Children’s Wellbeing And Schools Act 2026

Policy background

Keeping families together and children safe

5. The Act contains a number of changes to the Children’s Social Care system aimed at keeping families together and children safe. Over the last three decades there has been incremental progress, collective learning and improving practice across children’s social care. However, too many children still grow up in poverty and in households that struggle to afford the necessities which provide a secure home environment. The external landscape has also fundamentally changed. There are several factors which might mean children are unable to grow up in a safe and loving home. Despite welcome improvements, there is still significant variation in the outcomes and support children and families receive, driven in part by the years of austerity imposed on local government finances, which must be addressed. Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility and the government has published a policy paper 1 setting out their plan to reset the children’s social care system. The Act includes several changes to keep families together and children safe, support children with care experience to achieve and thrive and make the care system child-centered.

Family group decision-making

6. Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is an umbrella term to describe family-led meetings that allow a family network to come together and make a plan in response to concerns about a child’s safety and wellbeing. These meetings help to ensure a family network is engaged and empowered throughout the decision-making process of a child’s social care journey, and can include identifying practical support for parents, while prioritising the wellbeing of the child. A Family Group Conference (FGC) is a specific model of FGDM. Research shows that FGC at the pre-proceedings stage significantly reduces the likelihood of a child becoming looked-after and significantly reduces the likelihood of care proceedings being issued2.
7. Local government spending on children’s social care has risen by £4.4 billion over the last decade whilst preventative services, such as FGDM have been hollowed out, in part reflecting a greater number of children in care. Research shows that 82% of English local authorities (LAs) report that they provide an FGC service but the number of FGCs annually ranges from five to 8003 indicating that FGDM practice is inconsistent.
8. This Act places a duty on all LAs in England to offer a FGDM meeting to all parents, or those with parental responsibility, of the child(ren) involved in cases which have reached the pre-proceedings stage (i.e. are on the ‘edge of care’), unless it would not be in the child’s best interests for the meeting to be offered. If this offer is accepted, the LA must arrange for the FGDM meeting to be held, unless it would not be in the child’s best interests.
9. Therefore, unless it would not be in the child’s best interests for the FGDM meeting to be offered or held, a care or supervision application should only be made to the court with a family having been given the opportunity to engage in an FGDM meeting at the pre-proceedings stage and to make a plan for the child with their family network.
10. The purpose of the meeting is to provide practical support to the parents so that concerns around the child’s safety and wellbeing can be addressed. Where it is not possible for the child to stay with their parents, the FGDM meeting can be used to identify potential alternative carers for the child within the family network, and any support they may require.
11. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (2022)4 cited studies which found that, too often, care proceedings commence without a FGDM meeting having taken place (Harwin et al, 2019; Masson et al, 2019). Therefore, opportunities may have been missed in identifying family network members who could act as carers or a support system. This measure will ensure that this evidence-backed offer of a FGDM meeting is offered consistently at this crucial time and potentially divert children from care.
12. FGDM was introduced into the UK in 1991 and has been in statutory guidance since 2014. By legislating, we will ensure that there is a consistent offer to families that reach the pre-proceedings stage when the local authority is contemplating care proceedings.
13. We know that when families engage in FGDM, this can divert children from care. Foundations (What Works Centre for Children and Families) used a randomised control trial to evaluate the impact of the most prevalent model, Family Group Conferences (FGC), at the pre-proceedings stage. It found that children whose families were referred for FGC were less likely to have had care proceedings issued (59%) compared to those not referred (72%) and were less likely to be in care one year later (36%) compared to those not referred (45%). This measure ensures that FGDM is offered consistently to families at the pre-proceedings stage to keep more children within their family networks and improve their outcomes.

Child protection and Safeguarding

14. The 2017 Children and Social Work Act amended the Children Act 2004 to strengthen multi-agency cooperation, creating new statutory safeguarding partners (comprised of the police, integrated care boards (ICBs), and the local authority) with a duty to work together and with other relevant organisations, to determine the safeguarding arrangements in their local area. This approach was considered necessary to improve joint working and to introduce greater accountability and flexibility at the local level. Section 16E(3) of the Children Act 2004 does not provide for a statutory safeguarding partner from the education or childcare sectors. Instead, education providers and childcare settings, alongside other organisations, are listed as "relevant agencies" in the Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations, 2018. Under the current statutory provisions safeguarding partners only need to make arrangements to work with a relevant agency if they consider it appropriate to do so (section 16E (1)(b) CA 2004). This legislation will amend the Children Act 2004 s16E to require safeguarding partners to include education and childcare agencies in their safeguarding arrangements automatically as relevant agencies, removing the discretion for safeguarding partners to name particular education providers and childcare settings in their multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. The legislation will also introduce a new duty that will require safeguarding partners to enable the representation of education providers and childcare settings’ views in respect of the operational and strategic priorities set out in the local safeguarding arrangements. Often, teachers and educators are the ones that spend the most direct time with children, and education leaders can offer valuable insight into trends and concerns at a local level. Schools were the second largest ‘referrer’ of cases into children’s social care after the police in 2025, making over 130,000 referrals nationally. Although education providers and childcare settings are considered relevant agencies in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, multiple national reviews into child protection and safeguarding systems have found that the contribution and voice of education is missing in arrangements, which can lead to missed opportunities help children and protect them from harm, exploitation, neglect, and abuse. Existing safeguarding partners have the infrastructure in place that allows a single point of accountability for the organisations they represent – they can contribute resource, make decisions, and speak on behalf of their sector. The education sector is not set up in this way and therefore there is not currently an organisation nor individual who can take on the role of a safeguarding partner. The aims of this legislation are to create the systems for:
    1. Better join-up between children’s social care, police, and health services with education and childcare.
    2. Improved understanding of the thresholds for referrals and intervention and the roles of each agency in supporting children and families.
    3. More effective information sharing agreements and practice.
    4. A clear signal that it is the responsibility of local leadership to enable the right level of engagement from education and childcare both operationally and strategically.
15. These measures also support other measures in the Act such as multi-agency child protection teams and improved information sharing – all of which will require a strengthened role for education providers and childcare settings.
16. The Act also amends section 16E of the Children Act 2004, by placing a duty on safeguarding partners to put a specific form of safeguarding arrangements in place, to establish and run one or more multi-agency child protection teams in their area. The primary purpose of the multi-agency child protection team is to support the local authority in delivering its responsibilities under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 in relation to child protection. Local authorities, police and health will be required to nominate representatives to be part of the multi-agency child protection team. A local authority can then ask any other individuals to be part of the team after consulting with the other safeguarding partners. This will enable the right practitioners to work together day-to-day to make joint decisions and co-ordinate support to protect children from harm. The Act makes provision for two or more local authorities to work together to deliver multi-agency child protection teams. This enables police and health services, who work on a different geographical footprint to local authorities to make best use of their resources and reflects flexibility in the framework for areas to deliver their child protection activity in the most effective way possible. Regulations will set out: the support multi-agency child protection teams are required to provide to local authorities to discharge their section 47 duties under the Children Act 1989; what knowledge, skills and experience these practitioners need; and the relevant agencies that safeguarding partners can approach to facilitate the operation of multi-agency child protection teams. Relevant agencies already have a duty to work alongside safeguarding partners under section 16E(1) and 16G(4) of the Children Act 2004. Safeguarding partners will be able to require that a relevant agency, prescribed in regulations, sets out in a memorandum how they will co-operate with the multi-agency child protection team. The purpose of multi-agency child protection teams is to ensure an expert, multi-agency response to child protection concerns, addressing the current lack of joint working across agencies that often leads to missed opportunities to protect children in a timely way. The government wants local areas to bring a clear focus to child protection, where practitioners across agencies work together to take protective and decisive action where children are suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. Ten local areas are implementing multi-agency child protection teams as part of the Families First for Children Pathfinder, testing whole-system reform to children’s social care to help families overcome challenges, stay together and thrive, and keep children safe. The Pathfinder was announced in February 2023 and the programme started in July 2023, with wave two areas joining in April 2024. Government committed to the national rollout of Family Help, multi-agency child protection and Family Networks, building on the work of the Families First for Children Pathfinder. The reforms are being delivered through the Families First Partnership programme, which launched in April 2025. Learning from national roll out and the independent evaluation of the pathfinder areas will inform the regulations, expected to come into force in 2027.
17. The Act amends the Children Act 2004, creating a duty to share information for safeguarding and welfare purposes and provide a power for the Secretary of State to specify a consistent identifier for children to address long standing barriers to information sharing. The duty to share information will apply to those persons listed in s.11(1) of the Children Act 2004 and designated education and childcare agencies. Where such persons engage others to provide services relating to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children, such as primary care providers, the duty will extend to the providers of those services. As such, the duty is not intended to cover such providers engaged by the persons listed in s.11(1) of the Children Act 2004 or education and childcare relevant agencies for other purposes, but which may incidentally engage the relevant functions (for example, IT service providers or interpreters) and who do not independently hold information that is not already available to the agencies in scope. The Act also makes provision for a consistent child identifier (also known as a Single Unique Identifier or SUI). Designated persons (and persons engaged by them to provide services that relate to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children) must include the consistent identifier when processing information about a child for safeguarding and promotion of welfare purposes.
18. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (the care review)  and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report (the Panel report), Child Protection in England – National review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson , both published in 2022, found that ineffective multi-agency working is a key factor where child protection activity fails to keep children safe.
19. The care review identified a lack of social worker expert knowledge and skills as a significant problem in child protection. The Panel report identified a need for better information sharing, risk assessment and decision-making within and across agencies, recommending the introduction of multi-agency child protection units.
20. Multi-agency child protection teams are underpinned by learning from the Families First for Children pathfinder evaluation. The interim report published in July 2025 showed positive early feedback. Pathfinders reported quicker, better multi-agency information seeking and sharing; improved partner input to strategy discussions and conferences; and increased Family Help practitioner confidence and awareness in identifying significant harm. Published evaluations on Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs, the Strengthening Families, Protecting Children and Supporting Families Programmes and Youth Offending Teams all show how effective multi-agency working can improve outcomes for children and their families.
21. The Act amends the Children Act 2004, creating a duty to share information for safeguarding and welfare purposes and provides a power for the Secretary of State to publish information standards, specify a consistent identifier for children, and publish a Code of Practice on the consistent identifier to address long standing barriers to information sharing.
22. The duty to share information will apply to those persons listed in s.11(1) of the Children Act 2004 and designated education and childcare agencies. Where such persons engage others to provide services relating to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children, such as primary care providers, the duty will extend to the providers of those services. As such, the duty is not intended to cover such providers engaged by the persons listed in s.11(1) of the Children Act 2004 or education and childcare relevant agencies for other purposes, but which may incidentally engage the relevant functions (for example, IT service providers or interpreters) and who do not independently hold information that is not already available to the agencies in scope. Publication of information standards, which agencies must have regard to, will help to ensure interoperability and support effective information sharing.
23. The Act also makes provision for a consistent child identifier (also known as a Single Unique Identifier or SUI). Designated persons (and persons engaged by them to provide services that relate to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children) must include the consistent identifier when processing information about a child for safeguarding and promotion of welfare purposes. Regulations will set out the consistent identifier, require the person or agency who holds or manages the consistent identifier on a national basis to provide it to named agencies, as opposed to those who may hold the identifier for a child or group of children for their own purposes (for example, a person to whom the consistent identifier has been disclosed further to the duty in section 16LC(5)) and which agencies from the specified list must use it.
24. Publication of a Code of Practice, which agencies must have regard to, which would complement the statutory guidance and support implementation of the consistent identifier by covering technical and practical matters, such as accessing, storing, and using the identifier effectively, and could be updated regularly to reflect technical developments and process changes. The code of practice would be informed by piloting and testing of the consistent identifier, which will involve user testing, as well as engagement with relevant sector bodies, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and relevant Government departments.

