The 2026 schools white paper: rebuilding education around the whole child

The publication of the 2026 schools white paper, ‘Every child achieving and thriving’, marks a turning point in how England conceptualises education. It sees education not just as a conveyor of academic attainment, but as part of a broader ecosystem that shapes children’s lives from birth through to adulthood. The white paper is fairly explicit in its recognition that childhood is changing (this is visible in my household as I navigate motherhood with my four young ones ranging 4-14), and that education must adapt with it. 

The white paper offers a mandate to leaders (and not just education leaders, but more widely to leaders across health and social care, and employers too) to reimagine the system around the whole child, rather than centring children around ‘the system’. Surely this has to be the right way forward? Children do not experience themselves as components within a system. They experience themselves as humans learning, growing, and navigating their worlds, and we all need to help them flourish. 

The white paper approach is akin to the work of Toby Lowe's human learning systems and the thinking of colleagues in our Stone King public services consultancy: that public services function best when designed around human relationships, learning, and place-based collaboration, not managerial targets or rigid accountability structures.

On life beyond the school gates…

I also like the explicit reference in the white paper to “life beyond the school gate”. It openly acknowledges that “past governments’ narrow focus on what happens only within the school gates” has perhaps contributed to rising absence, family disengagement, and services in fragmentation. As the work of Steve Chalke, Oasis Community Learning founder, consistently shows, children’s lives are shaped by the communities, relationships, and support networks that surround them, and there are wider actors at play that also need to wrap around that. He is consistently emphasising that, if our society invests early in children - through strong families, early years, supportive communities, and integrated services - we can absolutely prevent crises later on, and reduce the social and financial costs that come from unmet need. 

On the importance of early years and joining up educational phases of education…

The Department for Education’s new direction emphasises a broad vision of childhood starting at birth - with early years, family services, health, SEND support, and education understood as a single connected system - and investment in Best Start family hubs, breakfast clubs, and improvements to local services supporting families. There is reference to rebuilding connections between early years providers, colleges, other schools, health teams, employers and local authorities, supporting a “team around the child” model. This aligns closely with whole-child frameworks used internationally and through Stone King’s wider public service transformation work, recognising that education is shaped as much by family stability, community support, health needs, and cultural belonging as by what happens in classrooms. 

Early years provision receives a significant amount of attention in the white paper, and rightly so. Key commitments include recognising early education as part of a wider system of family hubs, health visitors, SEND teams, and community support services and funding partnerships to strengthen transitions. These reforms respond to the long-standing challenge articulated by practitioners that the earlier the need is identified and addressed, the better the outcomes. That principle is fundamental to whole-child approaches (early, relational, context-sensitive support, which is language that I absolutely love).

On community partnerships and local accountability…

The white paper highlights the importance of community collaboration, with schools expected to work more closely with local area partnerships, health services, colleges and neighbourhood family hubs. By fostering multi-agency working and community connectedness, the white paper moves toward a system in which professionals can respond to a child’s real context rather than retrofitting needs into predetermined service thresholds or educational phases. This is great to read, and I have seen first hand the positive impact of cross phase educational provider groups (college and school trust in the same group) such as London South East Colleges and Eastern Education Colleges.

It represents a real opportunity

The 2026 schools white paper represents a coherent policy attempt to shift England toward a whole-child education system. Its commitments to early years, inclusion, integrated health and family support, and community partnership are necessary. 

As with all major reforms, the impact will depend on sustained investment, willingness to redesign local systems collaboratively, a move from compliance to genuine learning and a deeper partnership between our education, health, and community services. 

This reform programme has the potential to reshape England’s educational landscape, placing our children, not the system, at the centre of that design.