This page looks at amendments to reduce the reporting burden for the register. On January 7th 2026 the government tabled amendments to the Children Not In School clauses of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The next stage of the bill in parliament is Report in the Lords which starts on January 14th. Children Not In School is half way through the bill, hence we might expect to reach this on day 3 of 5 Report ie Wednesday January 21st. Regardless of any disagreement or reservations expressed during debate, governments usually win the vote on their own amendments.
Less Information Less Often
The effect of all these amendments would be that parents would no longer have to give such a detailed breakdown of the child’s week; would only report on providers over and above a certain number of hours (yet to be decided; that’s what “prescribed amount of time” means); plus would wait to be asked about changes to providers used, also the LA could not ask for updates about providers more than every 3 months. You can see how the bill would look below, strikethrough is what would be taken out and blue is what would be added.
Changes To Page 58
436C Content and maintenance of registers
(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;
(b) the name and home address of each parent of the child;
(c) the name of each parent who is providing education to that
child;(d) the amount of time that the child spends receiving education
from each parent of the child;
“(d) an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from parents of the child;”
“(da) an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from persons other than parents of the child;”(e) if the child receives education from a person other than their
parent—
(i) the names and addresses of any individuals and
organisations involved in providing that education;
(ii) a description of the type of each provider named under
sub-paragraph (i);
“(e) 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.
Changes To Page 60
(4) Regulations may, in relation to a register under section 436B, make
provision about—
(a) how a local authority must maintain the register, including
provision relating to—
(i) how the register is to be kept up-to-date;
(ii) the making of changes to the register;
(b) the form of the register;
(c) publication of the register;
(d) registration forms;(e) how time is to be recorded for the purposes of subsection (1)(d)
and (e)(iv);
“(e) how amounts of time and estimates of amounts of time are to be calculated and recorded for the purposes of subsection (1)(d), (da) and (e)(iv);”
(f) publicising the register and duties of persons in relation to the
register.
(5) No information from a register under section 436B may be published,
or made accessible to the public, in a form—
(a) which includes the name or address of a child who is eligible
to be registered under that section or of a parent of such a
child, or
(b) from which the identity of such a child or parent can be
deduced, whether from the information itself or from that
information taken together with any other published
information.
“(6) In subsection (1)(e), “prescribed amount of time” means an amount of time prescribed – (a) by reference to a number of hours in, or a proportion of, a week or other period; (b) by reference to a proportion of the time a child spends receiving education; (c) in any other way.”
Changes To Page 61
(a) provide the authority, on request, with any of the information
referred to in section 436C(1) that the parent has,
(b) inform the authority of a change, of which the parent is aware,
to any of the information required to be included in the register
under section 436C(1) (a) to (c)*, and
(ba) inform the authority, on request, if there have been any changes, of which the parent is aware, to any of the information mentioned in section 436C(1)(d), (da) or (e) since the information was last provided to the authority, and provide the authority with information about those changes, or confirm that there have been no changes, and”
(c) inform the authority if the child ceases to be eligible to be
registered by that authority under section 436B.
(2A) A local authority – (a) must make a request mentioned in subsection (2)(ba) in relation to each child registered by the local authority under section 436B at least once a year, but (b) may not make such a request more frequently than once every three months.”
3) A person must comply with a duty under subsection (1) or (2) before
the end of the relevant period.
(4) In subsection (3) “relevant period” means—
(a) in the case of the duty in subsection (1)(a) or (b), the period of
15 days beginning with the date on which the child becomes
eligible for registration by the local authority;
(b) in the case of the duty in subsection (2)(a), such period of not
less than 15 days as the local authority specify in the request;
(c) in the case of the duty in subsection (2)(b), the period of 15
days beginning with the date on which the parent becomes
aware of the change;
(ca) in the case of the duty in subsection (2)(ba), such period of not less
than 15 days as the local authority specify in the request;
My Comments
* Adding (a) to (c) after 436C(1) reduces the items where the parent has to report a change (ie now NOT each time a provider is changed) Reminder, these are (a) – (c) from page 58: (a) the child’s name, date of birth and home address;
(b) the name and home address of each parent of the child; (c) the name of each parent who is providing education to that child
The changes mean that when switching to a different provider, the parent no longer has a proactive duty to notify the LA, only to answer when asked (that’s what “inform the authority, on request” means) and only in relation to providers above a certain number of hours (as yet unknown, see note on “prescribed” below) When asked, the parent will have 15 days minimum to respond.
In respect of the threshold or cut-off for provider hours we won’t know this until regulations are made. “Prescribed” means prescribed in regulations and regulations can’t be made until after the bill becomes law. “Prescribed” is a very significant word, indicating it still has to be sorted out later. There will have to be a public consultation on regulations plus scrutiny in parliament. None of this can start till the regulation process is completed.