The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act introduces a wide variety of measures to help children and families, from the cost of living and school reform to home education to safeguarding.
But how will this impact your family? Find out here.
What is the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act?
The King signed the bill on 29th April meaning it is now an act of law. The Act will make important changes to protect children and improve education with work beginning from now to put these changes into place.
The Act focuses on making sure no child falls through gaps between different services and that families can get help when they need it. It also makes the changes needed to ensure every child can get a great education at a good school in their area.
How will it benefit families?
The Act introduces measures to help ease the cost of sending children to school, saving some families up to £1000 a year.
The Act will give 500,000 more newly eligible children free school meals saving families £500, it will mandate free breakfast clubs in every primary school providing parents an extra 30 minutes childcare and saving £450 and it will cap the amount of expensive branded uniform items a school can require to 3 items plus a tie for secondary schools.
These will help parents save money while ensuring children are fed, focused and ready to learn.
How will it affect school education?
The Act introduces several key changes to improve your child's education.
Teacher training
Every new Every new teacher must be qualified and trained to a high level to ensure children are given the knowledge and skills to succeed. As part of the Act, new teachers in state primary and secondary schools will need to have qualified teacher status, or be working towards it. The requirement will come into effect from 1st September 2026, which gives schools time to prepare.
Pay and conditions
To make sure schools can continue to attract and retain the best teachers, the Act sets out that all teachers will be part of the same core pay and conditions framework – whether they work in a maintained school or an academy.
We want to ensure there is a unified core offer of terms and conditions across the school system, but we also recognise the importance of flexibility within that framework to enable the recruitment and retention of the best teachers.
One strengthened curriculum for all
Every child should have a consistent core education with an excellent foundation in reading, writing and maths, and support to develop essential digital, speaking, and creative skills. But more than half of children attend academies, which do not have to follow the national curriculum.
The Act will require all state-funded schools – including academies – to teach the new national curriculum that is being developed. This means parents can be assured that their child is getting the benefits of the reformed curriculum – no matter what type of school they attend.
School places
Councils and schools are going to work together better to make sure there are enough school places in the local area and that children without a place can get one quickly.
Councils will be given the opportunity to open all types of school, not just academies, so they can meet the needs of local parents. Schools and local authorities will also work together when it comes to school admissions and place planning.
Flexibility to act on failing schools
We will also introduce greater flexibility for us to intervene in failing schools, changing the current duty to issue academy orders to a discretionary power. This will allow us to identity the right approach for each school.
Currently the Secretary of State has to issue an academy order to all maintained schools that are judged by Ofsted to be in a category causing concern - schools requiring special measures or requiring significant improvement. That means they are converted into sponsored academies. However, this forced academisation has not always been effective and can be highly disruptive for pupils, staff and parents.
Repealing the duty to issue academy orders will allow the Secretary of State the flexibility to determine what the most appropriate action is to drive school improvement in each individual case. Academisation may not always be necessary and we can support school improvement through other means, including through new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams.
What about home education?
If you already home educate your child, or are thinking about it, there will be some important changes in the Act.
Parents know their children best and it is right that they have a say in the best education for their child, including home education. But whilst many home educators do a good job, this is not the case for all. It is vital all home education is suitable and safe and that no child falls through the cracks.
That’s why we are introducing compulsory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England, so local authorities can identify all children not in school in their area and ensure that all children are receiving a suitable education.
There will be additional checks before some children can be taken out of school for home education – children subject to a child protection investigation, children under a child protection plan or who were under one in the last five years, and children attending special schools. For all home educated children, if a local authority deem the education and/or home environment unsuitable local authorities can intervene, including by requiring school attendance.
There are many reasons why parents choose to home educate, including where their child has special educational needs. As long as they are providing a suitable, safe education they can continue to do so. The measures will ensure that some of the most vulnerable children or those with very complex needs cannot be withdrawn from school for home education if it would be in their best interests to attend school, or no suitable arrangements have been made for their education outside of school.
But how will the Act actually help protect children?
The Act introduces a series of safety measures that are new, with a focus on a joined-up system to stop vulnerable children falling through cracks in services.
Improved information sharing and Single unique identifier (SUI) number
In order to keep children safe, the Act introduces a new information sharing duty that makes it easier for important personal information to be shared between schools and social services. This is so that children receive earlier support when they need it and can be kept safe from harm if teachers or others have concerns about their situation.
We are also piloting using a Single Unique Identifier number for children across services – similar to how the NHS number works for adult social care. When rolled out nationally, this will help social services to support children, so they don’t become invisible to the system.
This will also help frontline safeguarding professionals to better identify children who will benefit from additional support. The SUI would have been beneficial in cases like those of Sara Sharif or Nonita Grabovskyte in keeping track of vulnerable young people.
Keeping children safe is the key driver of this change, and existing data protection laws already make clear that safeguarding must be prioritised when deciding whether to share information. This new law will mean more confidence for those responsible for requesting and providing sensitive information – speeding up the process and providing a clear legal basis for sharing information on the grounds of safeguarding and promotion of welfare.
Strengthening the role of education in safeguarding
Teachers and educators are often the first to spot warnings of abuse or neglect, and last year, schools were the second largest referrer of cases into children’s social care. But currently the law doesn’t require all nurseries, schools or colleges to be included in safeguarding arrangements. This means opportunities to protect children can be missed.
We are placing a duty on the safeguarding partners for local authorities, police and health to give educators a greater role enabling them to influence decision-making at every level.
This change will see better join-up between children’s social care, police, and health services with education, to better safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in local areas.
What extra support will be available?
The government is investing £2.4 billion in reforming children's social care over the next three years, including improving Family Help services. This means more support will be available for families dealing with challenges like mental health issues.
We will also provide help to keep families together where possible, prioritising family members who step in to care for children before they go into care.