Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026: Changes to academies

The Act is separated into two parts:

• Part 1 concerning children’s social care
• Part 2 directly applying to schools

This article focuses on the key changes involving academies.

Duty to teach the National Curriculum

Section 54 of the Act introduces a statutory requirement for Academies to teach the National Curriculum from September 2026.  This brings academies into line with maintained schools and removes one of the freedoms of the academies programme. The Academies Act 2010 already requires academies to offer a “balanced and broadly based curriculum”, which under the terms of the Funding Agreement must include English, maths, science and religious education.

National Pay

The Act mandates that Academy Trusts must follow national teacher pay and conditions. Whilst many academies follow the national framework, there was historically the freedom to deviate from it. The new approach will prevent pay reductions but still allow trusts to pay higher than the national rate.

Mobile Phones

Existing guidance on mobile phones that states that schools should be mobile phone free by default is now to become statutory from September 2026. The guidance does not require schools to ban phones from the school site, instead they may, for example, be kept in lockers. Now, schools will have a legal duty to have regard to this guidance.  Schools should accordingly ensure the use of mobile phone policies and/or behaviour policies are updated as appropriate.

Admissions

Academies are now subject to the Local Authority (LA) having the power to direct admissions. This power previously only applied to maintained schools. It will enable a LA to direct an academy providing suitable education, that is located within a reasonable distance from the child’s home to admit the child, even if the school is full.  The LA will need to demonstrate that the child has been refused admission or been permanently excluded from every suitable school within a reasonable distance from home.  Academies should clearly set out in any challenge if such a placement would be unsuitable and/or cause prejudice during the consultation process.  There will also be a right of appeal to the Schools Adjudicator.

Furthermore, LA’s will now have a more far reaching the power to admit the following children without needing to demonstrate they have been refused admission or permanently excluded from all schools within a reasonable distance: children placed under the LA’s Fair Access Protocol and/or previously looked after children. The requirement to consult and the right of appeal to the Schools Adjudicator will, however, still apply in these circumstances.

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Local Authority power to establish Academy Trusts

Section 65 of the Act establishes a new power for Local Authority’s to establish academy trusts. In order to do this, the LA must publish a notice under section 65 to invite proposals for the establishment of a new school. The relevant authority must consult the Secretary of State about the proposal before taking any decision.

Ofsted

Ofsted’s inspection of multi-academy trusts (MATs) is on the horizon. However, these inspections of MATs are not expected to start until 2027-28.

Changes to Special Educational Needs

The Act mandates a major overall of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system in England, given the spiralling costs. The changes include the introduction of statutory digital individual support plans  (ISPs) for children with SEND, intended to be implemented by September 2029. The reforms see a shift in how support is delivered, with some children on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) transitioning to ISPs.  Children with complex needs will be entitled to new national “Specialist Provision Packages”.  Whilst this will standardise support offered, there is concern that these may not be sufficiently individualised for each child.

All pupils with SEND will receive an ISP with three levels of support: targeted, targeted plus and specialist. Only children on the specialist tier will receive an EHCP. For anyone without an EHCP, the contents of the ISP would not be considered by SEND tribunals. That will inevitably risk increasing the number of SEND complaints by parents to schools.

Next steps

If you would like assistance with these changes – be it updating school policies; training on the SEND changes; or support with parental complaints, we can support you. The changes to academies are significant, so knowing your position and how the changes affect your academy are paramount.