Support for children with care experience to thrive

Support for children in care, leaving care or in kinship care and carers

25. The Act adds sections 22H and 22I to the Children Act 1989 to ensure parity of access to information across England so that all children living in kinship care and kinship carers have information about support services they can receive in their local area. The government is therefore placing a duty on local authorities to publish information about services in their area for children who live in kinship care and kinship carers, which will be known as a kinship local offer. Local authorities will be required to consult relevant persons about any services offered or that may be offered which may assist to improve outcomes for children living in the authority’s area who live in kinship care prior to publishing its kinship local offer, and to publish a report on consultation. The existing statutory guidance will be replaced to include an expectation to publish a kinship local offer. The duty to consult has been created to help ensure that local offers reflect the needs of kinship families living in an area. The government expects that as a result of this legislation, there will be an increase in local authorities publishing a kinship local offer. The department will also be putting in place a programme of work to improve the quality of kinship local offers.
26. Local authorities have a duty under section 22(3A) of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children they look after, including their educational achievement, wherever they live or are educated. To support the discharge of this duty, local authorities must appoint at least one person, known as a Virtual School Head (VSH) to act as the lead responsible officer for ensuring that arrangements are in place to support improved educational outcomes for these children, including those placed out of the area of the local authority.
27. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 amended the Children Act 1989 to require local authorities to promote the educational achievement of the previously looked-after children in their area. These are children no longer in care due to adoption, special guardianship, child arrangements orders, and children adopted from state care outside of England and Wales. This is because these children can still face similar challenges and barriers to educational achievement as those who are in care. To discharge this duty, local authorities must appoint an officer – in practice the VSH, as for looked-after children - who provides information and advice, upon request, to those with parental responsibility, educators, and others, for the purpose of promoting these children’s educational achievement.
28. In June 2021, the VSH role was extended on a non-statutory basis to include a strategic leadership role in relation to all children and young people with a social worker, recognising that these children experience poorer educational outcomes compared to their peers. In this role, the VSH supports local authorities in taking steps to promote the educational attendance and achievement of children with a social worker in their area. This VSH does not work directly with individual children or families, but supports partnership working between local authorities, schools, and other professionals.
29. In September 2024, the VSH role was further extended on a non-statutory basis to include promoting the educational achievement of children living in kinship care, following a government commitment to strengthen educational support for this group. This includes raising awareness of barriers to educational achievement and providing information and advice, upon request, to kinship carers who have responsibility for children under a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order, regardless of whether the child has previously been looked after.
30. This measure places these extended VSH functions on a statutory footing by inserting new section 23ZZZA into the Children Act 1989 and amending section 23ZZA. This provides clarity and consistency about the role of the VSH in relation to children with a social worker and children in kinship care and ensures that each local authority appoints an officer to discharge the duty to promote the educational achievement of these groups.
31. The Act will introduce section 23CZAA to the Children Act 1989 to add "Staying Close" to the duties that local authorities have towards former relevant children. 5 Care leavers continue to have some of the worst outcomes nationally compared with their peers and research indicates that they are over‑represented in the adult prison population and in homelessness and rough sleeping statistics. Care leavers are also more likely to experience loneliness and challenges to their emotional health and wellbeing. These new duties are intended to strengthen the support available to young people as they leave care, helping to ensure a more stable and well‑supported transition into adulthood. They will require local authorities to assess whether former relevant children (under the age of 25) require the provision of staying close support (if it is in the interests of that young person’s welfare) and where assessed to be required to provide advice, information and representation the local authority considers appropriate. Staying close support means support to find and keep suitable accommodation and support to access services relating to health and wellbeing, relationships, education and training, employment and participating in society. The new section makes clear that these duties are in addition to those already required under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989. It is the government’s intention to issue guidance to local authorities under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 to aid local authorities in the set up and delivery of this duty.
32. The Act amends section 2 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 which relates to the local offer for care leavers in England. Expert reviews have shown that many care leavers still face significant barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing. Therefore, this section will require each local authority to publish the arrangements it has in place to support and assist care leavers in their transition to adulthood and independent living. This must include information about the authority’s arrangements for anticipating the future needs of care leavers for accommodation, co-operating with the local housing authorities in its area, information on services relating to financial literacy, arrangements around financial support and providing assistance to eligible care leavers who are at risk of homelessness.

Intentional Homelessness

33. This Act amends section 191 of the Housing Act 1996 to disapply the intentional homelessness test for care leavers who are in scope of the local authority’s corporate parenting duty and who are not looked after by a local authority. This means that they cannot be found to have become homeless intentionally.
34. This section will ensure that, so long as all other criteria are met, local housing authorities will have a duty under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996 to secure settled accommodation for in-scope care leavers, even in circumstances where their actions may have caused or contributed to their homelessness.
35. Care leavers continue to have some of the worst long-term life outcomes nationally across health, education and employment. This is also the case in relation to housing, where care leavers are particularly vulnerable to becoming homeless. Since 2018/19, homelessness duties owed to households with a ‘care leaver’ support need, where the care leaver is aged 18-20, have increased at almost three times the rate of households overall. Young care leavers are more likely to be found intentionally homelessness by local housing authorities, meaning that they are not required to secure settled accommodation for them. This measure is intended to ensure the system is able to better facilitate a successful transition from care to adulthood and to help address the "cliff edge" of support that such young people experience. This flows naturally from the existing requirement on Local Housing Authorities to have regard to the corporate parenting principles under s.1 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
36. As per the Act generally, this amendment extends to England and Wales and applies in England.

Sibling Contact

37. During the passage of the Act, contact between children in the care of the local authority and their siblings was raised multiple times.
38. There are existing duties on local authorities set out in the Children Act 1989 to endeavour to promote contact between looked after children and their relatives, including siblings, friends and other connected people, unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with their welfare.
39. Regulations relating to care planning make clear that arrangements to promote and maintain contact with siblings must be included in a child’s care plan. This prioritises consistency, stability, and lifelong loving relationships with those who are important to children and young people.
40. Statutory guidance and regulations in relation to foster carers and children’s homes, for example, also require those involved in the day-to-day care of children, to promote positive family relationships. 
41. Despite these duties, children repeatedly report and share stories to demonstrate their difficulties in being separated from their siblings, with insufficient support to maintain good contact and promote a strong relationship.
42. Under existing duties, LAs are required to endeavour to promote contact between looked after children and "any relative, friend or other connected person", unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with the child’s welfare. However, research and stakeholders working directly with children report that contact between siblings can often be inconsistent and insufficient to meet the needs of the child.
43. This change will strengthen the duty placed on LAs and emphasise the priority of sibling relationships for children in the care of the local authority. It will also ensure that LA’s place the same emphasis on contact between children in care and their siblings as with their parents.
44. This change will not apply to looked after children, it only relates to children in care of the LA. A child could be accommodated by the LA in many different circumstances, and a LA does not have parental responsibility for all looked after children, in the way it does for all children in care. However, looked after children are still subject to contact arrangements set out in paragraph 15 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989.

