CNIS Register Update, August 2026: What We Actually Know

In April, the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent and the Children Not in School (CNIS) register officially became part of English law. Four months on, the register still is not live, no family has been asked to sign up, and no commencement date has been announced.

That is not the whole story, though. Several pieces of the mechanism around the register, who will need consent to deregister, how the new pre-withdrawal meeting will actually work, and what Wales is doing differently, have become considerably clearer since April. None of it changes what you need to do today. All of it is worth knowing.

The register still is not live. What has changed is how much clearer the mechanics around it have become.

Where things stood in April

On 29 April 2026, the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent, completing its passage through Parliament. You can read the Act in full on legislation.gov.uk, rather than relying on anyone's summary of it, including this one.

Royal Assent means the Act is now law. It does not mean every duty inside it has started to apply. Large parts of the Act, including the Children Not in School register itself, only take effect once the government lays separate commencement regulations bringing specific sections into force. At the time of writing, no commencement regulations for the register had been made, and most legal commentary expects the register to become mandatory from 2027 at the earliest.

What is genuinely new since then

Nothing below changes your legal position today. But if you read about the CNIS register in April and have not looked at it since, here is what has actually moved on.

• The consent-to-deregister mechanism has a clearer shape. The Act sets out exactly which children will need local authority consent before a parent can withdraw them from school to home educate, and what happens if that consent is refused.
• The pre-withdrawal meeting has been confirmed as a pilot, not a nationwide day-one rule. Early coverage of the Act left the impression that every family withdrawing a child from school would have to attend a meeting with their local authority first. The detail that has since emerged is narrower than that.
• Wales's own route into the register is clearer. The Senedd formally agreed to adopt the Children Not in School provisions, but Wales is not simply inheriting England's regulations wholesale.
• Safeguarding guidance has started appearing, even though the register has not. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published new resources for practitioners, which can look confusing if you assume they mean the register itself is now active.
• More detail on what the register will actually ask for. Commentary since April has set out, in more concrete terms, the categories of information families are expected to provide once registration does begin.

Consent to deregister: who it will affect

Under the Act, a parent will need their local authority's consent before withdrawing what the Act calls a "relevant child" from school to home educate. A child counts as relevant in two situations. Condition A covers a child attending a special school, or an independent school making special educational provision for a child with special educational needs. Condition B covers a child who is, or has been within the previous five years, the subject of a local authority child protection investigation or safeguarding action.

A school will not be able to remove a relevant child from its roll until the local authority has given its consent, and the local authority can refuse if it believes regular school attendance is in the child's best interests, or that the proposed home education would be inadequate. If consent is refused, a parent can refer the decision to the Secretary of State in England, or Welsh Ministers in Wales, who can uphold the refusal or overturn it.

For most home educating families, none of this applies. The consent requirement is narrow and targeted, not a general gate parents will need to pass through to home educate.

The pre-withdrawal meeting: pilot, not a national rollout

The Act also creates a duty on the Secretary of State, and separately on Welsh Ministers, to pilot regulations requiring a meeting between parent and local authority before a child is withdrawn from school for home education, discussing the parent's educational duties, the support available, the reasons for home educating, and any safeguarding concerns, with the child normally expected to attend too, barring exceptional circumstances. What has become clear since April is that this starts life as a pilot, running in no more than 30% of local authorities, for somewhere between two and five years, rather than switching on everywhere at once.

Wales: opted in, but not on England's exact timeline

In March 2026, the Senedd agreed a Legislative Consent Motion and formally voted to adopt the Children Not in School provisions for Wales. That decision was made just before Royal Assent, but what has become clearer since is what it actually means in practice: Wales is expected to mirror England's approach in substance, a register built around data collection rather than curriculum approval, but Welsh implementation depends on the Welsh Government's own secondary legislation and statutory guidance, developed separately from England's. Read the Welsh Government's own position on gov.wales. There is no guarantee both nations will reach commencement on the same date.

