Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and elective home education

A UK government Bill 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 on 17 December 2024. The Bill covers a wide range of different areas but most of these apply to England only. In March 2025 amendments were tabled to include Wales in certain provisions of the Bill. The provisions that apply to Wales are those that relate to:

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

More information on the Bill is available on Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Parliamentary Bills on the UK Parliament website.

We have been working closely with the UK Government on the Bill 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 changes in the Bill will update the existing home‑education law which is in the Education Act 1996. The Education Act applies in both England and Wales.

We have not taken a blanket approach to the Bill. We have requested the parts of the Bill that are completely aligned with our own policy aims and ambitions for Wales. Some of the provisions we have asked for are needed to address existing loopholes in legislation, and others address long-standing policy issues. All of the provisions requested for Wales have been considered on an individual basis.

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 help ensure that children not in school are receiving a suitable education and are safe. Under the measures 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. 

Currently, parents should notify their child’s school that they wish to withdraw their child to educate them otherwise than at school (home education). Parents do not need to provide notice to the school before withdrawing their child and do not need approval from the school or local authority.

Under the new measures parents and carers will have to provide information to their local authority to let them know if they are home-educating their child and provide information for the registers, like they would if they were registering for school. Additionally, as the parent is providing the education to the child, they will need to tell the local authority about that education.

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 child protection plans 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 of the children not in school provisions 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.

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 would require schools to check with the local authority if the child can be removed from the school roll immediately, or if the child falls into one of the categories which require parents to obtain local authority consent before they can be removed from the school roll to be home-educated.

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 whereby local authorities cannot tell if children are receiving a suitable education.

At the moment parents in England and Wales do not need to legally notify their local authority if they are 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 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.

The children not in school measures don’t stop parents from choosing home-education, but they will require parents to tell their local authority they are home-educating. 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.

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 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 these cases, it was not that the children were ‘unknown’ to local authority staff but that they were kept out of sight of professionals. Under current home-education legislation local authorities lack powers to see and speak with home-educated children. In its report CYSUR noted that before the child’s death the child’s 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. The Bill will enable local authorities to request to ‘see’ the child in the learning environment as part of the suitability assessment.

The ‘Children not in school’ parts of the bill do not prevent parents from home educating, but they do add more oversight. The Bill aims to improve child protection, 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 Bill 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 Bill 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 Bill does not change this, but it will enable local authorities to meet with the family to undertake that duty.

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. The consent mechanism does not apply to children in maintained schools with an IDP. 

The Bill was already well-developed when Wales joined the provisions. However, we have undertaken extensive consultation with home educators on current elective home education policy since 2018. 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 Bill, in line with standard Welsh Government practice. This depends on Senedd consent and the Bill passing through Parliament, but people in Wales will have another clear opportunity to give their views. 

As this is a UK Government Bill, the Welsh Government has not published separate impact assessments for Wales. The UK government’s published Impact Assessment includes an assessment of the Bill’s 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 Bill that apply to Wales. The impact assessments will be published as part of any public consultation. 

The Welsh Government laid a Legislative Consent Memorandum (LCM) on the Bill before the Senedd on 24 March 2025. This included the amendments tabled in the House of Commons to include Wales in some of the provisions.

Whenever changes have been proposed to the areas of the Bill that impact Wales, we have laid another LCM to enable the Senedd to scrutinise them. The LCMs that have been laid and all history of the Bill in the Senedd is included on the Legislative Consent: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill page on the Senedd’s website.

The Senedd will also debate the areas of the Bill that impact Wales. The debate will take place in March 2026.