Accommodation of children

45. The temporary accommodation measure places a duty on local housing authorities to notify educational institutions, GP practices and health visiting services in England when a child is placed in temporary accommodation. There are record numbers of children in temporary accommodation and the Government is determined to address this. Living in temporary accommodation can have a detrimental impact on a child’s health, wellbeing and education outcomes. The change in legislation is intended to strengthen information sharing so that educational institutions and specified health providers are aware where children may require additional or different support. It will require an amendment to Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 which is the legislative framework that governs local authorities’ homelessness functions. The notification will only be made with consent from the parent, those with parental responsibility or care of the child, or the child themselves where they are aged 16-17 and living independently from their parents. 
46. The Act gives the Secretary of State powers to direct local authorities to establish regional co-operation arrangements. Such arrangements will support local authorities with their strategic accommodation functions. This will include analysing future accommodation needs for looked after children across the region, publishing strategies to meet those accommodation needs, commissioning accommodation for looked after children, recruiting and supporting local authority foster parents, and developing or facilitating the development of new provision for accommodating looked after children. The arrangements could be established either as joint arrangements between local authorities; with one local authority carrying out functions on behalf of the others; or as a separate corporate body.
47. The Act also amends section 25 of the Children Act 1989 to provide a statutory framework for the local authorities to seek authorisation for the deprivation of liberty of children in a different type of accommodation within England - one that is not a secure children’s home ("SCH"), but which is primarily to be used to provide care and treatment for a vulnerable, complex cohort who may need restrictions which deprive them of their liberty (i.e. that the totality of the restrictions means that the person is under continuous supervision and control and not free to leave of their own accord). Currently, the only statutory framework for depriving a child of their liberty on welfare grounds (outside other relevant legal frameworks such as in relation to mental health) for English local authorities is via section 25 of the Children Act 1989. This power authorises the deprivation of liberty of children in accommodation provided for the purpose of restricting liberty (a SCH). A core feature of a SCH is that it should be designed for, or has as its primary purpose, prevention of a child from absconding or causing harm to his/herself or others. Other, highly therapeutic accommodation designed for a child would have as its primary purpose the care and/or treatment of the child, as opposed to prevention of absconding or harm, and so cannot currently be used to deprive a child of their liberty via section 25 of the Children Act 1989. This legislative change provides a statutory route to authorise the deprivation of liberty of a child in a more flexible form of accommodation, bringing more deprivation of liberty cases under a statutory framework via s.25 Children Act 1989, with clear criteria for access, require regular re-authorisation from the courts, and bring parity with SCH in terms of access to legal aid.

Make the care system child-centred

Regulation of children’s homes, fostering agencies etc.

48. The Act introduces a provider oversight regime to help safeguard and protect vulnerable children, reduce risks and improve their experience. Currently, across children’s social care, the CIECSS’ registration and enforcement powers are limited to persons carrying on or managing establishments, agencies, residential holiday schemes for disabled children and supported accommodation. Where the CIECSS has reasonable grounds to believe that there are concerns in more than one setting owned or controlled by the same private or voluntary provider group (organisations that own the providers who run children’s social care settings, referred to as a parent undertaking in the Act), Ofsted cannot act at pace and scale. It is important for Ofsted to be able to intervene rapidly and at scale to keep children safe where there are concerns which relate to more than one establishment or agency within the same provider group. The Act places a duty on parent undertakings to develop and implement an improvement plan where the CIECSS has identified quality issues in multiple settings under the ownership or control of the same parent undertaking and reasonably suspect there are grounds for cancellation of registration in relation to those settings. Should parent undertakings not comply with these requirements, the CIECSS will have the power to issue an unlimited monetary penalty which would be used proportionately and depending on the circumstances. The Act also gives the Secretary of State the power to make regulations to provide that a person who is carrying on an establishment (e.g. a children’s home) or an agency (e.g. an independent fostering agency) is not to be treated as a fit and proper person where their parent undertaking has failed to comply with requirements imposed on them under the new measures relating to provider oversight and the financial oversight scheme.
49. Section 37 of the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA) required all notices and documents served under Part 2 of the Act to be served on persons carrying on or managing an establishment or agency, by hand or by recorded mail (post). This requirement was an inefficient mandatory administrative requirement, which does not align with government’s wider aims of using more efficient technological services. Section 16(5) of the Act amends Section 37 of the Care Standards Act to allow any notices and documents that are to be served under Part 2 of the Care Standards Act (i.e. by the CIECSS (Ofsted for shorthand), the Secretary of State, or Welsh Ministers, to be served by post, hand and/or by email. The Act eliminates costly and time-consuming practice requirements to only serve notice by post or hand that could delay relevant action being taken to resolve concerns identified in establishments and agencies. This ensures that the notices can be served without delay, and allows the relevant authority to contact parent undertakings (the organisations that own providers who run children’s social care settings) in relation to the financial and provider oversight measures, as well as registered managers and providers.
50. Previous legislation gave the CIECSS a range of regulatory powers in relation to the provision of children’s social care accommodation. Whilst Ofsted have general powers of inspection (e.g. to enter a setting and inspect or take copies of relevant documents), they are unable to enforce regulatory requirements in unregistered settings to ensure children’s needs are being met and that there is a suitable workforce. The only power the CIECSS has in respect of unregistered settings is prosecution for the offence of carrying on or managing an establishment or agency without being registered. This does not allow Ofsted to take appropriate targeted action, or act in an agile and proportionate manner given the length of time and costs involved. It is for these reasons that government is giving the CIECSS the power to issue a monetary penalty to persons operating provision in respect of which they are not registered and to registered persons who are in breach of the offence provisions of the Care Standards Act. This would be an alternative to prosecution and sit alongside other enforcement powers against registered providers, and allow the CIECSS to act in a targeted, agile, proportionate way which allows for consideration of the circumstances. Issuing a monetary penalty will be much less resource intensive and costly than prosecution. This will also act as a greater deterrent to those potential providers considering operating an unregistered setting or those who are otherwise not complying with the Care Standards Act, thereby committing offences.
51. This Act introduces a Financial Oversight Scheme that will increase financial and corporate transparency of ‘difficult to replace’ children’s social care providers and their parent owners within their wider corporate group, and allow for an accurate, real-time assessment of financial risk. This will provide advance warning to local authorities if there is a real possibility that establishments or agencies will cease to be carried on due to risks to the financial sustainability of persons subject to financial oversight and where local authority or children looked after by the local authority may be adversely affected if services were to cease. Previously, local authorities had no way of knowing if a provider of placements for children was at risk of failing financially or if a parent company within the same corporate group was. If a large or ‘difficult to replace’ provider were to have failed, it could have led to them closing their provision suddenly, causing disruption to children who could lose their home. The previous system left open the risk of provider financial difficulty and business failure going undetected. The Secretary of State will be under a duty to provide advance warning to local authorities where the criteria set out above apply. This will give local authorities more time to plan and find new homes that are the best fit for impacted children and young people.
52. The Act includes new powers for the Secretary of State to be able to limit profits of specified non-local authority Ofsted-registered providers of children’s homes and fostering agencies by regulations. This will enable the Secretary of State to take action in the future if the other market intervention measures outlined in Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive do not sufficiently improve the functioning of the market and reduce profiteering in the children’s social care placements market.

Care workers

53. Although the use of agency workers can be helpful in allowing local authorities to manage fluctuations in demand in their children’s social care services, it is costly, and evidence from Ofsted indicates that higher levels of agency workers and workforce instability can negatively impact on both the quality of social work support provided to children and families and the care provided to looked after children in residential settings. There is a need to alleviate significant affordability and stability challenges that have arisen within the local authority children’s social care workforce due to an increase in the use and cost of agency workers. The Act introduces a new power to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations on the use of the agency workers in local authority children’s social care services. The new regulations will strengthen the existing regulatory framework for the use of agency workers in local authority children’s social care services currently set out in statutory guidance. Such regulations may make provision relating to local authority oversight and accountability for direct work with children and families, pay and labour costs, and quality assurance provisions such as pre-employment checks and minimum experience needed. This brings a benefit to local authorities through cost control measures and those in receipt of its children’s social care services by improving the quality and stability of the temporary workforce.
54. The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 protects those under 16 from cruelty by those 16 or over who have responsibility for them. The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 ("the 2015 Act") protects against ill-treatment or wilful neglect by care workers that provide social care for adults, and health care for an adult or child. It also contains offences for care providers relating to the same cohorts, however there are no offences pertaining to care providers within the 1933 Act. This Act closes a gap in existing legislation by extending care worker and care provider offences within the 2015 Act. The care worker offence is extended to include 16 and 17 year olds in regulated establishments and youth detention accommodation in England and Wales. Care provider offences are extended within the same establishments to include all under 18s. The government wants to create a system that affords the same protection to children as given to adults in social care settings. Currently there are greater protections in place against ill-treatment by care workers for under 16s and adults within social care. Care workers in social care settings cannot be prosecuted for the same offences against a 16 or 17 year old as they can for someone under 16 or over 18. Equally, under the 2015 Act, care providers can be held liable where there has been a gross breach of a relevant duty of care contributing to the ill-treatment or wilful neglect of adults within social care. However, there is no equivalent protection covering children’s social care either within the 2015 Act or s1 of the 1933 Act. The government wants to ensure that where care providers breach their duties resulting in the ill-treatment or wilful neglect of a child, they can be held to proper account. This will ensure under 18s are protected in the same way as adults.

