The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill : What’s Actually Happening
Every few months a headline does the rounds suggesting home education is about to be banned, heavily restricted, or made impossible. If you’ve been home educating for any length of time, you’ve probably learned to take those headlines with a pinch of salt. But the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is one such headline that’s a bit different and it’s worth setting out clearly what’s confirmed, what’s still uncertain, and what hasn’t changed at all.
What the Bill confirms
Two things are now established:
Compulsory registration of home-educated children with the local authority will be introduced. This is new. It is coming.
A consent requirement before deregistration will apply to families whose children are classified as “relevant children” — those who have been subject to a child protection enquiry, section 47 action, or classified as a child in need under section 17. This provision was included in the Lords’ amendments as of January 2026 and is expected to be passed into law.
Royal Assent is expected shortly as of April 2026.
What we don’t yet know
Royal Assent is not when the rules change. Secondary legislation and statutory guidance have to be consulted on and published after that. The practical details — what information you’ll need to provide, how local authority contact will work, what timelines look like — aren’t confirmed yet. The earliest any of these measures are likely to come into force is late 2026, and that timeline could extend further.
What the Bill does not change
The legal right to home educate in England and Wales remains in place. There is no requirement to follow the National Curriculum, no requirement to replicate school, and no change to the standard by which home education is judged. “Suitable education” was the measure before this Bill, and it remains the measure. That standard has always allowed for approaches that look nothing like school.
What you can do in the meantime
Home education is complicated enough without also worrying about how to demonstrate what your children are learning if their education doesn’t map neatly onto school subjects and year groups. Rather than accumulating paperwork that grows faster than you can file it, one option is an annual report — a single document that covers the year’s provision in a format that could be shared with a local authority if that became necessary.
If the Bill does bring in documentation requirements, having a template already in use will make any future conversation with the LA significantly simpler. The Evidence of Education report template here is designed specifically for education that doesn’t follow the National Curriculum or a textbook structure. It includes a fully completed example so you can see what a finished report looks like before you start your own.
If you’re currently in the process of withdrawing your child from school, the Deregistration Pack covers the procedure step by step: a template letter (including a version for children with an EHCP), and a guide to what happens after the legal deregistration letter is sent.
A note on how this page works
Kitchen Table School is run by a home-educating parent, not a solicitor. This page will be updated as secondary legislation is published, but please do not rely on it as legal advice — it’s an attempt to keep the picture clear, not a substitute for professional guidance. Last updated: April 2026. For the most current information, check edyourself.org.
