There is a temptation as a leader to focus entirely on what is in front of you. There is always enough of that, especially when government is making as many changes as it did for schools in 2025/26.

But as Autumn starts, we wanted to highlight a few key legal/policy areas to watch out for in 2026/27. Some are obvious, others less so. 

SEND

It's probably the obvious one, but the Government's plans to overhaul the SEND system are ambitious, complex and far-reaching. Following the consultation that closed in May 2026, we expect a response this autumn and then a new SEND Bill is expected to be drafted in late 2026 and go through Parliament during 2027/28. Phased implementation will begin from 2028 and be complete by 2035.

What this means in practice for schools is still being worked out, and the legal status of Individual Support Plans, including how they will interact with the Tribunal system, remains unclear. We hope that the government response to the consultation will give some answers on those questions, given much of the detail on that was not set out. 

One of the first changes arising from the new Inclusion Mainstream Fund is the requirement to publish an inclusion strategy by the end of December (and do our October inclusion strategy webinar). 

Employment law: The biggest changes in a generation

Key sections of the Employment Rights Act 2025 are still coming into force, with changes from 1 January 2027 including that employees can bring an unfair dismissal claim after just six months, reduced from the existing two-year threshold. 

Anyone you have hired since July 2026 is already within that window but will practically mean you now have far less time to identify whether a new hire is working out, which makes robust probationary processes, honest review conversations and decent record-keeping essential.

What often gets less attention is that the compensation cap will disappear at the same time. Currently, unfair dismissal awards are capped at roughly £123,000. From January 2027, there is no cap and it will be important to factor that into how you approach capability and disciplinary processes from now on.

In terms of further changes in 2027, variable-hours workers (e.g. cover supervisors, catering and cleaning staff) will be entitled to a contract that reflects their average actual hours from January 2027, so if your workers are consistently doing more hours than their contracts state, that will need addressing. And for larger trusts with 250 or more staff, mandatory gender equality action plans will be required from Spring 2027, so the time to start collating data is now. 

Finally, the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB), expected to be formally constituted this autumn to negotiate national pay and conditions for support staff, will produce its first binding outcomes from the 2027/28 financial year.

MAT inspections

Ofsted is expected to start inspecting multi-academy trusts as whole organisations from the 2027/28 academic year. We don’t yet have the secondary legislation or the inspection framework to know exactly what Ofsted will be looking at, but it will certainly include leadership, governance and impact on school improvement. It's worth reviewing elements like schemes of delegation now, to make sure they reflect what actually happens within your trust.

The Government has been clear that new powers of intervention will accompany the inspection regime. Inspection findings could, ultimately, lead to the termination of a trust's funding agreement and school being moved elsewhere. 

Vocational education and devolution

One of the first (and only) new education policy announcements following the change of Prime Minister was on vocational education. Vocational education has long been subject to frequent policy change. T-Levels are only really starting to be implemented and have not been a success (so far) based on the number of pupils taking them.

The Government’s plan is to push ahead with new technical pathways for pupils from Year 10, linked to local industries and backed by employer partnerships. The model draws on Andy Burnham's Manchester Baccalaureate, allowing pupils to combine academic GCSEs with technical qualifications and work experience from age 14. 

Broader national rollout is targeted for 2028, but the idea is quite explicitly that the new pathways will be regionally based, changing based on local industry and led by mayors. This would take place within schools, rather than requiring pupils to move institutions at year 10, but could still mean a further pathway divide at age 14. 

Closely connected to the theme of devolution is the planned devolution of 16-19 funding to mayors, which itself links to wider plans (recently paused apart from Surrey) for large scale local government reorganisation. Whilst those changes may not affect schools directly, they inevitably provide a huge distraction for local government when other changes like SEND will impact schools. 

AI in schools: What the new rules mean for you

Most school leaders are aware that they need an artificial intelligence (AI) policy, but perhaps fewer are aware that the regulatory picture around AI is about to become more demanding.

Regulations in force since 12 May 2026 require the Information Commissioner to prepare a statutory code of practice on developing and using AI and automated decision-making, with a mandatory children's data component. Reinforcing that timetable, the ICO published its corporate strategy for 2026–2028 in July 2026, naming "promoting trust and transparency in AI" and "personal data use that helps, not harms, children" as two of its four headline priorities.

The code itself is still to be written and is expected in 2027, but the requirements will apply to schools that use an automated or AI-assisted output to make a decision about an individual, regardless of who built the underlying tool. For example, if a school uses an AI-powered behaviour tracking tool, an automated intervention flagging system, or a third-party platform that uses algorithms to make decisions about pupils, then it will be in scope. 

Buying or licensing a third-party AI system does not transfer that responsibility to the vendor, with it sitting with the school/trust as the controller. Once issued, the statutory code will carry more legal weight than ordinary guidance. 

Looking ahead

As ever, the list above is not exhaustive, and the reality is that some of the most significant challenges of 26/27 will be ones that aren't yet visible on the horizon. What the areas covered here do have in common is that they reward early attention, whether that's getting probationary processes in order ahead of January's employment law changes, reviewing your scheme of delegation before MAT inspections begin, or starting to audit your AI tool use before the ICO's statutory code arrives. 

The risk in a busy year is always that longer-term preparation is crowded out by immediate pressures. Our aim is to help you stay ahead of what is coming, and our schools and academy trusts team is available to advise on any of the areas covered above as the year progresses.