Why safeguarding guidance is already appearing

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has launched a national learning hub and published briefings for safeguarding practitioners covering children who are home educated, have low school attendance, or are missing education. This can read as though the register itself has quietly gone live. It has not. These briefings sit under existing safeguarding law and duties that already apply to statutory agencies, entirely independent of whether the CNIS register has been switched on, which is exactly why this guidance did not need to wait for commencement.

What the register will actually ask for, once it exists

Once registration does begin, families are expected to provide the child's and parent's details and contact information, an outline of the education being provided, including subjects, approach, and routines, and any adaptations for special educational needs, and the names and contact details of any tutors, providers, or group classes used, updating the register whenever arrangements change. The exact forms and thresholds still depend on regulations that have not yet been published, so treat this as the expected shape rather than a final specification.

What to watch for next

None of this needs action from you today. It is simply the shortlist of things that, once they happen, will actually start the clock: a commencement date for the register, confirmation of whether the pre-withdrawal meeting pilot includes your local authority, Welsh Government secondary legislation reaching its own final stage, and updated Department for Education guidance once a statutory instrument is laid before Parliament.

Then vs now: a quick comparison

A quick-reference summary of what was known in April against what is known now, in case a table is easier to scan than the detail above.

Whatever the eventual commencement date turns out to be, the underlying habit that will make it painless is the same one that already helps with any Local Authority contact today: a simple, ongoing record of what your child is learning. That does not need to wait for a register to be worth starting.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Children Not in School register live yet?

No. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and creates the register in law, but the duty to register does not take effect until the government makes separate commencement regulations, and none had been made at the time of writing. Most commentators expect the register to become mandatory from 2027 at the earliest.

Who will need consent to deregister once the Act is fully in force?

Under the Act, a parent will need local authority consent before withdrawing what the Act calls a "relevant child" from school to home educate. This covers two situations: a child attending a special school, or an independent school making special educational provision for a child with SEN (Condition A), and a child who is, or has within the previous five years been, the subject of a local authority child protection investigation or safeguarding action (Condition B). A school will not be able to remove a relevant child from its roll until the local authority has given consent. If consent is refused, a parent can refer the decision to the Secretary of State, or Welsh Ministers in Wales, who can uphold the refusal or overturn it.

Does anything I need to do change right now?

No, not yet. Because most Children Not in School duties, including the register itself, only come into force once the government lays commencement regulations, families do not currently need to register with their local authority or seek consent to deregister outside the circumstances that already applied before the Act. The sensible approach is to keep good records as normal and watch for an official commencement date rather than acting early on provisions that are not yet switched on.

Why is the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel publishing resources already, if the register is not live?

Because its resources are about existing safeguarding duties, not the register. The Panel has launched a national learning hub and published briefings for practitioners on the safeguarding risks some children face when they are not in school, and on how safeguarding responsibilities are shared across different statutory agencies. Those underlying safeguarding duties already apply regardless of whether the CNIS register has been switched on, which is why this guidance did not need to wait for commencement.

Will Wales and England follow the same timeline?

Not necessarily. The Senedd voted in March 2026 to adopt the Children Not in School provisions for Wales, so the substance is expected to mirror England's approach. However, Welsh implementation depends on the Welsh Government's own secondary legislation and statutory guidance, which is being developed separately from England's, so the two nations are not guaranteed to reach commencement on the same date.

Where can I check for the most current, authoritative information?

Go back to a primary source rather than a summary, including this one. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is published in full on legislation.gov.uk, and the Department for Education publishes commencement regulations and guidance on gov.uk as they are made. For Wales, the Welsh Government publishes its own guidance and statements on gov.wales. Checking the date of anything you read matters too, since this area of law is actively developing.

Further reading

• Elective home education legal rights in England: myth vs fact
• What records do home educators need to keep in England
• What is a suitable education? The 3 legal tests home educators should know

Little Folio is a record-keeping app built for home educating families in England. Log activities, store evidence, manage Local Authority correspondence, and generate professional reports in one place.

Last updated: August 2026. This post is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. Verify against current official guidance and seek independent advice for your specific circumstances.