The reality is now unavoidable in England, but Wales still stands a chance.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is moving toward becoming law, and with it comes the most sweeping and intrusive changes to home education in England and Wales in modern history.
Barring a general election, a political collapse, or some last-minute miracle, it is going to become law (in exactly the way we describe below, this is not going to change now).
And for home educators, the reality is stark.
Despite months of campaigning, evidence, submissions, legal arguments, and thousands of parents explaining how home education actually works, the direction of travel has remained the same. The government has pushed forward — and many MPs and peers have either misunderstood home education or accepted deeply flawed narratives about it. Amendments have been agreed and the home education element of the bill pretty much finalised.
What remains in the bill now is deeply concerning, other elements are to be hashed out, but then it just needs Royal assent, some guidance and legislation updates, and it’s done. We are screwed, we are angry, we are sad, and we know you are too. We hope the below explains exactly what has happened and what will happen. Keep an eye out for updates and once this becomes law our website will be updated with how to communicate with your LA amidst the changes.
This is not minor reform. It is a fundamental shift in the relationship between families and the state.
The amendments that have survived the parliamentary process have not meaningfully protected home educating families from misuse of these powers. Instead, they risk handing already overreaching Local Authorities even more tools to pressure, harass, and control families who are lawfully educating their children outside the school system.
Read more about how LAs currently over step the law HERE.
Anyone who has spent time supporting home educating families knows exactly what will happen next.
Good Local Authorities will likely continue to behave reasonably.
But the bad ones — and there are many — will see this legislation as a green light.
Families will be pressured for information.
Parents will be told they must educate in school-like ways.
Home visits will be intrusive and cause untold harm.
Threats of enforcement will be used to force compliance with Local Authority preferences rather than the law.
The gap between what the law actually says and what Local Authorities tell parents it says is about to become far more dangerous.
The next step will be the EHE guidance consultation, this will document how LAs should behave, the things they should ask for when considering the suitability of the actual education. The bill does not consider the actual education, the bill is about the register, ‘safeguarding’ and the SAO process. But it does mean the EHE guidance becomes statutory, something LAs must follow. Make sure you have signed up to our newsletter to be informed of when the consultation is happening as this will be the last chance to protect the last bit of freedom home educators have.
Wales – A vote on the 17th March will determine if Wales accepts the bill or not.
To read what the final home education section of the bill is likely to be read here.
At its core is the creation of a mandatory register of children not in school, controlled by Local Authorities. On its own, that might sound administrative. In practice, it opens the door to far greater oversight and intervention into the lives of home educating families.
Parents will be required to provide information about the child. Details of the child’s protected characteristics such as race, religion and gender, name and details of all parents, and estimated time each parent provides education.
The register will also require details of, and an estimate of, time spent receiving education elsewhere if it exceeds a set number of hours which will be set in guidance later, we hope this will mean scouts, and tutors for a couple of hours a week will not fall into this criteria.
And an incredibly concerning part, the register can also contain anything the LA considers appropriate.
Requests to update the register will normally be once a year but can be up to every 3 months. And you must reply within 15 days. This is separate to enquiries about the actual education, this will be determined in the EHE guidance, yet to be consulted on. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter to find out when the consultation is available.
Local Authorities will be given expanded powers to request information and to share that information with other agencies.
The bill requires other people who are providing the education without oversight of the parent, such as online schools and religion focused educational providers to provide information to the LA upon request. This is to confirm the child attends, and how much time is spent receiving education from them without parental involvement.
A massive invasion of privacy, all home educators, once registered (this includes existing home educators), will be under the rule of LAs having 15 days to consider the environment in which the child lives, the LA can consider demanding a home visit to see the child inside any of the homes they live.
If the parent refuses a visit or to respond to the LA consideration of the environment, it can be used as a reason to consider if they can stay home educated.
One of the most alarming provisions is the requirement for Local Authority consent before a parent can remove a child from school to home educate in certain circumstances.
These include the child being registered in a special school, AND the addition of requiring consent in all school settings if there is a current social services investigation or a child protection plan or similar having been in place in the last 5 years.
