PARENTS are threatening legal action against the Government over a new law which takes their rights away to educate their disabled, autistic and neuro-divergent children as they see fit.

They have warned Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and her Welsh counterpart, Anna Brychan, that they will bring a judicial review of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 if their concerns are not heeded.

A formal Letter Before Claim – a precursor to legal action – told the Government that the new law is incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 and the sections of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect a person’s private and family life, home and correspondence without discrimination.

The parents fear local authorities can now interfere unnecessarily in family life and can override decisions they rightly make for their children.

Their solicitor, Michael Charles of Sinclairslaw, said: ‘This is not a challenge to safeguarding, nor to the principle that the state may intervene where a child is genuinely at risk of harm.

‘The issue is whether the legislation now goes significantly further by permitting the state, in certain circumstances, to override lawful parental educational decisions even where education may already be entirely suitable. In a democratic society governed by the rule of law, the courts have an important constitutional role in testing legislation where there is a properly arguable concern that fundamental rights and freedoms may be infringed.

‘I look forward to receiving the Government’s substantive responses and the assurances which the claimants consider necessary before decisions are taken as to whether proceedings should formally be issued and the matter pursued further before the courts.’

Labour’s flagship education reforms came into force in April, changing practice in such areas as safeguarding, school standards and cost of living relief. They established free breakfast clubs in every primary school, expanded free school meals, capped spending requirements for school uniforms, banned smartphones in schools, required minimum standards of education and training for teachers, and introduced new oversight of multi-academy trusts and school attendance registers in co-ordination with local authorities.

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