Citizenship education in England

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 19 October 2026:

Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s government what steps they are taking to enhance provision for the teaching of citizenship.

Education is devolved and therefore the requirements for what must be taught in each nation is set by the respective devolved administration. This briefing focuses on England; however, a brief overview of what is taught in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is available from the Association for Citizenship Teaching.^[1]

1. Key points

• Citizenship education aims to provide pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active role in society. Topics covered include democracy and parliament, media, information literacy, climate change and sustainability, financial and economic education, and the role of the UK in the wider world. Stakeholders have argued that citizenship education has a positive impact on pupils.
• Currently, whether citizenship education in England is compulsory for children is dependent on the age of the children. At key stages 1 and 2 (ages 5 to 11) it is up to the school whether they teach it and how they teach it, although there is non-statutory guidance. At key stages 3 and 4 (ages 11 to 16) it is compulsory at local authority maintained schools as part of the national curriculum.
• Several concerns have been raised about citizenship education in England in recent years. An independent review of the curriculum and two parliamentary committees have recommended that citizenship education become compulsory at key stages 1 and 2 (primary). The review also suggested that certain topics be prioritised at both primary and secondary.
• In November 2025, the Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer announced that citizenship education would become compulsory for primary school pupils at local authority maintained schools. The government said it would publish a revised national curriculum in 2027 for first teaching from September 2028. Updates to GCSEs are planned to follow.

2. Citizenship education in England

2.1 What is citizenship education?

Statutory guidance from the Department for Education states that citizenship education should help provide pupils with the “knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society”.^[2] The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) has explained that it includes teaching on democracy, politics, parliament and voting.^[3] It also includes human rights, law, identities and diversity, media and information literacy, climate change and sustainability, financial and economic education, and the role of the UK in the wider world.

2.2 What are the benefits?

Stakeholders have argued that citizenship education has a positive impact on those children who study it. For example, the ACT has argued that it leads to positive outcomes in adulthood in relation to attitudes towards, and levels of engagement with, various forms of civic participation.^[4] The ACT also commissioned research which found that studying GCSE citizenship studies had a positive impact on young people’s political knowledge, interest and engagement. These pupils were found to be less distrustful of key democratic institutions than those who had not studied the qualification. In addition, a recent review of the national curriculum stated that citizenship education “helps young people to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to play a full and active role in society”.^[5]

2.3 What is currently taught?

Currently, whether citizenship education in England is compulsory is dependent on the age of the children.

At key stages 1 and 2 (for children aged 5 to 11), citizenship education is not compulsory. Rather there is a non-statutory framework that schools can choose whether to follow.^[6] This programme of study focuses on broader concepts, such as learning right from wrong, how to recognise and share their opinions, and how to take part in discussions. However, citizenship education is due to become compulsory for primary school pupils from 2028.^[7] Further information on this is available in section 4 of this briefing.

At key stages 3 and 4 (children aged 11 to 16), local authority maintained schools (but not academies, free schools or private schools) must teach citizenship as a compulsory subject under the national curriculum.^[8] Statutory guidance sets out what must be taught to these students and includes aims for pupils to:

• acquire a sound knowledge and understanding of how the UK is governed, its political system and how citizens participate actively in its democratic systems of government
• develop a sound knowledge and understanding of the role of law and the justice system in our society and how laws are shaped and enforced
• develop an interest in, and commitment to, participation in volunteering as well as other forms of responsible activity, that they will take with them into adulthood
• are equipped with skills to think critically and debate political questions, to enable them to manage their money on a day-to-day basis, and plan for future financial needs^[9]

At key stage 4 pupils can choose to take an optional GCSE in citizenship studies.^[10]

Unlike other national curriculum subjects, the school’s inspectorate Ofsted considers citizenship primarily within the ‘personal development’ judgement, as opposed to the ‘quality of education’ judgement, in its current inspection framework.^[11]

3. Recent concerns about citizenship education

3.1 Inconsistencies at key stages 1 and 2

An independent review of the curriculum, assessment and qualifications system in England, published in November 2025, noted that it had received calls for citizenship education to become mandatory at primary school.^[12] It said that respondents had argued that citizenship’s non-statutory status at key stages 1 and 2 had led to uneven and inconsistent progress, as well as inconsistent opportunities for pupils to learn about the various topics covered under the subject.^[13] The review’s own research into primary provision through polling confirmed this inconsistency. Over 80% of primary teachers, school leaders and headteachers responded that their school provided citizenship education, but only 41% of headteachers said their school followed the non-statutory programmes of study. Some topics, most notably active citizenship and law and justice, were found to not be consistently taught at key stages 1 and 2. Research by the University of Kent also found inconsistent practice and indicated that children experiencing greater socio-economic disadvantage had fewer opportunities to develop civic skills and were less likely to be prepared for civic life.^[14]

The curriculum review also noted that the non-statutory programme of study had not been updated since 2001 and that some of its content on health and relationships had been duplicated with the introduction of relationships and health education (RHE) in 2019.^[15]

The review said it had received “compelling evidence and feedback on the need for all primary pupils to receive an education in citizenship”.^[16] It therefore recommended that the subject be made statutory from key stage 1. The review also recommended that any duplicate content is removed and that only the essential core elements are included in a statutory programme of study for key stages 1 and 2. It said that the topics of financial literacy, democracy and government, law and rights, media literacy and climate education should be prioritised.