The child must remain in school whilst this decision takes place!
If the Local Authority refuses consent, because the LA deems school to be in the best interests of the child, the child must remain in school.
Even more concerning, if consent is refused, parents may be prevented from applying again for six months. In other words, the Local Authority — not the parent — can effectively decide whether home education is allowed.
This completely reverses the long-standing legal position that parents hold the primary duty to decide how their child is educated.
Another deeply troubling shift is the language around Local Authorities determining what is in the child’s “best interests.” This is mentioned multiple times in the bill.
Historically, the legal test has been simple:
Is the child receiving a suitable education?
Now the bill moves toward allowing Local Authorities to judge whether home education is appropriate according to their view of the child’s best interests.
Anyone familiar with Local Authority practice will immediately see the danger here. Many already believe school is always better.
This risks turning an objective legal test into a subjective opinion.
The bill also brings in a pilot scheme, under which up to 30% of Local Authorities will trial additional powers.
The pilot includes a mandatory meeting with the family and child (unless there are exceptional circumstances). School must also attend if the parent consents, we expect the bad LAs will use it against you if you don’t agree, but also that bad schools will try to worm out of the meeting if they can.
The purpose of the meeting is to make sure you understand the LA duty and your own, however LAs already lie about this, and we expect these meetings will used as a way to scare families into thinking they have to recreate school at home, or to keep the child in school.
The meeting is also to share why you are deregistering (negative reasons could be used against you). To ask about any support needs or safeguarding and welfare issues. This could mean the school raise concerns they never had before (a problem we currently see) but also an opportunity for you to explain how the school failed the child.
AND ANYTHING ELSE THE LA DEEM RELEVANT – literally anything they want!
The child must carry on attending school until the LA inform the school that the meeting has taken place, there is no timescale for the meeting or the notification. Which could leave children in vulnerable and dangerous situations in school.
This trial opens the door to practices that home educating families have fought off for decades.
The new process includes a preliminary notice, which can be served if SS become involved, or the education is deemed unsuitable, or if the LA decide it would be in the best interests of the child to attend school. They can also serve this notice if you have refused to register or respond to enquiries.
You will be given an opportunity to reply.
The LA can then proceed to name a school and ultimately an SAO if they are not satisfied the education is suitable or in the child’s best interests.
The setting in which the child lives and is educated must be considered, and the LA may request a home visit to see the child inside any of the homes in which they live.
Refusing a visit can be used as a concern.
At the same time, enforcement powers are being strengthened.
Parents who fail to comply with a School Attendance Order (SAO) could face heavier financial penalties and even prison, making it even harder for families to resist Local Authority pressure once enforcement begins.
For some families, the financial risk alone may force them to give up home education.
Those in areas who already use s437(1) and SAO powers to force compliance are held accountable by families who pursue things to court, but these changes make that risk inherently more dangerous.
Support is written in to the bill. However, there is a simple get out clause that the support the LA offers only needs to be what they deem appropriate – in other words most LAs will do nothing helpful.
A twice a year forum to be offered for home educators to discuss how the register, SAO process, mandatory visits, pilot etc are going. This is to be arranged by the LA, but no further details are given on what this would look like.
Supporters of the bill often say: “Good parents have nothing to worry about.”
Anyone who has worked with home educating families knows this is not how things play out.
Good Local Authorities may behave proportionately. May even include more support.
But the bad ones will use these powers aggressively.
They already misquote guidance.
They already demand information they are not entitled to.
They already pressure families into school-style education.
This bill gives them far more leverage.
Home educators are about to enter the most difficult legal landscape they have ever faced.
We must all respond to the EHE guidance consultation when it is released and then hope, and pray, or whatever you do, that some common sense prevails and the guidance is not as bad as we are expecting or that the weight of pushback will result in some amendments to that guidance (we can not change the bill now though).
The only thing that will limit how far Local Authorities push these powers is how well families understand the law — and how willing they are to challenge misuse of it.
Because once this bill passes, the real battle will not be in Parliament.
It will be happening in living rooms, inboxes, and council offices across the country.
Make sure to find us on social media.
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