Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 and elective home education

A UK government Act that makes provision for Wales in relation to ‘children not in school’, child employment, and certain social services measures.

Background

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was introduced to Parliament in December 2024 and received Royal Assent in April 2026. More information on the Act is available on Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill - Parliamentary Bills on the UK Parliament website.

In March 2026 the Welsh Government agreed the following areas of the Act should apply to Wales:

• children not in school 
• child employment
• ill-treatment and wilful neglect of children under 18
• children in temporary accommodation
• Healthcare Inspectorate Wales notifications

We have been working closely with the UK Government on the provisions in the Act since autumn 2024. Although education is devolved in Wales, the challenges around elective home education (and the pressures local authorities face) are very similar to those in England. There is also a common framework across England and Wales which means some elements that cross over into ‘safeguarding’ will come under legislation and policy in both England and Wales. Additionally, the new sections in the Act update the existing home‑education law in the Education Act 1996. The Education Act applies in both England and Wales.

The Welsh Government did not take a blanket approach to the legislation. We requested the parts that are completely aligned with our own policy aims and ambitions for Wales. Some of the provisions are needed to address existing loopholes in legislation, and others address long-standing policy issues. All of the sections of the Act that apply to Wales were considered on an individual basis.

The Welsh Government’s own policy development package for elective home education has been underway since 2018. It was agreed that secondary legislation would be trialled first, before we considered primary legislation. Since then we have held several public consultations to inform our position in Wales, and possible next steps.

‘Children not in school’ includes children who are educated at home, children under agreed flexi-schooling arrangements and children in local authority education provision (EOTAS).

The children not in school measures in the Act will help ensure that children not in school are receiving a suitable education and are safe. When the measures are brought into force in Wales, parents will have to tell their local authority if their child is of compulsory school age and not on roll at a school in Wales. Currently, parents are not required to do this which means local authorities are unaware of children living in their areas. 

In Wales, parents must notify their child’s school in writing if they are withdrawing their child to educate them otherwise than at school (home education). The parent does not need permission from the local authority to deregister their child from school unless the child attends a special school. This is set out in the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010, which are different to the regulations in place in England. Parents do not necessarily need to provide notice to the school before withdrawing their child but doing so may ensure the school is able to remove the child’s name on the parent’s chosen date. The regulations do not specify a set timeframe for the school to remove the child’s name from the roll but the school must notify the local authority within ten days of doing so.

Under the new measures parents and carers will have to provide information to their local authority to let them know if their child is eligible to be registered on the children not in school register. Parents of home-educated children, children in local authority EOTAS provision, and children subject to agreed ‘flexi-schooling arrangements’ must provide information for the registers, like they would if they were registering with their local authority for school. Additionally, if the child is home educated, the parent will need to tell the local authority about that education and what it includes. 

The measures include:

• a duty on local authorities to establish a children not in school register in their area
• a duty on parents and carers to provide information for the registers if their child is not in school
• a duty on certain out of school education settings to provide information to local authorities if they are providing education to children not in school
• changes to the School Attendance Order (SAO) process to make it more efficient 
• a requirement for local authorities to consent before children who are on the child protection register or subject to section 47 child protection enquiries can be removed from school to be home educated (where children subject to some child protection processes are already being home educated, the local authority will be able to require them to attend school)
• a requirement for local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments when determining whether children should be required to attend school

Most of the detail around the practicalities and operation of the children not in school registers and requirements will be set out in secondary legislation (regulations) and guidance. These will be subject to public consultation before the measures come into effect in Wales. We will also work with local authorities to further develop and clarify the arrangements before they are implemented in Wales.

Local authorities and safeguarding partners have raised concerns that the current system makes it easy for vulnerable children to slip under the radar of the professionals that are there to protect them. As well as requiring local authorities to keep registers of children not in school, this legislation requires schools to check with the local authority whether the child falls into one of the categories that require parents to obtain local authority consent before they can be removed from the school roll to be home-educated. Whilst the majority of children will not fall into these categories, schools will need to wait for the local authority to confirm this before they delete a child’s name from the school roll.

If home-educators use different settings to provide education to their child information will also be needed from these settings if they meet the criteria for registration. The criteria will be set out in regulations and in guidance. 

Local authorities will also be able to request to meet with the family and see and speak with the child. This is to address the current issue where local authorities cannot tell if children are receiving a suitable education.

At the moment parents in England and Wales are not legally required to notify their local authority if they are home-educating but they do need to respond to enquiries if their local authority is made aware that they are living in the area and home-educating. Local authorities have statutory duties in relation to all children living in their areas but unless children have previously attended school, or a parent has told the local authority voluntarily, a local authority won’t know about a child. They are then under a duty to try and identify those children so that they can be assured they are receiving an education.

If a local authority does know about a home-educated child, they face additional barriers because currently parents can refuse to meet with them. Without meeting the parent and child, local authorities cannot always determine if the child is receiving a suitable education. This has become more of an issue in recent years because some home-education support groups in Wales actively advise home-educators not to meet with their local authority. Local authorities in Wales want positive relationships and interactions with home educating families in their areas and work hard to achieve this. They have reported that for the most part, home educators recognise that the local authority home education teams are there to offer support, but also to fulfil their statutory duties. 

Local authorities hold registers on home-educated children they are aware of, but these are incomplete because they do not know about all children. 

In 2018 to 2019 there were 2,517 known home-educated children in Wales. In 2024 to 2025 this number had risen to 7,176. The real number of home-educated children is not known and there is no oversight of the education these children are receiving and who is providing it.

