On January 28th 2026 the House of Lords approved government amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so that parents now have to give less information for the Children Not In School register. MPs in the House of Commons will look at Lords’ changes to the Bill on March 9th 2026 and then the bill is back in the Lords just before Easter.
Less Information Less Often
Parents will no longer have to give such a detailed breakdown of the child’s week and 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).
In addition, parents will wait to be asked about changes to providers, plus the LA may not ask for updates about providers more than every 3 months.
Numbered Amendments
Lords Amendment 49 and 50 ensure that Children Not in School registers also contain:
i. the previous address of the child where they have lived at their current address for less than 12 months, and
ii. any additional address if the child lives at more than one address
Lords Amendments 51 and 52 require parents to provide an estimate of the overall amount of time, rather than the actual amount of time, that the child spends receiving education from their parents, and an estimate of the overall amount of time that the child spends receiving education from persons other than their parents for the purposes of Children Not in School registers.
Lords Amendment 53 says that the requirement to provide details about education provided by persons other than the child’s parent would only apply if that exceeds an amount of time to be specified in regulations.
Lords Amendments 54 and 55 require a parent to provide estimates of the total amount of time, rather than the actual amount of time, that the child spends receiving education from a provider.
Lords Amendments 56, 57 and 58 set out prescribed information that local authorities would be required to record on their Children Not In School registers.
Lords Amendment 58 allows the outcomes of any home visits or consideration of the child’s home and education setting to be prescribed information that must be included on Children Not in School registers.
Lords Amendment 59 ensures that regulations about the keeping of registers and how time is to be recorded could also make provision about how time estimates are to be calculated (such as those “estimates” referenced in Lords Amendments 51, 52, 54 and 55).
Lords Amendment 60 clarifies that “prescribed amount of time” means an amount of time prescribed by reference to a number of hours in, or a proportion of, a week or other period; by reference to a proportion of time a child
spends receiving their education; or in any other way
Lords Amendment 61 ensures that the parent of a registered child would be required to inform the local authority of any change, of which the parent is aware, to any of the following information included on a Children Not in School register: the child’s name; date of birth; home addresses; if the child has lived at their current address for less than 12 months, their previous address; the name and home address of each parent of the child, and the name of each parent who is providing education to the child.
Lords Amendment 62 says that if there are changes that a parent is aware of to a child’s education in terms of the
time spent being educated by their parents or in relation to education provided by other persons or organisations, parents would only be required to keep the local authority up-to-date with these changes further to a request being made by the local authority.
Lords Amendment 63 ensures that a parent would not be obliged to inform the local authority when the child is no longer of compulsory school age.
Lords Amendment 64 requires local authorities to make a request to parents of a registered child for any changes to the following information on at least an annual basis, but not more frequently than every 3 months:
(i) an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from their parents
(ii) an estimate of the overall total amount of time that the child spends receiving education from persons other than their parents
(iii) any of the required information on providers that are educating the child for more than the prescribed threshold of time.
Lords Amendment 65 ensures that parents have no fewer than 15 days from the date of the local
authority’s request to provide the aforementioned information
My Comments
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. The new measures cannot come into force until after the regulation-making process is completed.