The Children\u2019s 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n The Children\u2019s 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\u2019s 2024 manifesto by strengthening regulation and improving quality of care in order to meet children\u2019s needs. The Act also seeks to remove barriers to opportunity in schools and improve the education system to make it safer for every child. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Act aims to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Act achieves this by introducing a package of support through education and care systems so that every child can achieve and thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n The Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act is made up of seven main elements. These are:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u00a0 implements multi-agency child protection teams to improve safeguarding practices and promote the welfare of all children.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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 \u2018Staying Close\u2019 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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\u2019s powers in relation to children\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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 \u2018difficult to replace\u2019 care providers and their corporate owners.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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\u2019s education and to improve arrangements for the regulation and inspection of independent schools and the consideration of cases of serious <\/span>teacher misconduct<\/span><\/a>. Schools will also be required to have, publish, publicise and keep under review, allergy safety policies, to have regard to <\/span>statutory guidance<\/span><\/a> and make further allergy safety requirements through Regulations. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n 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\u2019 <\/span>use and access of mobile phones<\/span><\/a> and other personal interactive communication devices during the school’s hours, statutory. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Children\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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: <\/p>\n\n\n\n To fully understand how the Act will impact you, your specific responsibilities and the timeline for further changes, it\u2019s advisable to read the legislation<\/a> and as well as the DfE\u2019s policy summary notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n The Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act introduces a wide range of measures to improve children\u2019s 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.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 introduces a wide range of measures to help children and families. We outline the main elements here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":81630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[81,75,80],"class_list":["post-81616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safeguarding","tag-education","tag-safeguarding-children","tag-teachers-and-parents"],"acf":{"schema_disabled":false,"schema_properties_FAQPage_question_answer":null,"schema_properties_HowTo_howto_tools":null,"schema_properties_HowTo_howto_supplies":null,"schema_properties_HowTo_howto_steps":null,"schema_properties_WebPage_cssSelector":null,"schema_sameAs_repeater":null,"schema_custom_json_repeater":null,"schema_custom_json_override":false},"hub":{"article_type":"Article","read_time":"7","enable_quiz":false,"quiz_id":null,"quiz_heading":"","quiz_subtext":"","quiz_markup":"","enable_advert":true,"advert":{"id":34004,"url":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/courses\/education\/","desktop_src":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/HST_CPDTeachingEducation.png","mobile_src":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/HST_CPDTeachingEducation_mobile.png","alt":""},"author":{"id":72,"display_name":"Rachel Gordon","slug":"rachelgordon","description":"Rachel is a Junior Copywriter at High Speed Training with extensive experience in the education and independent hospitality sector. Having worked with students to improve their Maths and English skills, Rachel has an in-depth understanding of different educational needs. She has also worked in the independent hospitality industry, working to advocate for and raise awareness of the independent food and drink businesses at the heart of local communities. Rachel is passionate about providing people with useful information to support their personal and professional development.","active":true,"circle_image":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rachel-hub-colour.png","thumb_image":"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rachel-bw.png","favourite_post":null}},"yoast_head":"\n
\n\n\n\nWhat is the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Child](\"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/childrens-act-1.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nChildren\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 Main Elements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n Keep families together and children safe
![\"drop](\"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/down53.png\")
\n <\/h3>\n \n Support children with care experience to thrive
\n <\/h3>\n \n Make a government that puts children first
\n <\/h3>\n \n Crack down on excessive profit making
\n <\/h3>\n \n Remove barriers to opportunity in schools
\n <\/h3>\n \n Create a safer and higher-quality education system for every child
\n <\/h3>\n \n Drive high and rising standards for every child
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\n\n\n\nNext Steps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.highspeedtraining.co.uk\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/children-wellbeing-act-1.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nFurther Resources:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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