Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026

An Act delivering wide-ranging reforms to children’s social care and education. It strengthens safeguarding, information sharing, and corporate parenting duties for looked-after and kinship children, and tightens oversight and penalties for providers. In schools, it introduces new rules on meals, attendance, admissions, and governance of academies/independent schools, plus online safety and data-processing protections and related UK-wide provisions.

This Lords publication is the marshalled list of motions for the Lords to consider Commons amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It records Lords Amendments 37 and 38 proposing a VPN ban for UK children and mandatory age‑verification/social‑media wellbeing measures aligned with the Online Safety Act, which the Commons oppose and replace with amendments in lieu (38A onwards) to extend powers for ISPs to restrict or prevent child access to internet services, plus changes to age of consent rules and related safeguards, with timelines and reporting requirements. The document also details the ongoing parliamentary cross‑party dispute, including further amendments (38J and related 38V–38X, 38Z series) and the procedures for debating and finalising these provisions.

The Lords push for a new clause to promote children’s wellbeing online, including providing parental guidance on social media use and requiring strong age checks for under-16s on regulated services, with regulations enforceable under the Online Safety Act 2023. The Commons respond with amendments (38J and related) to give powers to internet providers to block or restrict children’s access, introduce age-verification and consent rules for information society services, require a progress statement and curriculum content, and set timelines. The Lords counter with amendments in lieu and the debate focuses on how to regulate online safety for children, including age thresholds, enforcement, and regulatory oversight.

The supplementary memorandum explains a new/updated power that lets the Secretary of State make regulations about how the Schools Adjudicator decides Published Admission Numbers (PANs). The regulations would require the adjudicator to consult additional parties (potentially including religious bodies) and to consider factors such as infant class sizes, the quality of education, and parental preference across the school and local area. The measure remains subject to negative parliamentary procedure, with the aim of keeping decision-making aligned with evolving accountability measures.