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Home Education Alliance · May 4, 2026

4th May 2026 - The CWS Act Has Passed

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Home Education Alliance · Home Education Alliance

This week brought a significant milestone as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill officially received Royal Assent to become an Act. It was a tight timeline right before Parliament moved into prorogation and we know many of you have been watching the developments closely.

The most critical takeaway right now is that the Act is not yet fully implemented.

The Department for Education (DfE) has sent out clear letters to both parents and local authorities confirming that the passing of the Act does not mean immediate changes. The DfE has instructed local authorities that they must continue to adhere to the existing 2019 Elective Home Education guidance.

The letters also outline the exact roadmap ahead. Before any changes happen, there will be a public consultation on draft statutory guidance and regulations. After that, Parliament must vote on most of those regulations, followed by a pre-implementation period to allow local authorities to prepare and assess their funding needs.

When the measures do eventually come into force, the letters confirm they will include compulsory Children Not in School registers, a duty on local authorities to provide advice and information, changes to make the School Attendance Order (SAO) process ‘more efficient’ and pilots for mandatory meetings before deregistration. Local authority consent will be required to withdraw children who attend special schools, are subject to current section 47 enquiries or have been on a child protection plan in the past five years.

If your local authority jumps the gun and attempts to enforce these new powers prematurely, you are well within your rights to point them to this official DfE communication and hold your ground.

Parliamentary questions continue to provide opportunities for scrutiny and clarification. This week alone, right before Parliament moved into prorogation, eight written questions relevant to our community were answered, exposing the lack of planning behind this legislation.

Recent responses have been incredibly revealing. When challenged about the financial impact on families, the government admitted their lack of cost estimates for providing free GCSE examinations to home-schooled pupils. They expect to monitor outcomes but are making zero provisions to fund access to qualifications.

Other critical questions are forcing the Department for Education to clarify the logistics of the proposed 15-day limit for local authority visits and demanding answers on what provisions will be made for home-educated children with SEND and Emotionally Based School Avoidance.

We highly recommend writing to your local MP to ask them to submit further Oral and Written Questions to keep the pressure on.

Because the statutory guidance is still being formed, participating in government consultations is one of the most effective ways to disrupt harmful policies. There are currently several open consultations that will directly impact our families.

We strongly urge you to carve out some time this week to respond to the national consultation on growing up in the online world and the call for evidence regarding making public services work for you with your digital identity. They are especially important given the troubling digital powers embedded in the later amendments of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act. As highlighted by Open Rights Group’s stark warning, expanding age identification to access online platforms risks creating a system of digital checkpoints for everyone.

Also if your child has additional needs, please ensure your voice is heard in the consultation on SEND reform and putting children first.

We are not backing down. Moving forward, the campaign is officially rebranding to “Fix the CWS Act”. We will be pushing back aggressively against the abhorrent elements of this legislation.

Here is how you can help this week:

  • Take the Survey: Please fill out the Home Education Futures survey. The data gathered here will be presented to politicians ahead of the September party conferences.

  • Sign the Petitions: Make sure you sign and share the active parliamentary petitions, specifically the call to withdraw the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill immediately. If we surpass 100,000 signatures, it forces a parliamentary debate.

  • Join the Action Meetings: Fix The CWS Act are holding three Zoom meetings this Monday (day of publishing) at 10:00 am, 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm to generate campaign ideas and unite our efforts. We’ll see you there.

We’re taking a short break to regroup and recharge. Keep an eye out on Fix The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act and Home Education Alliance Facebook Pages for further updates and join the Home Education Action Facebook Group and Discord.

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