Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

Prospective

61 Co-operation between schools and local authorities E+W

(1) In the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, after section 85 insert—

“Co-operation between schools and local authorities E+W

85ZA Co-operation in discharging functions under this Part (England)

(1) A local authority in England and the governing body of a maintained school in England must co-operate in the exercise of their respective functions under or by virtue of this Part.

(2) A local authority in England and the proprietor of an Academy school must co-operate in the exercise of their respective functions under or by virtue of this Part.

(3) Where Academy arrangements require the proprietor of an Academy school to act as if a provision of this Part applied to the school, the provision is to be taken so to apply for the purposes of subsection (2).”

(2) In the Education Act 1996, after section 19A insert—

“Contribution of individual schools E+W

19B Schools to co-operate with local authority in securing adequate provision (England)

(1) This section applies where it is reasonably foreseeable that decisions about a relevant school in England will affect the ability of a local authority in England to discharge its duties under section 14 or section 19(1).

(2) The responsible body for the school must co-operate with the local authority with a view to achieving the objective in subsection (3).

(3) The objective is that decisions about the school will result in the school contributing, so far as is reasonable, to the effective discharge by the local authority of the duties concerned.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (1), a “relevant school” is a school within the first column of the following table, and the “responsible body” for such a school is identified in the second column—

“Relevant school”	“Responsible body”
A community school, foundation school, voluntary school, community special school or foundation special school	The governing body for the school
An Academy school or an alternative provision Academy	The proprietor of the school
A pupil referral unit for which there is a management committee (see paragraph 15 of Schedule 1)	The management committee for the unit

(5) In the application of this section to the management committee for a pupil referral unit, the reference in subsection (2) to the local authority is to be read as a reference to the local authority so far as it acts other than through the committee.”

Commencement Information

I1 S. 61 in force at 29.6.2026, see s. 78(2)