The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has been laid before Parliament and is awaiting its second reading in the House of Commons.

It includes a raft of measures that impact schools - particularly on academy powers.

Alongside the bill, the Department for Education (DfE) has published a 129-page detailed policy document setting out how the bill will affect schools.

Tes has combed through the details to condense all the key points below:

Teacher pay and conditions

The statutory teacher pay and conditions framework will be extended to include teachers in academies - including in alternative provision (AP).

Academies will also be required to follow guidance concerning the implementation of pay orders.

The government will ask the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to make recommendations on changes to the national framework and consider “additional flexibilities”.

There will be a consultation period, which will include representations from the academy sector. The changes will not be brought in before September 2026.

It is currently unclear how the change will impact trusts that pay above the national deal.

A Tes investigation earlier this year found that 12 trusts - out of 625 that responded - said they exceeded the national pay scale, while a further 21 differentiated on smaller points of the deal or provided staff with additional benefits.

For example, United Learning paid 5.6 per cent above national pay and conditions as of June this year, using freedoms granted under previous governments.

Schools minister Catherine McKinnell told Tes that “no teacher should suffer detriment” as a result of the changes.

Asked for more clarification, the DfE later stated: ”No teacher will see their pay cut.”

But the department declined to confirm that trusts would be able to continue offering enhanced pay and conditions to new staff, simply saying: “The government will remit the STRB to make recommendations on changes to the national framework, including for new teachers, before we apply it across all schools”.

In policy notes, the DfE said: “We know that most schools, including most academies, want this.” Tes has asked the DfE what this is based on.

• News: Schools minister refuses to rule out trust pay cuts
• Investigation: How trusts use teacher pay freedoms
• Related: ‘Failing’ schools won’t have to academise under Labour bill

Pensions

Tes understands the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is not in scope for this bill.

United Learning announced earlier this year that it is planning to introduce an alternative teacher pension scheme, which would offer the trust’s teachers the chance to earn more take-home pay in the hope of improving recruitment and retention.

In a Teacher Tapp survey in July of more than 10,000 teachers, 19 per cent of respondents said they would opt for a change in their pension. More than a quarter of teachers in their twenties said they would choose a higher salary and lower pension contributions.

Forced academisation

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill ends automatic forced academisation for failing schools, but it remains a discretionary power the secretary of state can use.

The DfE said this would open up a “broader range of levers to quickly drive up standards”.

However, “for the worst performing schools, we expect that the secretary of state will continue to issue an academy order,” the DfE said.

Where academisation is deemed not to be necessary, the school can be improved through other means - such as the Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence Teams (RISE) teams, which will organise targeted support for schools.

While Ofsted will no longer give a headline grade, it will still report when schools are in a category causing concern. The DfE said it expects the number of schools in scope to be low - as it is currently around 2 per cent of schools.

Ofsted will identify schools causing concern and then the DfE will decide which action is “more appropriate in the context to drive high standards”.

Compliance notices for academy trusts

The bill will also create a power that allows the education secretary to direct academy trusts deemed not to be complying with legal duties or that are “acting or proposing to act unreasonably”.

In this situation, DfE officials will write to a trust to tell it the education secretary is minded to issue a direction and the trust will be asked to make representations. A direction will be issued to tell the trust what to do if the DfE is not satisfied with the trust’s response.

This will be an alternative intervention mechanism besides termination warning notices, which the DfE can currently issue to academy trusts.

A direction under the new power may be issued in the case a trust’s uniform does not conform to new requirements, or if a trust has failed to deal with a parental complaint. Tes has asked the DfE for more detail on situations these directions could be issued in.

If a trust does not comply with the direction, the DfE will continue taking further action - which could include formal legal action or a termination warning notice.

Qualified teacher status and inductions

As part of the bill, all new teachers in state primary and secondary schools will be required to have QTS or be working towards it. This will come in from 1 September 2026.

Teachers will also be required to complete a statutory induction period.

Currently, early career teachers are encouraged to start their induction as soon as possible after gaining QTS, but there is no set time limit for starting or completing this. The current guidance states an induction period should be the full-time equivalent of two school years.

Guidance will be made available to schools before September 2026 to help them meet this requirement.

National curriculum

The bill will require academy schools to follow the National Curriculum as maintained schools have to.