Corporate Parenting

55. The Act introduces new corporate parenting responsibilities on relevant authorities which include Secretaries of State and certain public bodies (referred to in this document as "corporate parents"). These new responsibilities aim to ensure that corporate parents take account of factors that could impact negatively on looked after children and care leavers when designing policies and delivering services; take steps to help looked after children and care leavers to access the services they provide; and seek to provide opportunities that support them to thrive. Corporate parenting refers to the state’s role in supporting looked after children and care leavers in recognition that they do not have the family support networks that other children and young people benefit from. While local authorities have the primary responsibility for caring for and accommodating looked after children and supporting care leavers to transition to independence (including by having regard to a set of corporate parenting principles set out in the Children and Social Work Act 2017), the Government believes that they do not have all of the levers needed to ensure good outcomes for these cohorts of vulnerable children and young people. The corporate parenting measures in this Act seek to address this by introducing a new set of corporate parenting responsibilities for a wider set of public sector organisations which have an impact on the lives and outcomes of children in care and care leavers.

Employment of children

56. The Act will amend the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 ("CYPA 1933") and the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 ("CYPSA 1937"), including to enable children to work more hours on Sundays and before or after school. This will give children and employers more flexibility and give children more opportunities to take up suitable employment while ensuring their health, development and education are not adversely affected. The main restrictions in relation to child employment found in CYPA 1933 and CYPSA 1937 will remain, including the restriction on the number of hours a child is allowed to work in a week and children only being able to carry out light work. Therefore, existing safeguards which were already in place to ensure that, if a child is employed, their employment is not harmful to their health, development and education will still be in place. The Act also gives new powers to the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers and Scottish Ministers to make regulations in relation to child employment, replacing powers previously conferred on local authorities to make byelaws. This will ensure greater consistency as the same regulations will apply within each country, rather than having an approach which could lead to variation across different local authorities.

VPN Services and Social Media

57. The Act provides a delegated power enabling the Secretary of State to make regulations to strengthen protections for children from online harm, following Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) public consultation: Growing up in the online world: a national conversation.
58. While the Online Safety Act 2023 established a strong framework for protecting children online, the government has sought to build on its foundations and considers that further, more targeted measures are required to address emerging harms and specific service features to ensure children’s online safety and wellbeing.
59. The power allows the Secretary of State to make regulations to require providers of internet services to prevent or restrict children’s access either to entire services or to specific features and functionalities for the purpose of preventing risks of harm to children.
60. The power can be used to regulate "internet services", which means any service made available by means of the internet. This includes "user to user services" and "search services" already regulated by the Online Safety Act 2023 as well other services. Using this power, the Secretary of State can for example require a provider to limit the amount of time per day or the times of day at which children may access the service or a specified feature or functionality of the service. The Act also requires Ofcom, insofar as reasonably practicable, to provide research or advice at the request of the Secretary of State for the purpose of making these regulations.
61. The first regulations made under these powers must have regard to the findings of the government consultation Growing up in the online world: a national conversation.
62. The consultation seeks evidence on where harms arise and how best to address them, including questions on minimum age requirements for social media, anti-circumvention measures, the role of compulsive design features, use of emerging services such as AI chatbots, and whether changes to the digital age of consent are appropriate.
63. The regulation making power ensures that the government must act on the outcomes of this consultation. Following Royal Assent of this Act, this government must provide a progress report within three months and then must make first regulations within 12 months of the report.

Remove barriers to opportunity in schools

School Meals, Breakfast clubs etc.

64. The Act aims to give all children, regardless of their circumstances, a supportive start to the school day with access to a free breakfast club. This will mean many more children are settled and ready to learn at the start of the school day, helping to drive improvements to behaviour, attendance and attainment. The clubs will also support parents and carers with the cost-of-living. This is part of the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto commitment to introduce free breakfast clubs in every state-funded primary school.
65. As a minimum, the duty on a school is to secure a club that is at least 30 minutes in duration, includes food, and is free and open to all pupils in reception to year 6 on roll at the school. The government knows that some families need more support, so schools will have flexibility to go further and offer more than the minimum standards to meet the needs of their school, pupils and parents. Early adopter schools (delivered from April 2025) have helped the Government to test and learn how best to deliver these new breakfast clubs.
66. The duty allows flexibility for schools over how they secure a breakfast club. Given the primary aim of the policy is to support pupils into the school day, the government’s expectation is that pupils will transfer seamlessly from the breakfast club to the first morning session on each school day. Schools will, however, have flexibility over whether to deliver on site, or any other suitable location within the vicinity of the school premises (such as a nearby village hall). Private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) childcare providers can support schools to deliver on their duty.
67. The government recognises that some schools will face barriers in securing breakfast club provision that meet the minimum expectation in the duty. The Department for Education will work with these schools in order to support them to overcome any such barriers. In April 2025, the government launched the early adopter scheme to test and learn from the model, and developed a comprehensive support package for these schools. Early adopter schools were chosen as a representative sample of the existing school landscape, which allows the Government to test the programme in all school types. Alongside non-statutory guidance, there was a toolkit to support the early adopters throughout their journey. The Government also facilitated peer-to-peer support networks between early adopter schools, and ensured access to specialist advisors to help them work through implementation barriers. The learning from early adopters has fed into the government’s ongoing breakfast club delivery support programme for schools. The national rollout of free breakfast clubs began in April 2026. In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to exempt a school from the duty and so provision exists in the Act for the Secretary of State to grant such exemptions following a robust process against stringent criteria.
68. The government believes that it is important to ensure food served at breakfast clubs is healthy and nutritious. The government’s policy is that schools should play a role in helping pupils to develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they have the energy and nutrition they need to get the most from their whole school day. The existing school food standards - The Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014 - prescribe the foods and drinks that must be provided, which foods are restricted, and those which must not be provided. They apply to food and drink provided to pupils on school premises and during an extended school day (up to 6pm), including, breakfast clubs, tuck shops, mid-morning break, lunch, vending and after school clubs. The Children and Families Act 2014 inserted a provision in the Education Act 1996, extending the school food lunch obligations to all academy arrangements that do not already contain a provision in the funding agreement (including those with agreements entered into before 2014). This includes the duty to ensure the school food standards are complied with for lunchtime provision. The government is now seeking to extend the statutory duty to comply with the school food standards, to ensure the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014 apply in their entirety (including to breakfast), to all academies (primary and secondary) and mirror the regulatory framework for maintained schools. It is a long-standing policy position that all academies should follow the regulations in full and this amendment seeks to formalise this position.
69. State-funded schools in England are under a duty to provide free school meals (FSM) to eligible children. Currently, FSM are provided to 2.2 million disadvantaged children, 90,000 low-income students in Further Education and around 1.3 million infants through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy. Children from families receiving certain income-related benefits, including those on Universal Credit whose annual income is no more than £7400 are eligible for FSM. Transitional protections for FSM, in place since 2018, have ensured no one who has gained FSM eligibility would lose it while Universal Credit was rolled out. In June 2025, the government announced its decision to expand eligibility for free meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, alongside ending transitional protections for FSM. This will mean that all children whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for FSM.
70. Under the old system, children from families receiving Universal Credit whose annual income is more than £7400 are not eligible for FSM. Expanding FSM eligibility means over half a million more pupils will become eligible for free school meals. Ensuring children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds receive a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. The expansion will also provide significant financial relief for families. Families that receive universal credit could save £500 per child per year on school lunches. For families with multiple children, these savings could make a substantial difference to household budgets. Ultimately, the expansion will help lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. This is a cornerstone of the government’s Child Poverty Strategy, designed to reduce hardship and deliver lasting improvements for children and families.

Allergy safety provisions in schools

71. LA-maintained schools, Academies and pupil referral units have an existing duty under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. The Act extends this duty to introduce statutory allergy safety duties. It also requires the Secretary of State to place equivalent allergy safety requirements on the proprietors of independent or non-maintained special schools through amendments to the Education Act 1996 and Education and Skills Act 2008.
72. The Act confers powers on the Secretary of State to make regulations imposing specific duties relating to the management of allergies, for example requirements on schools to stock adrenaline devices, to secure allergy awareness training, the recording and reporting of incidents and the content of allergy safety policies.

School Uniforms

73. The Act creates a limit in primary legislation on the number of branded uniform items that a school can require. The cost of school uniforms has long been a matter of public concern. Uniforms can play a valuable role in helping to set an appropriate tone for learning, reflect the ethos of a school, instil a sense of belonging and act as a social leveller. However families can struggle to afford expensive uniforms, which can act as a disincentive for some parents to apply for certain schools or to pupils participating in school or in school activities or clubs. Research has found that almost half of parents are concerned about the cost of school uniforms 6 and that 12% of parents (16% of parents with children in secondary school) had suffered financial hardship as a result of purchasing their child’s school uniform 7 . Concerns about cost usually focus on excessive use of branded items, which are often more expensive than generic alternatives available from a range of retailers, and which restrict parents’ ability to buy items of their choice. The decision on whether there should be a school uniform policy and, if so, what it should be and how the uniform should be sourced, rests with school governing boards. The term governing boards includes the board of trustees for an academy trust, the governing body of a maintained school or non-maintained special school, or the local authority for pupil referral units.
74. Where schools choose to have a uniform, they must have regard to the statutory cost of school uniforms guidance which was designed to ensure the cost of school uniforms is reasonable and secures the best value for money.
75. Although the statutory guidance published in 2021 has had some impact, too many schools still have an excessive number of compulsory branded items, e.g. a survey in November 2023 found that in secondary schools the most common number of compulsory branded items was five and the median figure was just over six8. There was also a clear pattern of significantly lower uniform costs for parents where items could be bought from somewhere other than a designated shop or from school. In some cases, parents/carers buying from a designated shop or from school paid around twice that of parents/carers able to buy items from anywhere9. The limit removes any ambiguity about the expectations placed on schools and thereby helps to reduce the cost of school uniform for parents.

