Children Law Updates for Social Workers, Guardians & Legal Professionals
Clear, practical guidance on the Children Act 1989, safeguarding, case law, and frontline practice.
Article for Lawyers and Social workers – A Review of changes brought by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
As the dust settles on the introduction to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, I take a review of this landmark legislation that received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and compare it with the Children Act 1989. We need to remind ourselves that we have to embrace the realities of the changes introduced by the Act and incorporate them into our various practice as social workers or caseworker or advocates. This Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 has implemented sweeping structural reforms spanning education, child protection, and online safety. We now need to keep in mind the key amendments at every stage of child protection and working with vulnerable families. I consider the key changes to practice in this article.
A central objective of this Act is modernising, tightening, and reframing specific provisions of the foundational Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989). It shifts Local Authority duties toward family preservation, multi-agency visibility, and structured statutory frameworks.
Below is a summary of how the 2026 Act amends specific provisions of the Children Act 1989. I will also prepare a video which takes a detailed view of the changes.
Summary of Amendments to the Children Act 1989
| Provision Amended (Children Act 1989) | Core Mechanism of the 2026 Amendment | Primary Strategic Objective |
| Section 31 (Care Orders & Pre-Proceedings) | Mandates a Family Group Decision-Making (FGDM) meeting before filing. | Priority of kinship care over state intervention. |
| Section 25 (Secure Accommodation) | Restructures the framework to authorize Deprivation of Liberty (DoL). | Regulates alternative therapeutic settings. |
| Section 22(3A) (Duties to Looked-After Children) | Inserts an explicit duty to promote whole/step-sibling contact. | Preserves family bonds while in care. |
| Section 23C / 24 (Care Leavers) | Places “Staying Close” schemes on a mandatory statutory footing. | Eradicates regional post-care support disparities. |
| Section 17 / Part 3 (Safeguarding Partners) | Mandates multi-agency child protection teams and education partners. | Eliminates information silos with a unique ID. |
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