The Department for Education (DfE) has published its response to a consultation on strengthening oversight of franchising in higher education. Under the new approach, delivery partners with 300 or more franchised students will need to register with the Office for Students (OfS) for their courses to remain eligible for student finance. The DfE states the measure strengthens oversight of franchised provision.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its response to the national workload action group report, establishing several regulatory and policy measures for children's social care. The DfE will establish a children's social care data and digital centre of excellence to support local authorities' use of artificial intelligence, building on guidance published with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology that includes an ethics triage self-assessment tool. The department will collaborate with the Local Government Association and employer standards working group to review employer standards for social work, addressing hybrid working models, digital tools integration, and anti-discriminatory practice requirements. Additionally, the DfE will explore a partnership with the North West regional improvement pilot to test the supervision tool for assessing reflexivity and introduce support for practice supervisors alongside a new programme for social workers in their first two years. The department will also collect employment data on local authority employed family help practitioners and conduct evaluations of the Families First Partnership programme and preceding Pathfinder programme to assess workload impacts.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its response to the consultation on the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance. The updated guidance, set to come into effect on 1 September 2026, requires schools to update their curriculums and policies accordingly. Notable revisions include improved transparency with parents, the introduction of new content on online safety and sexual violence prevention, and the removal of previously proposed age limits for certain topics. The current 2019 guidance will continue in force until 31 August 2026, while the DfE transitions to a review schedule featuring technical reviews every three years and comprehensive content reviews every six years.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published statutory guidance on kinship care for those who work in and with local authority children's social care. The guidance lays out a framework for helping kinship families and how family networks can be used to support children's needs across the social care system, particularly for those who are unable to live with their parents. It specifically offers guidelines on how to carry out the responsibilities outlined in the Children Act 1989 with regard to children and young people who are being raised by friends, extended family, or other individuals who are connected to them because they are unable to live with their parents. The guidance covers the type of kinship arrangements and processes within the legal context and it futher covers the kinship local offer.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its strategy, ‘Enduring relationships for care-experienced children’, which aims to make maintaining and building trusted, lasting relationships with family, friends and other important adults a central focus of children’s social care and leaving-care services in England. The strategy calls on local authorities and partners to reflect this approach in care planning, placement and sufficiency decisions, family contact, advocacy, fostering, reunification and support for care leavers, including family-finding programmes such as Lifelong Links. It also signals further national action, including a proposed enduring-relationships measure for the children’s social care dashboard and Ofsted inspection frameworks, revised fostering standards, guidance on advocacy and the care-leaver local offer and wider implementation of Staying Close and regional care co-operatives.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its update for 26 November 2025, which covers funding, assurance, and resource management for academies, local authorities, and further education providers in England. The update includes: (1) information on R14 provisional qualification achievement rates for 2024–25; (2) updates to the college financial planning handbook and; (3) a deadline extension for further education workforce and governor data collection.

The Department for Education (DfE) has made two updates to its Core schools budget grant (CSBG) guidance documentation. The changes include a correction to the CSBG spreadsheet title to accurately reflect 'April to August 2025 allocations' and the addition of academies' CSBG allocation data for April to August 2025.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published updated guidance on the experience-based route for early years staff, replacing the previous non-statutory version to reflect changes to the law in force from 1 January 2026. The guidance incorporates the new Ofsted inspection framework and continues to allow certain experienced practitioners in England who do not hold a full and relevant level 3 qualification to be treated as level 3, subject to assessment and provider eligibility requirements.

The Department for Education has updated its guidance on initial teacher training (ITT) criteria for the 2024-2025 academic year. The updated statutory guidance introduces changes to postgraduate teaching apprenticeship requirements. It amends the C2.1 Programme structure requirements to include additional compulsory subject, excluded in the national curriculum, in ITT curriculums for primary trainees.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published updated statutory guidance for local authorities in England on the care leaver local offer, effective from 30 September 2026. The guidance reflects changes introduced by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 and requires local authorities to review and update their local offers by that date. It sets out how authorities must consult on, publish and maintain clear, accessible information for care-experienced young people on statutory entitlements and discretionary support, with particular focus on accommodation, homelessness prevention, financial literacy, access to services and support for relationships and community connections. The guidance also emphasises that local offers should be developed through a whole-council approach, involving departments beyond children’s services and relevant partner organisations.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its guidance on information sharing to safeguard children and young people, which is now statutory guidance for the new information-sharing duty under section 16LA of the Children Act 2004 and has published its response to the related consultation. The duty, introduced by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, comes into force in England on 30 September 2026 and requires relevant organisations to share information relevant to safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare. The guidance applies to practitioners and organisations across local government, health, policing, education, early years, primary care and youth justice, and is accompanied by strategic and operational template data-sharing agreements for local adaptation.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published the policy paper on Every Child Achieving and Thriving, setting out a ten-year reform programme for schools and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England, alongside the 6,500 Additional Teachers Delivery Plan and a consultation on SEND reform.