Guidance about mobile phones in schools

76. In January 2026, the Department for Education published updated guidance on ‘mobile phones in schools’ which is clear that all schools should implement a policy whereby pupils do not have access to their mobile phone throughout the school day including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime.
77. The Act legally requires all schools in England to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State on pupils’ use and access of mobile phones and other personal interactive communication devices at school.
78. This makes the existing guidance published by the Department for Education on this issue ‘statutory’. This means schools are legally required to have regard to it, and creates a clear legal expectation that the guidance must be followed unless there is a legally justifiable reason for schools not to do so.

Create a safer and higher quality education system for every child

Children not in school

79. The Act contains several changes aimed at ensuring children receive a safe and broad education that supports them to thrive. Parents play a crucial role in ensuring their child receives a suitable, full-time education, through their child attending an educational institution or otherwise.
80. All parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child receives a suitable, efficient, full-time education. Most parents choose to fulfil this responsibility by sending them to school, whilst others choose to fulfil it by undertaking education otherwise than at a school (for example, home educating their children).
81. The number of home-educated children in England is increasing 10 . Most parents who home educate do so in their children’s best interests, and many home educated children receive a suitable education that supports them to thrive. However, local authorities have expressed concerns during regular engagement with the Department that not all children educated at home are being educated properly and some are at risk of or suffering harm. Increasingly, parents of children with complex needs are choosing to home educate and may not be well prepared or equipped to provide a suitable education. As there is currently no duty on parents to notify local authorities when they are home educating, local authorities are unlikely to be aware of all the children not in school in their areas, including those who are not receiving a suitable education or those who are at risk of harm. Therefore, some children may be spending long periods of time receiving unsuitable education or, in some cases, no education at all, without intervention; and there are also children who may be in unsafe home environments and under the radar of practitioners that are there to protect them. There is an urgent need for local authorities to be able to better identify these children and, if a child is not receiving a suitable education or is at risk of harm, to take action to help them back into school or to take other necessary steps to safeguard them.
82. Between April and June 2019, the Department for Education’s Children Not in School consultation 11  sought views on proposals for creating a local authority-administered system of registration for children not attending school and a duty on local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. Local authorities 12  and safeguarding and children’s organisations 13  were overwhelmingly supportive of the proposals and continue to be in favour of introducing Children Not in School registers. In contrast, most home educating parents who responded to the consultation indicated that they were not in favour of introducing registers – citing concerns about privacy and registers being used to "criminalise" parents.
83. The measures will introduce in England and Wales:
    • Compulsory Children Not in School registers in each local authority area.
    • A duty on local authorities to provide support to the parents of children on their registers (should a parent request this).
    • Changes to the School Attendance Order (SAO) process to make it more efficient, reducing the time children may spend in unsuitable education (this process may also be used where parents do not comply with their new duty to provide information for Children Not in School registers) by:
      • Introducing statutory timeframes for issuing and processing SAOs.
      • Aligning the SAO process for academies with maintained schools, creating consistency and simplifying the process.
      • Making it an offence for parents to withdraw a child subject to an SAO from school without following the proper procedure. Parents convicted of breaching an SAO can be prosecuted again if they continue to breach it without local authorities having to begin the process again.
      • Aligning the maximum penalty for breaching an SAO with the offence of knowingly failing to ensure a child attends school.
    • A requirement whereby local authority consent to home educate will be needed by parents of children who:
      • Are on child protection plans or were previously on child protection plans in the previous five years,
      • Are subject to Section 47 child protection enquiries, or
      • Attend special schools.
    • Create a power whereby if a child is subject to a s.47 Children Act 1989 enquiry or on a child protection plan or has been on a child protection plan in the last five years and is already being home educated, the local authority will have the power to review whether it is in the best interests of the child to be in school and can then insist that the child be registered at a school.
    • A requirement for local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments at the point of Children Not in School registration and when considering whether children should be required to attend school.
    • The piloting of mandatory meetings in selected local authorities, for parents wishing to withdraw their child from school for home education, with the power to roll this out nationally after two years. The pilots of mandatory meetings are not the same as the consent requirement. Once the mandatory meeting has taken place, the school must delete the child’s name from the school roll (unless the child falls within the consent requirement) – the local authority will not be able to prevent this from happening.

84. A child is eligible to be registered on a local authority Children Not in School register if they are of compulsory school age, living in the authority’s area, and are either: 
    • Not registered at a relevant school.
    • Registered as a pupil at a relevant school but it has been agreed or arranged by the school’s proprietor that they can be absent for some or all of the time and receive some or all of their education otherwise than at a relevant school.
    • Registered at a further education setting that provides education for children aged 14 and above and attends that setting on a part-time basis and does not also attend a school.

85. For many children who may be at risk of harm, education settings are a protective factor. Children who are not regularly in school and therefore not visible to teachers or other practitioners, who are considered at risk of actual or likely significant harm, are a priority group. The intention is for local authorities to proactively identify children not in school in their local area and which of those children are known to children’s social care. The Act will require some parents to obtain local authority consent before removing a child from school for home education. This is where there is reasonable cause to suspect that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and so is subject to section 47 enquiries, or, where the child is judged to be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and so is on a child protection plan; or children who have recently (in the last five years) had their child protection plan discharged and therefore may be more vulnerable if they are removed from school. The Act will also mean that a consent requirement will apply to children at a special school maintained by a local authority, special academy or non-maintained special school, or at an independent special school which, in the case of a school in England, is specially organised to make educational provision for pupils with special educational needs; or in the case of a school in Wales, makes additional learning provision for pupils with additional learning needs, under arrangements made by a local authority. Children in special schools have complex needs and the removal of this school support could in some cases result in a child not receiving a suitable education or the best interests of the child not being met. The special school consent requirement in the Act builds on an existing requirement in secondary legislation that has existed for many years.
86. There have been cases where a child has been seriously harmed or died as a result of abuse or neglect whilst not in school. Between April 2022 and March 2023, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel ("CSPRP") received 393 serious incident notifications and rapid reviews. A high proportion of school aged children who died or were seriously harmed were either not in school (11%) or reported to be regularly absent (29%). 14 In May 2024 the CSPRP published a thematic review of 27 serious safeguarding incidents involving 41 school aged children (six of whom died and 35 were seriously harmed as a result of abuse and/or neglect). Data available to the panel suggested that 29 of these children were home educated and six appeared to be children missing education. Of these 41 children, only 17 were known to local authority children’s services at the time of the incident. 15
87. Children in social care, including those on child protection plans, also experience poorer educational outcomes than the overall general pupil population. As of 31 March 2024, children in the key social care groups were half as likely to achieve the expected standard at Key Stage 2 and performed less well than their peers across all Key Stage 4 measures. Children on child protection plans also had the highest proportion of pupils (57.5%) who were persistent absentees. 16
88. In November and December 2025, education and safeguarding reports were published that underlined the importance of ensuring there are appropriate touchpoints for children who are being home educated or whose parents are considering home education. These reports included the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review into the murder of Sara Sharif17, NSPCC’s "Tipping Point" report into safeguarding children educated at home18, and Ofsted and CQC’s thematic review of Children Not in School and SEND19. In response to the findings of these reports, the government introduced the following measures to the Act:
    1. Extension of the home education consent requirement to children previously subject to a child protection plan within 5 years, and amendment of the School Attendance Order process to enable local authorities to require home educated children that meet these criteria to attend school if it is in their best interests.
    2. A requirement to pilot mandatory meetings in selected local authorities, for parents wishing to withdraw their child from school for home education. Parents (and the child who is to be removed from school-unless exceptional circumstances apply) will be required to attend this meeting prior to their child being removed from the school roll. These pilots will assess whether mandatory attendance at an initial meeting can help parents make more informed choices about home education, foster stronger collaboration between families and local authorities, improve early identification of educational or wellbeing needs so that suitable support can be provided, and provide an opportunity to discuss safeguarding. Findings from these pilots will inform whether this approach offers clear benefits for children and parents, and guide decisions on whether to discontinue or expand the initiative at a national level. Any decision to roll out the meetings nationally will be subject to a public consultation and affirmative regulations, ensuring sufficient scrutiny.
    3. A requirement on local authorities to consider a child's home and a power for local authorities to request a home visit within 15 days of Children Not in School registration; and a requirement for local authorities to consider other settings where the child is being educated within 15 days of this information being recorded on their registers. This will enable local authorities to identify risks that may mean the child is not receiving a safe, suitable education, at the earliest opportunity.
    4. A requirement on local authorities to consider a child’s home and other learning environments which they are aware of and a power for them to request a home visit when deciding whether a preliminary notice should be served. This provides another opportunity as part of the School Attendance Order process for the suitability of the child’s learning environments to be carefully considered and a home visit requested.
    5. A requirement for registers to include information on any additional address at which the child lives. This will help local authorities to properly consider the suitability of the child’s learning and home environments.
    6. A power to prescribe that Children Not in School registers must include information on the outcomes of any home visits and must include the outcome of the Local Authority consideration of the child’s home and any other education settings.
    7. Inclusion of Young Carers in the list of information that local authorities will be required to include on their Children Not in School registers, if prescribed. This will help ensure local authorities identify young carers and provide them with support and consider the children’s caring responsibilities when determining whether the child is receiving a suitable, full-time education.
89. Together, these measures will ensure that fewer children are out-of-sight of the services that are there to support them and more are afforded safe, suitable education.