The review’s recommendation followed previous calls by several parliamentary committees for citizenship to be made compulsory in primary schools. In 2018, the House of Lords Citizenship and Civic Engagement Committee examined citizenship and civic engagement in the UK, including the teaching of citizenship in England. The committee argued that citizenship education had been neglected and called for the Theresa May Conservative government to reprioritise it by creating a statutory entitlement throughout both primary and secondary education.^[17] The House of Lords Liaison Committee conducted a follow-up inquiry in 2022 which made the same recommendation.^[18] On both occasions, the Conservative governments said they had committed to making no further changes to the national curriculum during the parliament.^[19]

3.2 Topics taught

The independent curriculum review also focused on what is taught as part of citizenship. It highlighted that there had recently been a strong interest in the subject amongst a range of stakeholders.^[20] It said that a number of issues had been highlighted, including:

• Financial education: Polling of parents, carers and students, as well as responses to the call for evidence, indicated dissatisfaction with the present level of attention on this topic in the curriculum and a strong appetite for more.
• Democracy and government: The review said that young people would like “better grounding in this”, with stakeholders also highlighting the Starmer Labour government’s plans to lower the voting age to 16 for all UK elections.
• Media literacy: The review said that young people had highlighted a need for greater support to enable them to interrogate information in the context of proliferation of misinformation and disinformation through various media, particularly considering the amount of time they spend online.

Focusing on the topics taught at key stages 3 and 4, the review said the programme of study should be aligned with the new primary requirements.^[21] It said that responses to its call for evidence had highlighted the need for updates to key stages 3 and 4, asserting that “a lack of specificity as well as ambiguous phraseology were adding complexity when translating requirements into teaching units and lessons”. This had led to calls for teaching requirements at secondary to be clearer to improve impact and efficiency. The review said these changes should be delivered by ensuring that implicit content be made more explicit and specific. It clarified that the intention was not to provide additional content but that, through aligning with primary requirements, content should be “strengthened to address societal changes in an age-appropriate way”. The review said these changes could have implications for the content of GCSE citizenship studies and that the government should consider and address this.

3.3 Other concerns

3.3.1 Lack of uptake and prioritisation

At key stage 4 pupils can choose to take an optional GCSE in citizenship studies; however, the up-take of this optional qualification has recently been low (below 5%).^[22] The ACT reported that 21,560 pupils in England sat GCSE citizenship studies in 2026, which was a 2.6% increase on the previous year.^[23]

The ACT has argued that the subject has been under-prioritised in too many schools and “suffered from inconsistent national messaging undermining the status and quality of what is taught across schools”.^[24] It said the subject had faced the following challenges:

• Curriculum squeeze: Some schools struggle or choose not to make time for citizenship in their curriculum and timetable and national policy messaging has not been clear that this remains an expectation.
• Teacher shortage: Many schools do not have a subject specialist and there are very small numbers being trained.
• Subject conflation: Citizenship is often confused with [personal, social health and economic education] PSHE/[relationships, sex and health education] RSHE including sometimes by national actors (for example some organisations and Ofsted inspectors), which dilutes essential democratic content.
• Access inequalities: Students in disadvantaged areas are less likely to have access to GCSE citizenship studies—despite it being shown to have the greatest impact.
• Lack of leadership and support: Where the subject is not led by a specialist teacher and is not well supported by the leadership and governance of the school.^[25]

3.3.2 Number of citizenship teachers

Along with concerns about the number of students studying the subject, concerns have also been raised about the number of teachers. In 2018 and 2022 the parliamentary committees looking at citizenship education made recommendations relating to citizenship teachers.

The House of Lords Citizenship and Civic Engagement Committee heard evidence that there had been a decline in the number of such teachers:

If you look at the school workforce data, the decline from 2011 suggests that there are about half as many people who self-identify as a citizenship teacher as there were in 2011. In 2011, there were about 10,000 self-identifying citizenship teachers and there are now fewer than 5,000.^[26]

The committee recommended there should be a target for every secondary school to have at least one trained citizenship teacher and that citizenship education should be established as a priority subject for teacher training, with bursaries provided for applicants.^[27] The May Conservative government did not accept the committee’s recommendation but highlighted that citizenship trainees would be eligible for a tuition fee loan and maintenance loan to support their living costs.^[28]

In its follow-up report in 2022, the House of Lords Liaison Committee was critical of the Boris Johnson-led government’s response to the original committee’s recommendations. It again argued that the government should reinstate bursaries for citizenship teachers and that there should be a specialist trained teacher in every primary and secondary school.^[29] Currently, those training to become citizenship teachers are not eligible for initial teacher training bursaries.^[30]

4. Government policy

In November 2025, the Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer said that citizenship education would become compulsory for primary school students in local authority maintained schools.^[31] It reiterated this decision in its 2026 schools white paper.^[32]

The government said it would ensure that the programme of study “is tightly focused on the essential content pupils should know at primary and secondary, aligning with but not duplicating other parts of the curriculum and improving progression to GCSE”.^[33] Commenting further, it said the curriculum at key stages 3 and 4 would encompass “the vital threats of government, law and democracy, climate education, financial and media literacy”.

The government said it would publish a revised national curriculum in 2027 for first teaching from September 2028. Updates to GCSEs would follow for first teaching from 2029 onwards.^[34] It also said that there would be a public consultation on the proposals for the curriculum and assessment system.^[35]

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