The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 introduces a compulsory register for children of compulsory school age who are not in school.
The future law on compulsory registration can be found in section 38 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act [LINK] which will add new sections to the Education Act 1996 after s 436A
Summary Section 38
- Duty to register children not in school (including home visit request) [436B]
- Content and maintenance of registers [436C]
- Provision of information to local authorities: parents [436D]
- Provision of information to local authorities: education providers [436E]
- Use of information in the register [436F]
- Support [436G]
- Process of Making Regulations
The new law has been published but not been “commenced” yet. England and Wales must each make all the necessary secondary legislation (regulations and guidance) before the new law can come into force.
Regulations are secondary legislation setting out exactly how a law will operate. In due course close attention will be paid to Children Not In School regulations because the operation of the law must be proportionate and remain compatible with Human Rights legislation as explained HERE.
When the new law comes into force, each local authority will have a duty to maintain a local “Children Not In School” register. The local authority will of course already know of some children who are eligible to be registered.
Home educating parents will be required to supply specified information for the register, including contact details for both parents together with information about who is providing the education.
Home educators may also receive a request for a home visit within 15 days of registration.
Home educating parents who do not supply the required information or who refuse an initial home visit may be issued with a formal notice to satisfy the local authority about the provision being made for the child’s education.
Over and above the information which parents must provide, the register will also contain a great deal of other information about the child’s circumstances.
The Children Not In School register will contain details about:
- home educated children
- flexischooled pupils (part time home education)
- pupils educated offsite (Code B approved educational activity)
- pupils on a part-time timetable
- those receiving EOTAS for special needs under section 61 (or s 53 for Wales)
- those receiving alternative provision under section 19 (or s 19A in Wales)
Home Visit
The power to request a home visit within 15 days of registration will apply equally to electively home educated children already “known” to the LA. The new law says the local authority “may request” a visit which means the LA will select which families.
Refusing a visit could trigger a formal notice to satisfy the LA that the child is receiving suitable education.
“436B(8) Before the end of the period of 15 days beginning with the day on which the local authority registers a child under this section, the local authority—
(a)must consider where the child lives, and
(b)may request the child’s parent to allow the local authority to visit the child inside any of the homes in which the child lives.
(9)If a request under subsection (8)(b) is refused by the person to whom it is made, the local authority must consider that to be a relevant factor in determining whether to serve a preliminary notice under section 436H.”
Supplying Information For Register
When the new law comes into force, home educated children will meet the criteria for registration and parents will have to inform the local authority. Parents will also have an initial duty to provide the core information listed in 436C(1) for the register.
Deadlines and timescales for parents’ reporting duties are set out in 436D(3) Parents must notify the local authority within 15 days of any changes to WHERE THE CHILD LIVES 436C(1)(a)-(d)
There are different rules for reporting education changes 436C(1)(e)-(g) where parents will wait for an update request (maximum once every 3 months)
436C (1)A register under section 436B must contain the following information in respect of a child registered in it—
(a)the child’s name, date of birth and home address, and if the child has lived at their current address for less than 12 months, their previous address;
(b)any additional address if the child lives at more than one address;
(c)the name and home address of each parent of the child;
(d)the name of each parent who is providing education to that child;
(e)an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from parents of the child;
(f)an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from persons other than parents of the child;
(g)if a particular provider other than the child’s parent is providing education to the child for more than the prescribed amount of time—
(i)the name and address of the provider;
(ii)a description of the type of provider that it is;
(iii)the postal address of each place where that education is provided (where different from the address in sub-paragraph (i)) or the website or email address of the provider if that education is provided virtually;
(iv)an estimate of the total amount of time that the child spends receiving that education and an estimate of the amount of time the child spends receiving that education without any parent of the child being actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child.“
The parent ONLY has to disclose a provider’s details if the provision exceeds the hours threshold – which has not yet been decided since “the prescribed amount of time” still has to be set out in regulations.
This also means that not all providers will have to supply information to the local authority about children on their books, only those providers over an – as yet unknown – hours threshold.
The provider duty is set out in section 436E. Providers delivering ABOVE this (as yet unknown) hours threshold may be required to supply personal details of ANY CHILD to whom they have provided “out-of-school education” ABOVE the “prescribed amount of time” in the past three months.
Parents Not EOTAS Information
The Children Not In School register will also contain details of children in receipt of an EOTAS special educational needs package or alternative provision for children unable to attend school. In these scenarios, since it is not the parent making the arrangements, the parent is NOT required to provide the information for the register.
Additional Data
In addition to the core information [436C(1)] which must be provided by home educating parents, 436C(2) ALSO provides for a large amount of additional data to be stored and shared, relating to safeguarding, disability, support needs, special educational needs, previous school history, young carer status, whether the child is missing education, parents’ compliance with requests etc.
Exactly what may be included in 436C(2) will depend on regulations which must be subject to a public consultation; the key phrase “as may be prescribed” which means prescribed in secondary legislation.
436C(2) data is a different category from the 436C(1) information which the home educating parent is required by law to provide, however it is difficult to see how a local authority would otherwise obtain information eg about a child’s religion.
“Protected characteristics” under equality legislation are: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.
Information Sharing
- The rules about sharing information from the register are set out in section 436F
- Each local authority will maintain its own register; there will not be a central database
- The government of England or Wales will be able to request information from local registers
- The LA will be able to share information from the register with a range of people if it believes it will safeguard or promote education or welfare
- In addition, local authorities will have to share information with the new authority when a child moves to a different area
Regulation Making Process
The process for making regulations is set out in section 38(3) of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act.
The government has said that there will be a public consultation on “the policy content of regulations. There will then be a process of making the regulations, which will be voted on in Parliament” [SOURCE] followed by parliamentary scrutiny in the House of Commons and the House of Lords