Schools should take “proactive” action to help cut the number of children missing education (CME) and locate those at most risk, the government has said.
The Department for Education has today updated its CME guidance, making it statutory for schools to follow.
Here’s what leaders need to know…
1. Take ‘proactive’ steps …
Pupils’ attendance must be monitored by schools through their attendance registers. Primaries and secondaries should also take “proactive steps to address poor or irregular attendance to prevent children becoming CME”, the guidance states.
It is “essential” for poor attendance to be referred to the relevant local authority at intervals agreed to by both.
Council officers are allowed under the law to “access the attendance and admission registers of all types of school to carry out their functions”. They can also “take digital or physical extracts”.
2. … and if concerned, act immediately
If there are concerns a child’s safety or wellbeing is at risk, it is “essential” for schools “to take action without delay”.
Where staff have safeguarding concerns about a pupil, they should follow their child protection policy and involve their designated safeguarding lead.
In cases where they are concerned for a youngster’s welfare, they should “immediately consider whether a referral needs to be made to local authority children’s social care and, if appropriate, whether to call the police”.
3. Schools to locate children at risk
The guidance also said schools “should” do “their own initial proactive work to locate a child at risk of becoming a CME”, before working with their council.
Even when a case is referred to a local authority, they should “continue to play their role in conducting joint reasonable enquiries”.
The government wants leaders to work with councils to “return CME in their local area into education”.
Schools should also “offer appropriate support to successfully integrate children … including having efficient decision-making processes for admissions in place to prevent delays”.
4. Make admission registers current
Schools “must enter pupils’ names on the admission register on the first day” it and a “person with control of the pupil’s attendance have agreed” they will start lessons.
If they fail to turn up on the agreed date, the school “should undertake reasonable enquiries to establish the child’s whereabouts”.
Due to the importance of ensuring the records are “accurate and kept up to date”, leaders should “should regularly encourage parents … to inform them of any changes to their child’s personal details and education arrangements”.
This will help them and councils when “making enquiries to locate CME”.
5. When to delete names
Where grounds are met for the deletion of pupils’ names from the admission register, as set out in the school attendance (pupil registration) (England) regulations 2024, this must be done “immediately”. Schools cannot do so retrospectively.
If a child hasn’t returned within 10 school days of a leave of absence or has been away from class for 20 days unauthorised, joint enquiries between the school and council to locate them and understand their circumstances are required.
When the youngster is found, both “parties must agree there are no reasonable grounds to believe the pupil will attend the school again” before their name is deleted.
6. Off rolling ‘a form of gaming’
Off rolling is described as a “form of gaming” where a school prevents a pupil from attending school normally, takes their name of the roll without a formal permanent exclusion or encourages parents to home educate their child.
The “unacceptable” practice is “done in the interests of the school rather than the best interests of the pupil”.
“The correct removal of names from the register supports lawful exclusions, effective monitoring of pupil movements, and reduces the risk of off rolling, which puts children at further risk of missing education.”
7. The ‘lost pupil database’
The Department for Education provides a “secure internet system”, called School to School, allowing leaders to transfer pupil files to the child’s next school if they move.
All local authority-maintained schools are required to do this when a youngster goes elsewhere.
The platform also contains “a searchable area, known colloquially as the lost pupil database”. Here, files can be uploaded for pupils who have left but their new school’s unknown or moved overseas.
So, if a child arrives without information transferred by their last school, leaders are “strongly encouraged to contact their local authority who will be able to search the database”.
8. Work with your LA
If a council does not believe a suspected CME is receiving a suitable education, it must begin the school admission order (SAO) process.
Governors from local authority-maintained schools that officials are looking to name in an SAO must be consulted beforehand. This is usually done by email.
If no agreement can be reached, the council must serve a written notice on the governing body and headteacher. If the school disagrees with being named in an order, it “has 15 days to seek a direction from the secretary of state”.
If an authority names an academy in an SAO and the school refuses to admit the child, the council “can ask the secretary of state to direct the trust” to do so. If a direction isn’t made, the order will need to be varied.
The guidance added: “Schools and local authorities should work together to help to minimise the time a child spends out of education by cooperating with each other to provide a school place for all children of compulsory age, where suitable.”
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