What the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Means for MAT Governance

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has prompted widespread discussion across the education sector. Much of the debate has focused on the proposed changes themselves, from greater oversight of academies to new expectations around safeguarding, admissions, attendance, and collaboration with local authorities. For multi-academy trusts, however, the conversation extends beyond policy. The question many trust leaders are asking is not simply what will change, but how they can deliver those changes without adding further pressure to already stretched teams.

Because behind every governance requirement sits a chain of people responsible for making it happen.

Trust boards need confidence that policies are being followed consistently across their schools. Central teams need visibility into performance, spending, and risk. School business leaders need the tools to manage resources effectively. Senior leadership teams need the time and headspace to focus on creating safe, supportive environments where children can thrive. When those links become strained, it is children who feel the impact most.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aims to strengthen protections for children and improve standards across education (Department for Education, 2024). The Bill includes provisions relating to safeguarding, attendance, academies, admissions, and wider school accountability (UK Parliament, 2026).

Governance Is Moving Closer to the Classroom

The direction of travel is clear. Schools are being asked to demonstrate greater accountability, stronger oversight, and more consistent standards across a growing range of responsibilities. While governance frameworks are often discussed at trust level, their impact is felt every day within individual schools. A purchasing decision made by a department head. An urgent safeguarding-related expense. A contract renewal for specialist support services. An invoice awaiting approval. Each decision contributes to the bigger picture of how effectively resources are being managed to support educational outcomes.

The challenge for many trusts is that these processes are still fragmented. Approvals happen through emails. Budget monitoring relies on spreadsheets. Information is stored across multiple systems. As expectations increase, these approaches become harder to sustain.

The Confederation of School Trusts has highlighted that the Bill includes changes affecting the legal framework for academies and school trusts, increasing the importance of effective governance and operational consistency across MATs (Confederation of School Trusts, 2025).

The Pressure on School Leaders Is Growing

School leaders have always carried significant responsibility.

Today, many are balancing educational leadership with increasing administrative demands, financial pressures, and governance requirements. The result is a growing concern across the sector about workload and retention. Tes reported that 74% of school staff had considered leaving the profession over the previous 12 months due to pressures affecting their wellbeing (Tes, 2024). While no single factor explains this trend, administrative burden plays an important role. Time spent chasing approvals, reconciling budgets, and gathering information for reporting is time taken away from leading teams, supporting staff, and focusing on pupils. For senior leadership teams, this can create an uncomfortable tension.

The responsibility to deliver excellent outcomes remains constant, while the complexity of managing the organisation continues to increase.

Better Processes Create Better Outcomes

The answer is not to reduce accountability. Strong governance matters. Parents, regulators, and communities rightly expect schools to demonstrate that resources are being used effectively and decisions are being made transparently. The challenge is ensuring that governance supports schools rather than overwhelming them. When purchasing, invoices, expenses, approvals, payments, and reporting sit within connected processes, accountability becomes part of the everyday workflow rather than an additional administrative exercise. School business leaders gain clearer visibility into budgets and commitments. Trust finance teams gain confidence that policies are being applied consistently across every school.

Senior leadership teams spend less time managing processes and more time leading their schools.

Relief at Every Level of the Trust

The benefits of stronger processes extend beyond finance teams. Trust leaders gain confidence that each school is operating within agreed policies and budgets without needing to request information manually. School business leaders spend less time gathering evidence and more time supporting strategic decisions. Senior leaders feel less pressure because they are no longer carrying the burden of fragmented processes and reactive reporting. This creates a more sustainable environment for everyone involved. Most importantly, it helps ensure that operational challenges do not distract from the core purpose of education. Every hour spent resolving administrative issues is an hour not spent supporting staff development, improving teaching, or enhancing pupil wellbeing.

Creating the Conditions for Children to Thrive

Children may never see the approval workflows, budget reports, or audit trails that sit behind the scenes. But they experience the outcomes. They experience schools where leaders have the time to focus on creating safe, supportive environments. They benefit from resources reaching the right places at the right time. They feel the impact of stable leadership teams that are able to focus on education rather than administration. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill seeks to strengthen accountability across the education system. For trusts, the opportunity is to build the processes that make that accountability sustainable. Because effective governance is not about creating more work.

It is about creating the conditions in which children receive the education they deserve.

References
Confederation of School Trusts (2025) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Available at: https://cstuk.org.uk/resources/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill (Accessed: 19 June 2026).
Department for Education (2024) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2024: policy summary. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-2024-policy-summary (Accessed: 19 June 2026).
Tes (2024) Teachers’ views on wellbeing revealed in new survey. Available at: https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-staff-views-wellbeing-revealed-survey (Accessed: 19 June 2026).
UK Parliament (2026) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. Available at: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909 (Accessed: 19 June 2026).