Page updated May 25th 2026
Section 37 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 [LINK] says that there will be “a pilot scheme” involving up to 30% of local authorities in England and Wales. In these pilot areas, parents will have to have a meeting with the LA before the child’s name can be taken off the school roll for home education.
Start Date
We don’t know when the pilot scheme will start but what we DO know is that all the other regulations and guidance for the new deregistration system must all be completed BEFORE the pilot scheme can start.
We know this because the new law says that regulations for the pilot must be made within 2 years of section 37 coming fully into force. New law only comes “fully into force” when all the secondary legislation is finalised because this sets out the details of how the law will operate.
England and Wales are responsible for making their own secondary legislation so the start date for new law coming fully into force is likely to be different in each country.
What Is A Pilot Scheme
A pilot scheme is a way of testing a new system within a smaller group before making changes. In theory pilots can be used to see whether there are problems with a scheme, but problems can also be minimised or ignored, depending on how the pilot is evaluated. We don’t yet know whether meetings would be in person or virtual, or how the pilot LAs would be funded.
Pilot What And When
Under the pilot scheme, once these regulations are in place, parents in the pilot local authorities wishing to home educate will have to have a meeting with the LA before the child can be taken off the school roll. The child will be expected to attend this meeting. This is not the same as a 3 way meeting which is sometimes proposed with family/LA/school; under the new law, schools would only be able to attend this meeting, IF PARENTS AGREED.
We will discover the identities of local authorities in the pilot BEFORE the pilot starts, but because this is new LAW not just new guidance it can’t start until the regulations are fully completed. The usual system is for LAs to put themselves forward (or not) for the pilot, rather than being nominated by the government.
The minimum time for the pilot scheme to run is 2 years, although the pilot could in theory go on for up to 5 years.
At the end of the pilot, the English and Welsh governments will separately decide whether to extend the scheme across the whole country. Details of any national scheme would require further new regulations to be drawn up and agreed at a later date.
What Government Has Said
On January 12th 2026 the government published a document titled European Convention On Human Rights [ECHR] Supplementary Memorandum [LINK] dealing with government amendments tabled on January 7th. The memorandum says:
- “The Department is proposing an amendment to Clause 31[NOW 37], which will enable the Secretary of State (and Welsh Ministers) to pilot mandatory meetings in certain Local Authorities (to be determined by regulations). The school would not be allowed to delete the name of any child of compulsory school age from the admissions register, where the parent wanted to remove that child for education otherwise than at school (i.e. for home education), until after a meeting between the Local Authority and parent had taken place.
- Further to consultation, the Secretary of State will be empowered after at least two years of the pilot, to (through affirmative regulations) cease the pilot and roll out the scheme to all Local Authorities in England or just cease the scheme. Welsh Ministers will have the same powers in relation to Wales.
- These measures are likely to lead to a slight delay in a child’s name being removed from the school admissions register, during which time the child must continue to regularly attend school. If the Local Authority becomes concerned during the meeting about the likely suitability of home education but the parent still pursues home education, it will prioritise this family for follow up and consider use of the school attendance order process which could require the child to again be registered at a school.”
What Act Says
“434B Mandatory local authority meetings prior to withdrawal of child from school
(1)The appropriate national authority must, by regulations made before the end of the relevant period, make a scheme (“a pilot scheme”) to provide—
(a)that the parent of a child must attend and participate in a meeting with the local authority responsible for the child if the parent intends— (i)that the child should cease to attend the school at which the child is a registered pupil, and (ii)to withdraw the child from school for the purpose of causing the child to receive education otherwise than at a school,
(b)that the local authority must ensure that the following matters are discussed with the parent during the meeting— (i)the duty of parents under section 7 and how the parent plans to meet this duty; (ii)the duties of the local authority, including the support duty under section 436G; (iii)the parent’s reasons for considering that the child should receive education otherwise than at school; (iv)any support needs that the child may have and how those needs could be met; (v)the safeguarding and welfare of the child; (vi)anything else relevant to the decision to withdraw the child from school, (c)that the child must attend the meeting unless exceptional circumstances apply, (d)that a representative of the school at which the child is a registered pupil must attend the meeting if the parent consents to the representative’s attendance, (e)that the proprietor of a school must not allow the deletion from the school’s register of the name of the child unless the proprietor receives notice from the local authority that the meeting has taken place in respect of the child, and (f)that the local authority must record the outcome of the meeting or whether the meeting was refused.
(2)The “relevant period” is the period of two years beginning with the day on which section 37 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 comes fully into force.
(3)The regulations must also specify— (a)the local authorities in respect of which the pilot scheme will operate, and (b)the period for which the scheme has effect.
(4)The number of local authorities specified under subsection (3)(a) must not exceed 30 per cent of all local authorities in England or 30 per cent of all local authorities in Wales as the case may be.
(5)The period specified under subsection (3)(b) must not be less than two years and must not exceed five years.
(6)The regulations may provide for exemptions from the pilot scheme in respect of descriptions of children as specified in the regulations.
(7)The regulations may make provision for, or in connection with, any arrangements that the appropriate national authority considers are required to ensure that the pilot scheme can operate.”
Section 37
The heading of s 37 is “Withdrawal of children from school: local authority involvement.”
This covers consent or permission for deregistration with the local authority determining child’s best interests IF it is a special school OR from any school IF current s 47 safeguarding enquiry OR Child Protection Plan OR CP Plan within last 5 years.