Independent educational institutions and inspections of schools and colleges

90. The following sets of changes aim to ensure that children in independent educational institutions receive a safe and broad education. 
91. The first set is to ensure that more independent settings providing a full-time education to children of compulsory school age are registered and subject to regular inspection against standards covering, amongst other things, the quality of education provided and safeguarding the health, safety and welfare of pupils. In October 2020, the Department for Education consulted on a number of issues related to the regulatory regime affecting independent schools – including how the definition of "independent school" is not sufficiently wide. The definition of "independent school" does not encompass settings which provide full-time education but teach a very narrow curriculum, meaning some settings do not need to register with the Secretary of State because they do not meet the legal definition of an "independent school" found in the Education Act 1996. The Department for Education published its consultation response in May 2022. The Act redefines what constitutes an "independent educational institution" (the category of institution regulated under Chapter 1 of Part 4 of Education and Skills Act 2008 - "the 2008 Act"), to support the principle that institutions which are likely most responsible for a child’s education should be regulated. In doing so, the Act extends the regulatory regime in the 2008 Act to more full-time settings, beyond independent schools, and so provides greater assurance about the quality and safety of education provided to the children attending these settings. It also enables greater clarity about whether full-time education is being provided and so whether registration is required. It does this by listing factors that are relevant to determining whether full-time education is being provided and by providing regulation-making powers to, amongst other things, effectively prescribe what is, and is not to be treated, as full-time education. 
92. The second set relate to the standards for registered independent educational institutions that the Secretary of State can prescribe in regulations. The Secretary of State is required to make standards, under section 94 of the 2008 Act, which the proprietors of independent educational institutions are required to comply with as a condition of registration. Section 94 covers, amongst other things, standards about the suitability of proprietors – and therefore, there are standards about this. Many of the regulatory decisions which the Secretary of State is empowered to take under Chapter 1 of Part 4 relate to compliance with standards made under section 94 and given proprietors are responsible for the management of their institution, proprietors have a central role in assuring compliance with them. Therefore, the Department has a clear interest in ensuring proprietors are suitable for their role, and to do this the government already conducts specified checks about ‘suitability’ under the standards. One change extends the existing regulation-making power to make provision about the suitability of proprietors. In particular, it allows via the standards for a discretion to be conferred on the Secretary of State effectively to decide whether someone is fit and proper to participate in the management of an independent educational institution. This will allow for workable decisions to be made, and on a legally certain basis, to exclude from their running those who are unsuitable to be involved in the running of independent educational institutions. This addresses an identified gap in the regulatory regime; it was previously possible for a proprietor to return a positive result on the specified checks and be approved, despite that person not being suitable to be involved in the running of an independent educational institution. The government’s planned change is targeted at preventing, in the small number of cases like these that are received annually, unsuitable individuals being involved in the running of independent educational institutions. The government considers that preventing unsuitable individuals from a position of responsibility to bring considerable non-monetizable benefits. This set of changes also allows the Tribunal to make a finding itself that a person is, was or would be fit and proper to be involved in the running of an independent educational institution (even if the Secretary of State is not of the same opinion) where an appeal against a decision of the Secretary of State has been lodged. A second change to the section 94 regulation-making powers expressly permits standards to be made by reference to whether the proprietor of an independent educational institution has regard to guidance issued, or a document published, by the Secretary of State. 
93. A third set of changes relate to the enforcement powers which are available to the Secretary of State where registered independent educational institutions fail to meet the independent educational institution standards and in so doing put children at risk of harm. New powers are provided to the Secretary of State to temporarily suspend the registration of an institution (effectively to prohibit the provision of education or supervised activities) and to require that an institution stops providing boarding. This is to enhance the suite of enforcement powers available to the Secretary of State so that appropriate action can be taken to ensure that students receive a safe education. It is already, and continues to be, the case that, to address serious safeguarding failings the Secretary of State may apply to the Magistrates’ Court for an order imposing a relevant restriction on the proprietor, or an order that an institution is removed from the register. Where issues relating to an institution are widespread and or very serious, a relevant restriction is unlikely to be appropriate as it allows the institution to remain open. An application for an order for de-registration, an order which effectively forces the institution to close permanently, is a severe step which a court may be reluctant to grant, even more so if it appears that the institution has the capacity to take remedial action. Instead, enforcement action may be taken under sections 115 and 116 of the 2008 Act – but that first requires that the Secretary of State has required an action plan from the proprietor and such enforcement action does not take immediate effect. For example, it is suspended pending the determination of an appeal against it. The new powers enable the Secretary of State to act more quickly, requiring that children do not remain in an unsafe environment but falling short of the impact of permanent closure.
94. The fourth set of changes relate to how appeals are determined by the First-Tier Tribunal against Secretary of State decisions to de-register independent educational institutions for breaches of the relevant standards. An institution may win an appeal, successfully arguing that a decision to de-register should be overturned, by making sufficient improvements to meet the standards by the time of the appeal hearing. However, the improvements may be short-lived, with the Department returning to regulatory and enforcement action because the institution does not have the capacity or willingness to sustain long-term compliance with its regulatory obligations. In fact, case law puts the burden of proof on the Secretary of State to demonstrate to the Tribunal that there is not likely to be compliance with the standards in the future. The Act, therefore, puts the burden of proof on the appealing proprietor to demonstrate to the Tribunal that the standards will be met on an on-going basis. In addition, it emphasises that this matter is a core consideration for the Tribunal by requiring it, in reaching a decision, to have due regard to the principle that the standards should be met on an on-going basis and the likelihood that they will so be met at the institution which is the subject of the appeal. This is, together, to mitigate against the risk of failing institutions continuing to provide a poor education or to inadequately safeguard their students by not putting in place sufficiently robust measures to continuously meet their regulatory obligations. It is, in any event, an obligation on proprietors to be meeting the standards at all times. 
95. The fifth set of changes relate to the regime in the 2008 Act governing the making of material changes – broadly speaking, changes in how a registered institution operates that require prior approval from the Secretary of State. The Act aims to improve the material change regime by, amongst other things, increasing oversight of the changes that institutions may make, ensuring that the Secretary of State has suitable discretion to approve applications for material changes and by allowing proportionate action to be taken if an institution makes an unapproved material change. 
96. Prior to this Act, material changes were regulated under provisions in the Education Act 2002 with the provisions on material change in the 2008 Act not fully commenced to regulate material changes of registered institutions. The provisions in the 2008 Act do not cover as many types of material change as the 2002 Act if an institution is not a special institution (see section 101(4) of the 2008 Act). In broad terms, the Act rectifies this by redefining what is a material change for the purposes of the 2008 Act so that those changes (with one exception) that are material changes in the 2002 Act are material changes in the 2008 Act (whether or not an institution is a special institution). This ensures that the level of protection provided by the material change regime is the same across all institutions. 
97. The one exception is that it is a material change to admit any pupils with special educational needs under the 2002 Act – which in the Department’s view represents too low a threshold and is unnecessarily burdensome. Instead, the changes in the Act mean that it is a material change to start (or cease) to be a "special institution" - to be specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs - and in the case of such an institution, to change the type(s) of special educational needs that it caters for. Regulations may specify the types of special educational needs that are relevant for this latter type of change. This specific set of changes provides greater clarity and transparency to parents, commissioners and inspectorates when either choosing or inspecting independent educational institutions. 
98. Furthermore, whilst a change of an institution’s registered address is, and will continue to be, a material change, changing what buildings are occupied for students’ use, either at or away from the institution’s registered address, was previously not. This meant there was no prior assurance that new buildings were safe for pupil use and that the requirements of the independent educational institution standards would be met in relation to them. Therefore, the Act rectifies this by adding a new category of material change to the 2008 Act, for which prior approval must be sought. This is related to where an institution makes a building available for student use, for the purposes of providing meals, education or accommodation for a period of six months or more. 
99. Also, the provisions in the 2008 Act would only permit the Secretary of State to approve an application for material change if satisfied that the relevant independent educational institution standards are likely to be met if the change is made. The Act changes the 2008 Act by permitting the Secretary of State to grant approval if satisfied that both the change in question would be beneficial to the education, welfare or safety of students and that the standards are likely to be met within a reasonable period of time from the change being made. This will enable material change approval to be granted where an institution is not meeting (or is not likely to meet) the standards at the time the application for approval is considered but where making the change would likely assist the institution’s performance against the standards to the benefit of students (though compliance with the standards is still central since the Secretary of State needs to be satisfied that they will be met within a reasonable time). 
100. The provisions on material change also provide a new power to the Secretary of State to prescribe, by regulations, the manner for making an application for material change approval and what information such an application must contain. 
101. Finally, regarding the regime in the 2008 Act on material changes, amendments are made to section 105 of the 2008 Act, providing a new power to the Secretary of State to impose a relevant restriction when an unapproved material change is made. Prior to the Act, the only legislative recourse, directed at unapproved material changes, would be for the Secretary of State to de-register the institution (both under the Education Act 2002 and the 2008 Act). This would have a significant impact, not least to the pupils attending the institution, disrupting their education. Consequently, it is rarely considered except in the most egregious case. A relevant restriction can prevent an institution admitting new pupils, from making use of any part of its premises or from carrying on certain parts of its operations. It is, therefore, a more flexible tool, which has the potential to be a proportionate response to an unapproved material change and is one that may be directed at addressing associated breaches of the standards related to, for example, the quality of education or the safeguarding of pupils. 
102. The sixth set of changes strengthen powers available to Ofsted inspectors investigating a suspected criminal offence in relation to unregistered or registered independent educational institutions. Powers previously available in relation to inspections were too limited to allow for the effective investigation of some settings. Under the Act, inspectors now have greater investigatory powers, to enter any premises (in some circumstances under a warrant) and use these powers, where they have reasonable cause to believe that an offence is being or has been committed on the premises or that evidence of an offence may be found on the premises. The need for greater powers to inspect suspected unregistered institutions was identified by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in its Report Child protection in religious organisations and settings published in September 2021. These investigatory powers in the Act will better enable Ofsted inspectors to gather evidence for the purposes of prosecutions of the "relevant offences" listed in new section 127A(2) in the 2008 Act, leading to better enforcement and deterrence. In addition, a new sentencing power is provided, in the form of a Prevention Order. This may be imposed on any individual found guilty of the offence of conducting an unregistered independent educational institution, for the purpose of preventing that person from providing education or childcare or undertaking certain similar activities. 
103. A seventh set of changes is related to the relationship between Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate ("ISI") (or any other independent inspectorate approved under s106 of the 2008 Act, if there were one). The previous obligation on His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills ("HMCI") to report, at least, annually, on any independent inspectorate’s performance is being removed and is now replaced with a more flexible power, permitting the Secretary of State to request such a report when she considers it appropriate. The Act also provides a power, for HMCI to pass information directly to ISI (or any other independent inspectorate). This will facilitate joint working between independent inspectorates and Ofsted, leading to improved safeguarding for children. Similar changes are made to provisions in the Children Act 1989 relating to inspectors of boarding provision in colleges and schools.

