parents and local authorities to understand how the CNIS measures should work in practice, including how the measures apply in situations where children live across more than one household.”
Questions
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether parents will be sanctioned if the child will not agree to a meeting under provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for local authorities to visit home educated children at more than one home. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128910
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of visiting several homes, including where the non-resident parent lives out of the area, on local authorities under provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for local authorities to visit home educated children at more than one home. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128909
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the non-resident parent will be subject to sanctions if the resident parent refuses a visit request under provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for local authorities to visit home educated children at more than one home. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128908
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the resident parent will be subject to sanctions if the non-resident parent refuses a visit request under provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for local authorities to visit home educated children at more than one home. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128907
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds information on the number of home educated children with separated parents living at different addresses. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128906
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds information on the number of visits carried out by local authorities to home educated children. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128905
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to local authorities of the provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on visiting home educated children, including travel time. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128904
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the proposed 15 day limit for local authority visits to home educated children in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would apply during school holidays. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128903
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the proposed 15 day limit for local authority visits to home educated children in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would apply to (a) requesting the visit, (b) finalising arrangements for a visit or (c) carrying out the visit. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-04-21/128902