The Department for Education (DfE) has published updated guidance for local authorities on the children in need census for 2025-2026, conducted under section 83 of the Children Act 1989. The main change involves renaming Primary Need code N1 from 'Abuse or neglect' to 'Abuse, neglect and exploitation' to align with Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance. The update also incorporates references to the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, recognising children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right and revises definitions for neglect and sexual abuse categories.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its updated guidance for local authorities on collecting and submitting early years funding data for 2025-2026. The guidance, outlines new requirements for termly headcount submissions covering entitlements for eligible working parents of 2-year-olds and under, plus early years pupil premium. A new digital form will be available from 2 June 2025, accompanied by an allocation adjustment calculation tool. The system introduces a revised allocation profile to align with how local authorities fund providers throughout the year.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its 'Enduring relationships for care-experienced children' policy paper to add information on lifelong guardianship ceremonies. The Lifelong Guardianship Ceremony Framework, developed by Home for Good in partnership with faith and belief leaders, draws on the direct experiences of care-experienced people. It provides a voluntary mechanism for care-experienced adults to publicly affirm enduring relationships with former foster carers, mentors, teachers or other trusted adults. The DfE states that the ceremony is symbolic and relational rather than legal, and does not create legal guardianship, transfer parental responsibility or replace statutory support. The framework is flexible and can be adapted across faith, belief, cultural and secular settings, and will continue to evolve in response to learning and feedback from care-experienced people, practitioners and communities.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its governance guide for further education and sixth-form college corporations in England. The latest update clarifies the frequency of board reviews in relation to local needs, aligning with the recently published college accountability agreement. This amendment appears in the 'Duty to review provision in relation to local needs' section. Furthermore, the guide now includes a link to Home Office guidance on the offence of failure to prevent fraud, as stipulated in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, within the 'Further reading and resources – Fraud and cyber security' section. These changes aim to enhance governance practices and fraud prevention measures in educational institutions.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published an update to the guidance for local authorities submitting Elective Home Education (EHE) and Children Missing Education (CME) data for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. The latest addition includes the 'EHE and CME data collection 2024 to 2025: notepad entries', which provides local authorities with information on the minimum notes required when addressing validation queries. This update complements the existing guide and validation rules, supporting local authorities in their statutory obligation to submit termly aggregate data on EHE and CME. The guidance outlines census dates, return deadlines and database closure dates for each term, emphasising the importance of accurate and timely data submission through the COLLECT system.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its statutory guidance 'Working together to safeguard children' with new materials designed for children and families. The update includes an illustrated guide, animated video, and practitioner toolkit, co-produced with children and young people through the DfE's Social Care Advisory Board and facilitated by the National Children's Bureau. The materials explain how organisations and agencies work together to help, support and protect children. This follows the December 2023 update, which strengthened multi-agency working across child protection systems. The guidance applies to all organisations and agencies with functions relating to children in England.

The Department for Education (DFE) has revised its guidance regarding the interaction between the Procurement Act 2023 and the Children and Families Act 2014. The February 2025 update removes specific references to provider types in relation to education provision contracts, clarifying that the applicability of the Procurement Act 2023 will be determined by the nature of the agreement rather than the type of provider.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published the establishing school-based nursery provision updated guidance. The update reflects new regulations that amend the prescribed alterations process for schools seeking to add a nursery provision.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its non-statutory guidance on establishing school-based nursery provision. The update reflects new requirements for maintained schools making prescribed alterations.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its guidance page on 'Further education: initial teacher education' to reflect the publication of the Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026, including the addition of five draft documents to support Parliamentary consideration of the regulations: 'List of specified further education initial teacher education training courses', 'Registration requirements for providers of specified further education initial teacher education', 'Delivery guidance for courses of further education initial teacher education', 'Curriculum content guidance for further education initial teacher education' and 'Provision of information requirements for providers of specified further education initial teacher education courses'. The 'Overview' page has also been updated to reflect the proposed changes for the 2026–27 academic year.

The Department for Education (DfE) has issued an update to its statutory guidance document 'Making significant changes ('prescribed alterations') to maintained schools' as of 3 March 2025. This guidance forms part of the broader framework governing organisational changes to local-authority-maintained schools, which is underpinned by the School Organisation Regulations 2013 and the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The guidance sets out mandatory processes for local authorities, governing bodies, and religious authorities when implementing prescribed alterations to schools. This statutory framework remains binding unless there are compelling reasons to deviate from it. The update follows previous modifications in October 2024 which reflected Ofsted's removal of single word judgements.

The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its statutory guidance on working or volunteering in regulated activity with children, reflecting changes made by the Crime and Policing Act 2026. The Act removes the supervision exemption from the definition of regulated activity, meaning unpaid activities such as teaching, training, instructing, or caring for or supervising children will constitute regulated activity if carried out on more than 3 days in a 30-day period or overnight, irrespective of supervision. From 1 September 2026, all volunteers engaging in regulated activity will be required to obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check with children's barred list information. The existing guidance (DFE-00016-2014) remains in force until 31 August 2026.