Children's School and Wellbeing Act (2026)

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 represents one of the most significant reforms to children's social care and safeguarding in recent years. For safeguarding partnerships, the key learning is the increased emphasis on early intervention, family-led support, stronger multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, and improved accountability across the system.

Key Messages for Safeguarding Partners:

1. Earlier help for families

• Local authorities will be required to offer Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) before seeking to take a child into care wherever appropriate.
• The legislation strengthens the principle that families should be supported to safely care for children whenever possible.

2. Stronger multi-agency safeguarding

• The Act strengthens the role of education within safeguarding arrangements and introduces multi-agency child protection teams.
• There is greater emphasis on agencies sharing information effectively to identify risks and protect children sooner.

3. Better information sharing

• New provisions support more consistent information sharing between agencies and the development of systems to improve the identification and tracking of children who may be vulnerable or at risk.

4. Greater support for kinship carers and care leavers

• Kinship carers are formally recognised in law and local authorities must provide a clear local offer of support.
• Additional measures strengthen support for care leavers, including expanded "Staying Close" arrangements and protections around homelessness.

5. Increased oversight of children's social care providers

• The Act introduces stronger regulation, financial oversight and accountability of children's social care providers, alongside measures to tackle poor-quality and unregistered provision.
• Ofsted is given additional enforcement powers.

6. Focus on children missing education

• New requirements relating to children not in school aim to improve visibility of children who may be vulnerable and ensure they receive appropriate support and safeguarding oversight.

What This Means for Safeguarding Partnerships:

Safeguarding partners should ensure that local arrangements:

• Promote early help and family-led decision making.
• Strengthen multi-agency information sharing.
• Include education partners as key safeguarding contributors.
• Improve support pathways for kinship carers and care leavers.
• Monitor the implementation of new statutory duties and reforms across the partnership.

The Act reinforces a whole-system approach to safeguarding, with a stronger focus on prevention, partnership working, family support and improving outcomes for children and young people