Teacher misconduct 

104. The Education Act 2002 gives the Secretary of State responsibility to regulate teachers’ conduct and hold a list of prohibited teachers. It is vital that the system for investigating serious teacher misconduct remains robust and efficient. Since the introduction of the previous regime in 2012, the government has taken all possible steps short of legislation to ensure that this is the case. It was always intended that the regime should capture individuals who have committed serious misconduct even when they were not employed or engaged in teaching work but who may try to return to the classroom, but prior to this Act, interpretation of the legislation only allowed the Secretary of State to consider misconduct committed while the person was undertaking teaching work. The Act broadens the scope of the regime to include persons who commit misconduct when not employed as a teacher, but who have at any time carried out teaching work; to include a wider range of education settings; and to enable the Secretary of State to consider referrals of serious teacher misconduct regardless of how the matter comes to her attention. These clarify that the Secretary of State is able to consider a referral of those who have previously taught and who commit serious misconduct whilst not in teaching, ensuring that they can be prevented from returning to the classroom. 

Drive high and rising standards for every child

School teachers’ qualifications and induction

105. The government believes that high quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving the outcomes of all children, which is why the government considers that Qualified Teacher Status ("QTS") is so important. The Act reaffirms the professional status of teaching and emphasises the importance of high-quality teaching on outcomes for children. QTS is a highly regulated professional status and is currently a legal requirement for teachers to be able to teach in maintained schools and special schools not so maintained in England, subject to limited exceptions set out in The Education (Specified Work) (England) Regulations 2012. Academy trusts have specific powers to make decisions in relation to some matters which are not available to local authority-maintained schools. These include control over teacher qualifications, which means that they are not currently required to employ teachers with QTS.
106. The Act updates section 133 of the Education Act 2002. The approach being taken allows the Secretary of State to specify in regulations the types of academies to which section 133 should apply. The specified primary and secondary academy settings will be subject to the same legal requirement to employ teachers with QTS as currently applies to primary and secondary local authority-maintained schools and special schools not so maintained. The requirement for teachers in academies to have QTS will only apply to teachers employed after the implementation date.
107. Statutory induction is the bridge between initial teacher training (ITT) and a career in teaching. It combines a structured programme of development, support and professional dialogue, underpinned by the Early Career Framework, with monitoring and assessment of performance against the Teachers’ Standards. All qualified teachers (holding QTS) in order to be employed lawfully in a relevant school in England (defined by section 135A of the Education Act 2002) are required to have satisfactorily completed a two-year induction period, subject to limited exceptions set out in the Education (Induction Arrangements for School Teachers) (England) Regulations 2012. Statutory induction is not currently a legal requirement in order to be employed as a qualified teacher in Further Education (FE) or in the independent sector, academies and British schools overseas (BSOs), but may be served in these settings should they wish to offer it. This Act sets out powers to update secondary legislation to ensure both academies and local authority-maintained schools are required to employ teachers with QTS. This means there is an aligned approach on the employment of teachers across all state-funded primary and secondary schools. Children will benefit from professionally qualified, well-trained teachers; and teachers across the state-funded sector will have had access to the same high-quality initial teacher training and induction, establishing a stronger foundation for their ongoing professional development. It will also reinforce the standing of teaching as a profession, through the requirement for an associated professional status (i.e. QTS).

Academies

108. The government wants to drive high and rising standards in every school and to ensure that the school system works for all children. Some of the best multi-academy trusts and other collaborations have shown that schools do best when they work together, sharing their knowledge and expertise and innovating for the benefit of all children in the local area. Measures introduced by the Act will give all children and parents certainty in a national core of high-quality education, creating a floor to guarantee high standards with no ceiling on what schools can achieve. The Act will also introduce measures that will ensure that children have access to a good local school.
109. The Act introduces a requirement for all academies to teach the national curriculum. Currently, local authority-maintained schools are required to follow the national curriculum, as defined by the Education Act 2002. Academies are not required to teach the national curriculum, although they can if they choose. They are obligated to meet the curriculum requirements of section 78 of the Education Act 2002, which requires schools to offer a "balanced and broadly based curriculum". The measure will be commenced after the Curriculum and Assessment Review recommendations have been reflected in the subject Programmes of Study, when they are brought into effect for maintained schools, in September 2028. Academies are not required to teach the national curriculum until commencement.
110. The current discrepancy between maintained schools and academies with regards to teaching the national curriculum leaves potential for inconsistencies in opportunities and outcomes for pupils from different schools. This measure will help to make sure that all children in academies and maintained schools are entitled to a shared core as part of their education. It will also provide assurance and transparency to parents, who will know the details of what their children should be taught, regardless of whether they attend an academy or maintained school.
111. The Act introduces a new power that enables the Secretary of State to issue directions to an academy proprietor that does not comply with a duty contained in their funding agreements. The directions will tell the proprietor how compliance should be secured. A direction issued by the Secretary of State under this power may be enforced by a Court. This measure allows for timely and proportionate intervention in circumstances where previously the only remedy available to the Secretary of State would be to issue a termination warning notice. It will ensure that the Secretary of State will be able to secure compliance with legal requirements more quickly, without the disruption that parents and children would face in the event that the academy’s funding agreement was terminated.
112. The policy intention is to provide for routine inspection of trusts. This approach will improve standards. It will help all trusts to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. Where a trust would benefit from support from peers, they will be able to identify strong performers in the relevant area. It will also identify trusts that need urgent improvement and enable intervention. The provisions form the underpinning legislative framework, and the Department and Ofsted will continue to work closely with the sector to develop the detail and policies that will sit within it, to ensure the system works well, encourages meaningful collaboration, and delivers the benefit that we expect. This will include engaging with the sector on work to overhaul the existing trust quality descriptors to create new Trust Standards that reflect the vision set out in Every Child Achieving and Thriving, and which will inform Ofsted’s inspection framework. The legislation also introduces new trust-level intervention powers, so that, where a trust is identified as underperforming, interventions can drive improvement or may include (subject to issuing a termination warning notice) terminating any of an academy trust’s funding agreements and moving one or more of the trust’s academies into stronger trusts. Together, these measures will ensure action can be targeted at the right level, whether that is the trust or individual academies. These measures are required because the existing inspection regime focuses – and reports - on the quality of education provided in individual academies. Academy trusts play a crucial role in delivering and improving education. As of January 2025, 46.1% of all schools in England, including 84% of secondaries, were academies, educating 58.4% of pupils 20 . Despite continued growth of trusts in the sector, accountability mechanisms have not kept pace. Evidence shows significant variation in trust quality, and decisions made at trust level can have wide-reaching impacts beyond the educational outcomes of pupils. While the 11,764 open academies in England are regularly inspected by Ofsted under the Education Inspection Framework, no similar or equivalent provision exists to inspect academy trusts at a trust level. To address this, the Government manifesto committed to bringing MATs into the inspection system. Extending inspections to academy trusts will help us identify the strongest trusts who are best placed to grow.
113. With over 44% of state schools being run by multi-academy trusts, the government will regularise the legal framework for academy school powers to improve pupil behaviour using off-site direction, so all schools are subject to the same statutory requirements in using off-site direction, including processes to safeguard pupils and review off-site direction placements.
114. The Act converts the duty to issue academy orders to maintained schools in a category causing concern to a discretionary power. There is a strong track record of strong multi academy trusts ("MATs") turning around failing schools. However, since the first academies were introduced, the government have also seen evidence that not all schools’ outcomes improve following academisation. This change allows the government to take an active choice about whether the school needs a change in leadership or support. From September 2026, where a school’s existing leadership has the capacity to improve, Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams will be deployed to work with responsible bodies to drive forward school improvement with academisation remaining as a backstop if improvement is not secured. Meanwhile, the worst performing schools will generally continue to receive academy orders.