The curriculum and assessment review is ongoing. It is expected to publish an interim report in early 2025 and final recommendations in the autumn. The DfE said it expects it will take “several years after that for its recommendations to be implemented”.

The recommendations will also be consulted on. Academy schools will not be required to follow the National Curriculum until the process has concluded and the revised National Curriculum has been developed.

‘Not in school’ registers

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces registers of children who are not in school, for every council in England. Local authorities will be required to provide support to parents of children on the registers.

Currently, parents do not need to inform the local authority if they are home educating.

New duties will mean parents will need local authority consent to home educate if their child is on a child protection plan, at a special school that arrangements were made for by the council, or subject to an enquiry.

Local authority admission powers and co-operation

Councils will be given greater powers to ensure admissions decisions reflect local needs. Local authorities can already direct maintained schools to admit children - the bill will extend this to academies.

The DfE said the levers currently available to councils are “not always effective”, and this can result in some children being left without a school place for too long.

Currently, if a council wants to place a child in an academy, it has to ask the education secretary to make this direction. The DfE said this extra step can create a further delay in a child getting a place at school.

Like maintained schools, academies will be able to appeal to the Schools Adjudicator when they disagree with a decision. 

The bill also includes a measure that will allow the Schools Adjudicator to set a school’s published admission number (PAN) when an objection against it is upheld. Councils will be able to object to a school’s PAN if it thinks the number does not meet the needs of the local community.

The adjudicator will be able to set the PAN for up to two years.

The DfE said it intends to make changes to the School Admissions Code to require admissions authorities to consider both community needs and local authority views when setting a PAN.

New duties will also be introduced for councils and schools to co-operate on admissions and place planning.

New schools

Under new measures, local authorities will be able to invite proposals for all types of school to meet the need for new provision - where previously they could only invite proposals for a new academy.

This includes voluntary and foundation schools, and also for the council to put forward its own proposals for community, foundation or pupil referral units.

Councils will publish a notice inviting proposals when they think a new provision is required. The council will then decide which proposal to approve if it has not put forward its own school proposal.

If the council has put forward its own proposal, the education secretary will decide, though in practice decisions will be made by regional directors on her behalf.

Provision for improving behaviour

The bill also extends legislation allowing maintained schools to temporarily direct pupils to another location to improve their behaviour - known as an off-site direction - to academies.

Currently, academies arrange off-site provision under general powers. The DfE said the bill does not intend to change how this is done - it will simply place academies and maintained schools on the same statutory footing.

For academies, this new statutory footing will mean having to notify local authorities this is happening if the pupil has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Under the safeguards in the measure, academies will also have to establish the objectives of the placement, fully inform parents, and keep any placements under review.

An off-site direction does not require parental consent.

Breakfast clubs

The bill writes into law the requirement for all primary schools to offer access to free breakfast clubs before school. This must last at least thirty minutes and provide pupils with food.

It will also make sure School Food Standards will apply to all schools equally - as currently a “small number of academies” are only required to comply with these standards for lunchtime only.

Schools will be provided with funding and guidance will be issued on how to best use this for breakfast clubs.

Non-statutory guidance will be published in early 2025 for the first 750 schools to adopt the free breakfast clubs. A support package will be developed from these pilot schools to help work with schools that face barriers to setting up breakfast clubs.

£7 million of funding was initially announced to begin the rollout of breakfast clubs. This will increase to £30 million in 2025-26.

Breakfast club attendance will be optional.

The DfE said it expects there may be some “exceptional circumstances” where schools cannot meet the breakfast club duty where it would “seriously prejudice the efficient use of resources or not be in the best interest of their pupils”.

The education secretary will be able to issue an exemption in these cases after an application process.

School uniform branded items limit

The bill will set a limit of three on the number of branded items of school uniform and P.E kit that primary schools can require pupils to have.

Secondary schools will be allowed to have one additional branded uniform item - but one of the four must be a tie.

Schools decide which items of uniform they want pupils to have branded items for. Branded items includes anything with the school name or logo attached or that is non-standard design, and is therefore only available from certain suppliers.

The policy covers the entire academic year - as such, schools could not require a branded summer and winter uniform if the number of branded items takes them over the limit.