Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill

PAGE UPDATED MARCH 29th 2026. 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 at the end of January 2026. The House of Commons looked at Lords’ changes on March 9th 2026 and the Lords on March 25th so now the bill is back with the Commons after Easter in a parliamentary stage known as ping pong.

Home Education Law Now And Future

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”

On March 19th 2026 the Senedd voted in favour of formally adopting new Children Not In School law for Wales. Wales was not originally in scope of the Wellbeing Bill but was added in March 2025.

When Will Changes Happen

At the time of writing (end of March 2026) the bill is in the very last stages of the parliamentary process. It was first introduced in December 2024 so has taken longer than the government expected. It is currently being held up by lack of agreement between Commons and Lords over social media amendments.

Meanwhile, we are reaching the end of the current parliamentary session with the Kings Speech and state opening of parliament announced for May 13th 2026. The Wellbeing Bill could be carried over [LINK] but the government will want it finished in the current session if at all possible.

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.

Hence 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 Spring 2026 then the earliest the measures could come into force would be 2027.

THE PILOT SCHEME FOR MANDATORY MEETINGS WITH THE LA IS LIKELY TO START EVEN LATER, see https://edyourself.org/pilot-mandatory-meeting/

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 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)

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.