Teachers’ pay and conditions

115. The School Teachers Review Body ("STRB") was established in 1991 as an independent body to examine and report on the statutory pay and conditions of school teachers in maintained schools. Following an annual remit from the Department for Education, the STRB collects evidence from its statutory consultees (teaching and headteacher unions, employer representatives, other representative groups and the government) and reports to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education with advice and recommendations on the pay and conditions of teachers and school leaders’ pay in maintained schools (in England as of 2018). Following a period of consultation on the STRB report and the government’s response to it, the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document is published (setting out the current pay and conditions framework for teachers) and given legal effect by an annual Statutory Instrument. Academies are state-funded schools, independent from local authorities, which are funded directly by the Department for Education through contractual funding agreements. Academy trusts have specific academy arrangements on some matters not available to local authority maintained schools. These are commonly referred to as ‘freedoms’ and currently include control over teacher remuneration and other conditions of employment. In practice we know that the majority of academies choose to follow the statutory pay and conditions framework. The factor in schools that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s education is high-quality teaching, but there are severe shortages of qualified teachers across the country. Our teachers are integral to driving high and rising standards and having an attractive pay and conditions framework is vital to recruiting and retaining excellent teachers for every classroom. Academies have made transformational change, and we want them to continue to drive improvement for all pupils, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. That is why the government have created a floor with no ceiling enabling healthy competition and innovation to improve all schools.
116. In summary, the pay and conditions sections and the changes we intend to make by way of secondary legislation following royal assent will mean that:
     • All teachers have a guaranteed minimum pay offer;
     • In a constrained teacher labour market, all state schools have flexibility to attract and retain teachers;
     • Innovations which are making a positive difference can continue and spread.

School places and admissions

117. In the context of falling primary school rolls and changing demographics, the government will ensure school admissions and place planning decisions account for the needs of communities by requiring schools and local authorities to co-operate on these issues and enhancing local authorities’ powers to deliver their functions on school admissions.
118. The Act introduces new duties for mainstream state schools and local authorities to co-operate regarding their respective admissions functions, and for mainstream, special and alternative provision state schools to co-operate with local authorities regarding their place planning functions. The onus will be on both schools and local authorities to work constructively with each other on these issues so that statutory responsibilities can be discharged. Whilst there were already specific ways in which local authorities and schools were required, by legislation, to work together and expectations to co-operate set out in non-statutory guidance, there was previously no overarching statutory requirement for local authorities and schools to co-operate on admissions and place planning. As a result, co-operation and collaboration was not always seen as a priority and, in some cases, schools would act in isolation and without considering their local area’s needs. Additionally, the absence of an overall duty to co-operate had meant that where a school or local authority refused or failed to co-operate with the other party, for example, where the working relationship broke down, there were limited options for addressing this. The main aim of this measure is to foster greater co-operation between local authorities and schools regarding admissions and place planning. Additionally, by formalising the need for co-operation as a statutory duty, the section provides a mechanism for the Secretary of State to intervene to address serious failures to co-operate. In instances where the Secretary of State determines that one party (the school or local authority) has been so uncooperative or unreasonable in supporting the other party to fulfil its statutory functions that it amounts to a breach of that party’s statutory duty of co-operation, she will be able to take action. In particular, the Secretary of State will be able to direct the party at fault to take specific steps to comply with the co-operation duties, using either her existing powers to direct maintained schools and local authorities (under section 496 or 497 of the Education Act 1996) or the new power to direct academy trusts to comply with legal requirements (which is another policy included in the Act).
119. The Act will extend local authorities’ current admissions direction powers and enable them to direct both maintained schools and academies to admit a child, to ensure that unplaced and vulnerable children can secure a new school place more quickly. Currently, local authorities have broad powers to direct maintained schools to admit a looked after child. However, the circumstances in which they can direct schools to admit other children, including previously looked after children, are more limited. For example, directions for such children can only be made where the child has been refused admission or been permanently excluded from every school within a reasonable distance of the child’s home that provides suitable education. Where the governing body of a maintained school does not agree with a local authority’s decision to direct a child to its school, it can refer the case to the Schools Adjudicator. In relation to academies, local authorities do not have powers to direct such schools to admit a child, rather they must request the Secretary of State uses her direction powers under the academy’s funding agreement to direct the admission of a child to the school. This can create a further delay in getting the child into school. Furthermore, this process does not include a formal route of redress for academies where they do not agree with a direction request. It does, however, involve the Secretary of State seeking advice from the Schools Adjudicator, who will seek the school’s views before deciding whether or not to issue a direction. These changes will give local authorities stronger levers to fulfil their statutory duties of ensuring children in their area have access to suitable education and provide a stronger safety net for vulnerable children, allowing school places to be secured more quickly and efficiently when the usual admissions processes fall short.
120. These changes will also enable academies, like maintained schools, to appeal to the Schools Adjudicator where they do not agree with the local authority’s decision to direct its school to admit a child, providing an effective check and balance on local authorities’ new powers to direct admission into academies.
121. The Act also enhances the role of the local authority in the setting of published admission numbers ("PANs") and aims to support local collaboration on place planning issues by giving the Schools Adjudicator powers to set the PAN for a school, where they uphold an objection from a local authority to a PAN set by an admission authority, to ensure it meets the needs of the local community and supports a choice of high quality local school places.
122. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient schools in their area and that children receive a suitable education, and for managing the school estate effectively. However, the number of places offered at an individual school is informed by their PAN for each entry year group. The PAN is the number of pupils in each relevant age group that it is intended to admit to the school in that year and is determined by the school’s admission authority. The Code does not place any requirements on admission authorities on matters they should consider when they are setting their PAN.
123. Any body or person can currently object to the Adjudicator about a school’s determined admission arrangements, including where a PAN has been reduced (but not where a PAN has been increased or retained at the same level as the previous year). The Secretary of State can also refer arrangements to the Adjudicator where she considers they do not conform with the statutory requirements for admission arrangements. Where the Adjudicator upholds an objection, the admission authority must amend their arrangements in such a way as to give effect to the Adjudicator’s decision. The Adjudicator’s decision is binding on all parties.
124. This system has created a lack of alignment between roles, responsibilities and decision-making authority over local place planning, and a lack of co-ordination over the PANs of schools in an area, with negative consequences, both in areas where there are a lack of school places and the local authority is struggling to meet their sufficiency duty, and in areas where there is an excessive surplus of places and this is affecting the provision of high-quality education for other children in the area, by making it harder for the local authority and leaders of other high quality schools to plan effectively. This is particularly significant in the current context, where changing demographics are leading to significantly falling rolls. This trend is national but is particularly acute in certain areas of England, leading to an excessive surplus of school places.
125. Local authorities can, like any other body or person, object to a PAN reduction, but the government intends to amend regulations to enable them also to object where the PAN has been increased or retained at the same level as the previous year. This would give local authorities a route to challenge the PAN which the admission authority has set for the school and help them to meet their sufficiency duty and manage the school estate effectively.
126. To ensure that this is a robust mechanism, the Act gives powers to the independent Adjudicator to specify the revised PAN of the school where they uphold an objection to it. The Adjudicator will take an independent decision, taking into account the requirements of admissions law and the circumstances of the case. The Act requires them to take into account the impact on quality of education and parental preference at the school and at other local schools. It also requires them to consult such bodies as may be specified by regulations, and, before taking a decision to reduce a school’s PAN, to consult and have regard to the views of the local authority, admission authority, and the Secretary of State (in practice, the relevant DfE Regional Director), on alternatives to reducing the PAN.. School quality and parental preference will be key considerations throughout. This will ensure that an impartial decision can be taken where there is local disagreement, with a strong focus on ensuring a choice of high-quality school places. It will ensure that that admission authorities, local authorities and parents are all clear on the changes that need to be made where an objection to PAN is upheld, and that the final PAN supports local needs.
127. These measures are not intended to stop good schools from expanding where this is right for the local area, but to help ensure that decisions on PAN best meet the needs of the local community and deliver a choice of high-quality local school places.

Establishment of new schools

128. Local authorities have a statutory duty, under section 14 of the Education Act 1996, to ensure that there are sufficient primary and secondary school places for all children living in their area, with a view to securing diversity of provision and increasing opportunities for parental choice, and having regard to the need to ensure special educational provision for pupils who have special educational needs, among other things. Since 2012, where the need for a new school has been identified, local authorities have been under a duty under section 6A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (as amended) to seek proposals for a new academy (free school). This is known as the ‘free school presumption’ process.
129. At present, new maintained schools – community, community special, voluntary, foundation and foundation special – can only be opened in certain, limited circumstances. In some cases this requires the consent of the Secretary of State. Local authorities can only propose brand new community, community special, foundation or foundation special schools themselves as a last resort where the presumption process and local authority-initiated competition for a new school have failed to yield a suitable proposal. This government’s primary concern is that schools can be opened in the right place at the right time and that local authorities’ ability to open new schools is better aligned with their responsibility to secure sufficient school places (the "sufficiency duty"). 
130. The Act removes the requirement for local authorities to seek proposals for an academy to meet the need for a new school. It instead requires local authorities to invite proposals for voluntary, foundation (or foundation special) and academy schools (including special academies) or Alternative Provision (AP) academies and enable local authorities to put forward their own proposals for a community (or community special) or foundation (or foundation special) school or a pupil referral unit alongside other proposals received. The Act also removes the requirement for local authorities and others to obtain the Secretary of State’s consent to propose new schools in certain specific situations.