Once implemented, the new children not in school measures will not prevent parents from choosing home-education, but they will require them to proactively tell their local authority if they are home-educating and provide relevant information for their local authority’s children not in school register. The measures also mean that children who are subject to child protection enquires cannot be removed from school without local authority consent. At the moment a parent can deregister their child from a maintained school in Wales at any time, regardless of whether or not there are known safeguarding concerns.

For most children, home-education is not a safeguarding issue. However, there have been instances in England and Wales where home-education has been a factor in a child’s death. This legislation will help ensure that the most vulnerable children do not slip under the radar of the professionals with safeguarding responsibilities

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales and the Safeguarding Board CYSUR have called for primary legislation in Wales following separate child practice reviews into the deaths of two home-educated children in Wales. In both, separate cases, it was not that the children were ‘unknown’ to local authority staff but that they were kept out of sight of professionals. Currently, local authorities can request to see and speak with home-educated children as part of their statutory responsibilities, but they lack powers to mandate a meeting with a home educating family. In its report into the death of a seven-year-old home-educated child in 2024, CYSUR noted that before the child’s death the parent had refused to meet with the local authority home-education team in Wales and had submitted evidence of her children’s education in writing. 

When the children not in school registers are implemented, local authorities in Wales will continue to request to ‘see’ the child in the learning environment as part of their existing duties to determine the child is in receipt of a suitable education. However, within the new powers for local authorities, a parent’s refusal to meet the local authority may trigger the school attendance order process.

When introduced, the new measures will not prevent parents from home educating, but they will add more oversight. The measures aim to improve child protection, and enable local authorities to track children not in school and take steps if children are not receiving a suitable education.

The children not in school measures do not change the flexibility of home-education or what parents are able to provide to their child. The measures do not stop parents from delivering an education according to their own philosophies or beliefs, and home-educators are not required to follow the curriculum or set timetables.

The parts of the Act that relate to home-education give equal protection to children in Wales and help local authorities and partners meet their existing education and safeguarding duties in respect of those children.

Advice and guidance for home-educators in Wales is available in the Welsh Government’s home education parental handbook. The handbook includes information on the support available from local authorities and sets out the responsibilities of parents and local authorities in relation to home education, and the rights of the child.

We know that a large number of children who are home-educated have ALN. The provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act do not remove home education as an option for any child but they will ensure better local authority oversight. When local authorities make an assessment on suitability of education they must consider any ALN and whether the education being provided is suitable to those needs. The Act does not change this, but, when enacted it will enable local authorities to meet with the family to undertake that duty.

Under the Act, the requirement for local authorities to consent before children are withdrawn from school applies to children who are subject to child protection enquiries or an order under section 47 of the Children Act 1989. Local authority consent before a child can be deregistered from a special school is already a requirement in Wales, as set out in the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010. The consent mechanism does not apply to children in maintained schools with an IDP. As the deregistration requirements have changed under the Act the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010 will be amended to reflect the changes to the law.

Since 2018 we have undertaken extensive consultation with home educators on current elective home education policy. This includes:

• 2018: commission for a national meeting for elective home educators and local authority representatives. This was to enable discussions about the experiences of home-educating families and their views on the type of support they would find helpful 
• 2019: regional ‘Table Talk’ sessions held for home educators on the draft home education guidance 
• July 2019: public 12-week consultation on draft statutory guidance for local authorities on home education along with a handbook for home educators
• January 2020: consultation on local authority education databases
• May 2022: Welsh Government meeting with Families First in Education 
• May 2022: Minister for Education and Welsh Language meeting with ‘Education Otherwise’
• June 2023: online engagement session for home educators facilitated by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales
• January to April 2024: consultation on the Children missing education database regulations
• May 2024: regional child friendly sessions on the children missing education database proposals

All of this feedback has shaped the approach we’re taking now.

A consultation will be undertaken for all secondary legislation and guidance that is linked to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, in line with standard Welsh Government practice. This means people in Wales will have another clear opportunity to give their views on how the provisions will work here.

As this is UK Government primary legislation the Welsh Government has not published separate impact assessments for Wales. The UK government’s published Impact Assessment included an assessment of the measures in relation to Wales, including outline costings and information specific to Wales. Full impact assessments will be published for all subordinate legislation that is developed by the Welsh Government in relation to the parts of the Act that apply to Wales. In line with the Welsh Government’s consultation processes, the relevant impact assessments will be published as part of any public consultation.

Senedd scrutiny and consent to include Wales in certain provisions was sought and obtained under the previous Welsh Government administration. The first Legislative Consent Memorandum (LCM) was laid before the Senedd on 24 March 2025. 

Subsequent LCM were laid before the Senedd as and when changes were proposed to the areas of the then Bill that impacted Wales. This enabled the Senedd to scrutinise changes as the Bill progressed through Parliament. All LCMs and history of the Bill as it progressed through the Senedd is included on the Legislative Consent: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill page on the Senedd website.

The Legislative Motion debate on the provisions took place in the Senedd on 17 March 2026, and the motion passed with 37 votes for and 13 against. 

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 provides the framework for the Welsh Government to develop the proposals and new guidance for Wales. Decisions on when or how these measures will be introduced and implemented will be decided by the next Welsh Government. Any new secondary legislation developed and introduced by the Welsh Government under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, will be subject to the Senedd approval procedure.