Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill

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.

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/

However, 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)

House of Lords

At the time of writing in July 2025 the bill has been through the Commons and is now part-way through committee stage in the Lords. This takes place on the floor of the House of Lords not in a separate small room as with the Commons. Read more about Lords committee stage HERE

The stage after committee is report. Report can’t begin until 14 days after committee has ended. The bill can be further amended at Report (and Report is usually the first time we see government making concessions)

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 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.

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.

NB Department for Education [DfE] Policy Summary Notes [LINK] were published separately, plus all the detailed Impact Assessments are on a separate page

Onscreen View Without Download

As an alternative to downloading a 144 page PDF, I have put the latest [Lords version] of the Children Not In School clauses of the bill onto a spreadsheet which can be viewed and shared here https://shorturl.at/eJleP

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.

Bill In 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 were taken forward. Third Reading followed immediately after Report on March 18th. The bill was then reprinted and reissued to reflect all amendments.

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.