Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 Overview
7 min read
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act received Royal Assent on 29th April 2026 making important changes that protect children and improve education an act of law. The Act introduces a wide range of measures to help children and families. It also seeks to ensure that no child falls through the gaps of care provision and that every child receives a great education. It’s important for those who work with children in any capacity, as well as parents and carers, to have an understanding of the Act in order to learn about their new responsibilities and support the aims of the Act. In this article we will outline the main elements of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act is the culmination of years of debates, consultations and amendments. There is a lot of information contained within the Act and this overview specifically focuses on the seven main elements. As such, to gain a more in-depth understanding of the Act, it is advisable to read it in full. Sections of the Act will be of more significance than others depending on the individual and setting, therefore reading the Act in full will help you to better understand the sections that are relevant to you and your specific responsibilities.
What is the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026?
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is a key piece of legislation that supports the delivery of Opportunity Mission which seeks to break the link between a young person’s background and their future success. The Act delivers commitments made in the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto by strengthening regulation and improving quality of care in order to meet children’s needs. The Act also seeks to remove barriers to opportunity in schools and improve the education system to make it safer for every child.
The Act aims to:
- Ensure safer and more secure childhoods
- Tackle child poverty
- Deliver high standards of education
The Act achieves this by introducing a package of support through education and care systems so that every child can achieve and thrive.
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 Main Elements
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act is made up of seven main elements. These are:
Keep families together and children safe 
The Act achieves this by requiring local authorities to offer family group decision-making so that families with children on the edge of care have an opportunity to form a plan of family-led care. The Act also improves information sharing across and within agencies and service providers and strengthens the role of education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. The Act also implements multi-agency child protection teams to improve safeguarding practices and promote the welfare of all children.
Support children with care experience to thrive
The Act achieves this by requiring local authorities to publish their local offer for children in kinship care and their carers and extending the virtual school head role to children in kinship care and those with a social worker. The support offered to care leavers will be strengthened by requiring the provision of ‘Staying Close’ support to eligible care leavers which gives support to find and keep suitable accommodation and access services. Local authorities will now be required to publish the arrangement they have in place to support and assist care leavers in their transition to adulthood and independent living. The Act introduces a new set of corporate parenting responsibilities which will have an impact on the lives of looked after children and care leavers. The Act also recognises the importance of maintaining sibling relationships for children in care by requiring local authorities to allow reasonable contact between children in care and their whole, half and step-siblings.
Make a government that puts children first
The Act achieves this by facilitating a statutory framework to authorise the deprivation of liberty of children with complex needs in accommodation provided for the purposes of treatment and care. It also strengthens Ofsted’s powers in relation to children’s social care providers, such as the power to issue fines for breaches of the Care Standards Act 2000. Ofsted will now be able to hold provider groups to account for quality issues in the provision of care. The Act also regulates the use of agency workers in children’s social care with the goal to protect children from ill-treatment or wilful neglect. Duties will be placed on local housing authorities to notify education institutions, GP practices and health visiting services when a child is placed in temporary accommodation.
Crack down on excessive profit making
The Act achieves this by including a backstop law to potentially cap the profit providers can make. It also supports the creation of regional care cooperatives to improve the forecasting and commissioning of placements. A financial oversight scheme will be established to increase financial and corporate transparency of ‘difficult to replace’ care providers and their corporate owners.
Remove barriers to opportunity in schools
The Act achieves this by expanding free school meals to all children from households that receive universal credit, rolling out free breakfast clubs and limiting the number of branded uniform items that schools can require.
Create a safer and higher-quality education system for every child
The Act achieves this by introducing Children Not in School registers to ensure help can be mobilised for every child that needs it. Parents will now have to obtain local authority consent to home educate in certain circumstances to help protect vulnerable children. The Act also extends the registration requirements to more Independent Educational Institutions which could be expected to provide all or the majority of a child’s education and to improve arrangements for the regulation and inspection of independent schools and the consideration of cases of serious teacher misconduct. Schools will also be required to have, publish, publicise and keep under review, allergy safety policies, to have regard to statutory guidance and make further allergy safety requirements through Regulations.
Drive high and rising standards for every child
The Act achieves this by delivering manifesto and Opportunity Mission commitments on school admissions and Qualified Teacher Status. The Act requires academies to follow the statutory pay and conditions framework and a reformed National Curriculum. It removes the presumption that new schools will be opened as academies and instead allows proposals for all types of new schools. The Act introduces Ofsted inspection of academy trusts and linked powers for the government to intervene at trust-level where necessary. The Act also makes existing guidance on pupils’ use and access of mobile phones and other personal interactive communication devices during the school’s hours, statutory.
The elements listed above comprise the core aims and aspects of the Act. In-depth information on how the Act achieves these objectives can be found in the DfE guidance.
Next Steps
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act became law in April 2026. As such, local authorities, schools and certain service providers must comply with their new legal responsibilities. Moreover, families will now benefit from measures that will help to ease the cost of sending children to school through the provision of free breakfast clubs and limiting the number of school branded items.
The preparatory steps that schools may have taken in anticipation of the Act will support their legal compliance with their new responsibilities. Additional steps that schools may take include:
- Ensuring compliance with school food standards
- Reviewing existing mobile phone policies to align with statutory guidance
- Reviewing/creating a whole-school standalone allergy policy
- Updating compulsory branded school uniform requirements
- Preparing for the provision of free breakfast clubs if applicable
To fully understand how the Act will impact you, your specific responsibilities and the timeline for further changes, it’s advisable to read the legislation and as well as the DfE’s policy summary notes.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act introduces a wide range of measures to improve children’s education and safeguarding practices. It represents a significant update to child safeguarding and education legislation to ensure that no child falls through the gaps. The ratification of the Act introduces new legal responsibilities which will uphold the wellbeing of children and support their future success.
Further Resources:
- What is Contextual Safeguarding & Why is it Important?
- Understanding Children Missing Education (CME)
- CPD Courses for Teaching and Education
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