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With sweeping reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system, the curriculum review and a new Ofsted inspection framework, there have been a lot of changes for heads to be across this academic year, and there are many more to come.

From when you should get your next batch of inclusion funding to when phone guidance will become statutory, here’s a guide for school leaders on what’s coming in when and what you need to do throughout 2026-27.

September

Unsurprisingly, the bulk of policy changes come in from 1 September:

Phone ban and a cap on branded uniform

Now the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has received Royal Assent, new guidance on phones in schools becomes statutory from September, as does the cap on the number of branded items of school uniform.

Read more about what making phone guidance statutory will mean for schools here.

Changes to safeguarding

The final version of the Keeping Children Safe In Education (KCSIE) 2026 guidance should come into force on 1 September.

The Department for Education is currently analysing feedback on its proposed changes to KCSIE 2025 to inform the final guidance.

You can read a full summary of the proposed changes here.

New RSHE guidance

Teaching of new content for relationships, sex and health education will also begin in September, which includes things like more online safety and misogyny content. More details here.

Introduction of enrichment benchmarks

Ofsted’s refresh of its inspection framework will also take effect from September - including inspecting the new enrichment benchmarks.

Revisions to Progress 8

The government plans to publish its response to the key stage 4 accountability consultation in the summer term of 2026 so that schools can take into account revisions to Progress 8 from September, ahead of these being used in 2028.

Allergy pens requirement

The government is consulting on new statutory requirements for schools to have to stock allergy pens and provide compulsory allergy awareness training for all staff.

These requirements are expected to come into force from September 2026.

October

Many of the changes for schools as a result of the Employment Rights Act 2025 have already come into force.

But from October 2026, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees, among other measures.

December

All schools must publish their inclusion strategy statement by 31 December, which should outline the commonly occurring needs within a school’s cohort, the school’s current spending on inclusion and how it will make sure that ordinarily available provision meets children’s needs.

The DfE also said in its that it will develop a pupil engagement framework that it will publish “later this year” - we do not yet have a confirmed date.

December is also the final month of the DfE’s National Year of Reading.

January

The government has proposed that schools will be able to get targeted support from Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) based on their performance data from January 2027, not just from Ofsted outcomes.

Under the proposals, schools would be judged as eligible for RISE support from January 2027 based on their summer 2026 data on children meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths for key stage 2, and using Attainment 8 data for KS4 until the revised Progress 8 can be used in 2028.

In addition, under the Employment Rights Act, from 1 January 2027, the unfair dismissal qualifying period will reduce to six months. Currently employees need a minimum two years service to qualify.

The compensation cap for unfair dismissal claims will also be removed from January 2027.

Other measures within the act that will be taking effect some time in 2027 include extending flexible-working rights, and enhanced protection from dismissal for mothers returning from maternity leave. The Department for Business and Trade has not yet confirmed more specific timeframes.

February

Most mainstream schools will already have had confirmation of their funding allocations from the 2026-27 Inclusive Mainstream Fund during the summer, but for any schools opening in September 2026, their allocations will be confirmed in February.

These allocations will be pro-rata depending on how long they have been open.

March

Local authorities and academy trusts will actually receive the money from the Inclusive Mainstream Fund for schools that newly opened in September 2026.

We’re also expecting the final revised national curriculum following the curriculum and assessment review to be published at some point in “spring 2027”, so start looking out for this.

First teaching of the new national curriculum is not set to begin until September 2028, and the first teaching of new GCSEs not until September 2029.

Read over the key points from the review here.

June

The DfE expects to stick to the same timetable for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund as it is following this year - under this, local authorities are likely to receive payment of their funding allocations for 2027-28 at the end of June.

The government is also investing £1.8 billion over the next three years to create the new “experts at hand” service, which will create a bank of SEND experts - the first wave of this funding for 2026-27 will go out to local authorities in June 2026.

If the same timetable is stuck to, the next tranche of funding for 2027-28 will come in June 2027.

July

Academy trusts should receive payment of their allocations from the Inclusive Mainstream Fund for 2027-28 in early July, if the DfE sticks to the same timetable as this year.

Other policy changes and multi-year funding

The schools White Paper also pledged to establish minimum expectations for home-to-school partnerships. The DfE has not confirmed yet when these will be introduced.

The £200 million the government is investing in SEND training for teachers will come over three years from September 2026.

The government is also spending £3.7 billion until 2030 in capital funding to create more specialist places.

Ofsted inspection of multi-academy trusts is on the way, but these inspections aren’t expected to start until 2027-28.

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