The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act: what it means for children, parents and schools

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act (Act) received royal assent and became law on 29 April 2026. We have covered this Act in detail over the course of its journey through Parliament. Joanne Davison, partner, and Jason Sinclair, trainee solicitor, both in our education team, consider the key updates.

Children 

• Single Unique Identifier (SUI): as part of an initial pilot scheme, children will be given a SUI – a unique number - intended to help social services support children and stop them becoming ‘invisible’. The aim of the Act, and in particular the SUI, is to prevent children slipping through the gaps and not receiving the support they need.
• Register of children not in school:  it is now compulsory for local authorities to keep and maintain a register of ‘Children Not in School’ under a duty created by the Act. It is intended that, should a parent make a request to the local authority for support, the local authority will secure advice and information relating to the education of the child. It is expected that this will assist those 92,000 children who are currently home-schooled. Additionally, any parents who wish to withdraw their child from school to be home schooled must first seek permission from the local authority, who may refuse such requests if it is decided it is not in the child’s best interests To support this, within 15 days of the local authority registering the child as not in school, the local authority must review where the child lives and may conduct a home visit, and must consider the setting in which the child is being educated. Finally, to bolster the existing attendance orders, local authorities may require the child to re-attend school if the education or home environment becomes unsuitable.          
• Multi-agency child protection teams (MACPTs): The Act introduces MACPTs as a new safeguarding measure aimed at increasing the connection between parties involved in the safeguarding of children. MACPTs are intended to reduce the risk of harm to children and create a consistent approach by increasing communication and collaboration. An MACPT should consist of a member of the local authority with education experience, a social worker, a police representative, and a healthcare professional. It is expected that the Secretary of State will introduce further regulation of MACPTs in the future.

Parents

• School uniform cap: the number of branded uniform items a school can insist on is limited to 3 items (excluding ties) with the intention that less money will have to be spent on ‘school-specific’ uniform. You can read more about the uniform cap here.    
• Free breakfast clubs:  clubs are being rolled out to provide free breakfasts for pupils. For schools on the scheme, this will provide 30 minutes of extra childcare every weekday. The scheme is being rolled out in phases, with 1,250 schools already offering free breakfast clubs and an additional 2,000 schools expected to join the scheme by March 2027.          
• Increased eligibility for free school meals: an increase in the eligibility criteria for children to receive free school meals will see free school meals being offered to 500,000 more children.

Schools

• Change in admissions and places: schools and academies must co-operate with the local authority to ensure the local authority discharges its duty to place a child at a school. This will include making decisions about criteria and admission numbers with the ability and duty of the local authority in mind. Greater power is also given to local authorities to place a child at a school or academy, even if it is full, if the child has been refused admission and/or been permanently excluded from every suitable school or academy within a reasonable distance of their home.       
• A National Curriculum: all academies will have a duty to teach the new national curriculum when introduced. This is currently being developed and is expected to be taught from September 2028. It is anticipated that this will include a foundation in reading, writing and maths as well as financial education and digital literacy. The intention is to ensure that schools across the country have a consistent approach to teaching.        
• Inspections and standards: From 1 September 2027, all teachers in academies must have, or be working towards, qualified teacher status. This ensures the standard of teaching is consistent across all academies. Ofsted will have increased inspection duties to inspect multi-academy trusts themselves, as well as the power to enter and search ‘any premises’ of a trust if it is suspected an ‘illegal school’ is being operated. The Act also brings an end to the issuing of automatic academy orders to failing maintained schools. While such orders can still be made, the Act introduces greater flexibility to explore other solutions.

If you, or your school, would like to know more about what the Act means for you, do not hesitate to contact Joanne Davision at [email protected] or 0191 211 7958.