Children Missing Education and Children in Education other than in Registered Schools

The statutory guidance Children Missing Education (August 2024) sets out the key principles to enable local authorities in England to implement their legal duty under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to make arrangements to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, children missing education (CME). Local authorities should be able to demonstrate that they have considered this statutory guidance and, where it is not followed, the local authority should have reasonable grounds for not doing so.

1. All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to an efficient, full time education which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have;
2. Children missing education are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school. Children missing education are at significant risk of underachieving, being victims of harm, exploitation or radicalisation, and becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) later in life;
3. Effective information sharing between parents, schools and local authorities is critical to ensuring that all children of compulsory school age are safe and receiving suitable education. Local authorities should focus their resources effectively in intervening early in the lives of vulnerable children to help prevent poor outcomes.
   
   Statutory guidance for local authorities: Children missing education (August 2024).

These 'missing' children can be vulnerable; it is essential that all services work together to identify and re-engage these children back into appropriate education provision as quickly as possible. It is important to establish the reasons for the child being missing at the earliest possible stage.

Possible reasons that should be considered include:

• Failure to start appropriate provision and never enter the system;
• Stopped attending, due to illegal exclusion or withdrawal by parent/carers;
• Failure to complete a transition between schools;
• Children from refugee and asylum seeking families;
• Children from families who are highly mobile;
• Children at risk of a forced marriage;
• Children experiencing abuse and neglect.

Children who remain disengaged from education are potentially exposed to higher degrees of risk.

Children who go missing or run away from home or care may be in serious danger and are vulnerable to crime, sexual exploitation or abduction as well as missing education.

When families move between local authority areas it can sometimes lead to a child becoming 'lost' in the system and consequently missing education. Where a child has moved, local authorities should check with other local authorities – either regionally or nationally – and share information in order to ascertain where a child has moved. Once the location of the child is established, the relevant local authority must ensure that the child is receiving an education either by attending a school or the provision of electronic or distance learning packages where these are available.

Research has shown that many children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) families can become disengaged from education, particularly during the secondary school phase. It is therefore important that schools inform the local authority when a GRT pupil leaves the school without identifying a new destination school, particularly in the transition from primary to secondary so that they can attempt to facilitate continuity of the child's education. Although many are settled, some GRT families move regularly and their children can be at increased risk of missing education. Local authority Traveller Education Support Services (TESS), where these exist, or the named CME officer within the local authority, can advise schools on the best strategies for ensuring the minimum disruption to GRT pupils' education.

Families of members of the Armed Forces are likely to move frequently – both in the UK and overseas and often at short notice. Schools and local authorities should contact the MoD Children's Education Advisory Service (CEAS) for advice on making arrangements to ensure continuity of education for those children when the family moves.

Children who have offended or are at risk of doing so are also at risk of disengaging from education. Local authority Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) are responsible for supervising those young people (aged 8 to 18). YOTs should work with the local authority Children Missing Education officer to ensure that children are receiving, or return to, appropriate full-time education.

Head teachers should inform the Pupil Tracking Officer and the child's social worker immediately a child subject to a Child Protection Plan is missing.

In the following circumstances a referral to Children's Services and / or the police should always be made promptly:

• The child may be the victim of a crime;
• The child is subject of a Child Protection Plan;
• The child is subject of Section 47 enquiries;
• The child is in Care;
• There is a known person posing a risk to children in the household or in contact with the household;
• There is a history of the family moving frequently;
• There are serious issues of attendance.

Where a pupil has not returned to school for ten consecutive school days after a leave of absence or is absent from school for reasons statistically recorded as unauthorised absence for twenty consecutive school days, the pupil’s name can be removed from the admission register when the school and the local authority have failed, after jointly making reasonable enquiries, to find out the location and circumstances of the child or have succeeded but agree there are no reasonable grounds to believe that they will attend the school again. In deciding there are no reasonable grounds to believe the pupil will attend the school again both school and local authority must agree, including that there are no reasonable steps that could be taken (either jointly or separately) to secure the pupil’s attendance. Neither ground for deletion applies if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil is unable to attend because of sickness or unavoidable cause.

In these circumstances the child's name is kept on a centrally held register, and should be clearly identified as missing from education.

The term ‘reasonable’ also makes clear that there is a limit to what the school and local authority is expected to do.

In line with the duty under section 10 of the Children Act 2004, the expectation is that the school and the local authority will have in place procedures designed to carry out reasonable enquiries. The type of procedures may include the appropriate person checking with relatives, neighbours, landlords – private or social housing providers – and other local stakeholders who are involved. They should also record that they have completed these procedures. If there is reason to believe a child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, a referral should be made to children’s social care (and the police if appropriate).

Where the child's name has been removed from the school roll, but s/he has not been located, the Head Teacher should arrange for the pupil's records to be retained until the child is located. They may be held centrally according to local arrangements.

Where a Head Teacher has been notified by a parent that a pupil is receiving education other than at school, and has removed the child's name from the school roll, notification must be given to the education service within 10 school days; the pupil's records should then be transferred to the education service to be stored in accordance with local arrangements.

If a school receives a new pupil without receiving information about the pupil from his or her previous school, the school should contact the Pupil Tracking Officer.

If the Pupil Tracking Officer becomes aware the child has moved to another school s/he should ensure that all relevant agencies are informed and arrangements made to forward records from the previous school.

A child missing from education is not in itself a child protection matter, and there may be an innocent explanation for this. However, regular school attendance is an important safeguard and unexplained non-attendance can be an early indicator of problems, risk and vulnerability.

Schools should endeavour to deal with this problem in three ways:

• By preventing poor school attendance and truancy;
• By acting once absence has occurred to establish children's safety and try to get them back to school;
• By taking action to trace children whose whereabouts are not known.

EOTAS is education that meets the specified needs of children or young people who, for whatever reason, cannot attend a mainstream or special school because it is deemed ‘inappropriate’. The term has been considered in the case of TM v London Borough of Hounslow, which clarified that it would have to take into account:

• the child’s background and medical history
• the particular educational needs of the child
• the facilities that can be provided by a school
• the facilities that could be provided other than in a school
• the comparative cost of the possible alternatives to the child’s educational provisions
• the child’s reaction to education provisions, either at a school or elsewhere
• the parents’ wishes

 in addition medical issues, serious exclusion matters or significant mental health issues that make attendance extremely difficult will also have to be considered. Generally this type of provision is likely to include among the options offered:

• Online Education
• Home Tuition
• Specialist Tuition Centres
• Hospital schooling

Any of these options can take place in non-educational settings i.e. a library for example. They should all be treated as special education provision and funded accordingly by the Local Authority.

This guidance should be read in the context of the statutory duties upon local authorities and parents as set out in the following:

• The Education Act 1996 section 436A;
• The Education Act 2002;
• The Children Act 1989;
• The Children Act 2004;
• Statutory guidance for local authorities: Children missing education (August 2024);
• Unregistered independent schools and out of school settings - non-statutory guidance for local authorities;
• Elective Home Education Guidelines;
• School Admissions Code;
• School to school service: how to transfer information;
• The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.

The Working Together to Improve School Attendance: Statutory Guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities (August 2024). emphasises the safeguarding duties placed on maintained schools by Section 175 of the Education Act 2002. It also seeks to ensure that the duty to co-operate to improve the well-being of children under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 is discharged. All schools will have a designated teacher for looked after children. These teachers are ideally placed to assist when identifying those Children in Care currently in school who may be at greater risk of going missing from education.