This page is about what to expect as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill makes its way through parliament and afterwards. UPDATE MAY 2025: The bill has finished in the Commons and had its second reading in the House of Lords on May 1st.
Even though the bill is now in the Lords, MPs are still able to submit Written Questions and write to the Minister on behalf of their constituents. See my MP’s PQs HERE
House of Lords Timing
Committee stage is due to start on May 20th and will take place on the floor of the House of Lords not in a separate committee room. Committee stage will last until at least July 2nd. I am predicting the CNIS clauses will not be discussed in committee before June. Read more about Lords committee stage HERE
The stage after committee is report. Report can’t begin until 14 days after committee has ended. Given that parliament goes into recess on July 25th, the bill will have to be carried forward to the Autumn. The bill can be further amended in the Lords at report.
For more detail on timetabling in the Lords see https://edyourself.wordpress.com/2025/05/09/wellbeing-bill-lords-may-july-2025/
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 (including already home educating if child protection action is being taken)
For a summary of the home education aspects of the bill, see https://edyourself.wordpress.com/2025/01/25/overview-children-not-in-school-wellbeing-bill/
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 the new law in place first.
There would be a further time after the bill became law during which details of secondary legislation (regulations and statutory guidance) would be hammered out before the measures came into force.
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.”
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. Department for Education [DfE] Policy Summary Notes [LINK] were published separately.
Onscreen View Without Download
As an alternative to downloading a 144 page PDF, I have put the latest [19.3.25] Children Not In School clauses of the bill onto a spreadsheet which can be viewed and shared here https://shorturl.at/eJleP
Bill Overview
The Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill is about much more than home education; in the following order it sets out changes to: Part 1 Children’s Social Care – safeguarding, children in care, child employment and; Part 2 Schools – food, uniforms, children not in school, wider range of institutions registered and inspected as independent schools, bringing rules for academies more in line with maintained schools (including ending the requirement for all new schools to be academies)
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.
Commons 2024-25
Following its call for evidence [LINK] the committee received an unusually high number of written evidence submissions. Many but not all were published [LINK] and [LINK] My written evidence is HERE
The home education and children not in school measures were scrutinised by committee on the afternoon of Thursday January 30th, read more here https://edyourself.wordpress.com/2025/02/01/90-minutes-home-education-30-1-25/
Report followed committee in the Commons. The CNIS clauses were debated on Tuesday March 18th 2025 [LINK] . Only the amendments tabled by ministers are taken forward. Third Reading followed immediately after Report on March 18th. The bill was then reprinted and reissued to reflect all amendments, read onscreen here https://shorturl.at/eJleP