School Children Missing Education Policy and Procedure

This policy is intended for use by maintained schools and academy trusts in England. It applies where the school has adopted these arrangements and should be read with the school's child protection policy, attendance arrangements, admission arrangements and local-authority procedures.

1. Policy commitment

The school will have regard to the statutory guidance on children missing education when carrying out its responsibilities for identifying and supporting children missing education. The school should be able to demonstrate that it has considered the guidance. Where a particular part of the guidance is not followed, the school will record the reasonable grounds for that departure.

The school will use a child-centred approach. Staff and other organisations involved in identifying or supporting children missing education should identify concerns, share information and take prompt action, recognising that no single individual or organisation may have a full picture of a child's needs and circumstances.

2. Roles and interfaces

The headteacher, governing body or academy trust, designated safeguarding lead, attendance staff and relevant school leaders will carry out the responsibilities allocated to them by the school's arrangements. The school will identify its named contacts for the home local authority CME team, local-authority attendance service, children's social care and police at [school cme contact details].

The school will work with the relevant local authority or authorities. Where a child resides in a different local-authority area from the school, the school will notify and work with that area as appropriate.

3. Attendance and early identification

The school will monitor pupils' attendance every day through the attendance register. It will take proactive steps to address poor or irregular attendance to help prevent children becoming children missing education.

The school will make attendance returns to the relevant local authority to highlight pupils with poor or irregular attendance, using the intervals agreed with the local authority.

Staff will identify and record concerns about a pupil's attendance, whereabouts, welfare, education arrangements or personal details. Concerns will be considered in the context of the child's circumstances and welfare.

4. Admission-register arrangements

The school will maintain an accurate and up-to-date admission register. A pupil's name will be entered from the beginning of the first session on the first day that the school and a person with control of the pupil's attendance have agreed that the pupil will attend. Where the school has a duty to admit and a person with control of the pupil's attendance has notified the school that the pupil will attend, the name will be entered on that day. If no date has been agreed or notified, the name will be entered on the first day the pupil attends.

An education, health and care plan naming the school does not by itself mean that the pupil is, or should be, on the admission register.

When a parent notifies the school that a pupil will normally live at another address, the school will record the address, the full name of each parent with whom the pupil will normally live and the date on which the pupil will start normally living there.

When a pupil's name is added to or removed from the admission register outside standard transition times, the school will make the required return to the local authority in line with regulation 13 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. The school will also comply with any local-authority extension of that return requirement to standard transition times.

5. Pupil does not start as agreed

If a pupil fails to attend on the agreed admission date, the school will undertake reasonable enquiries to establish the child's whereabouts and will record the enquiries, responses and any action taken.

6. Suspected children missing education

Where enquiries lead the school reasonably to believe that a pupil will no longer attend and the parent has not provided written notice that the pupil will attend another school or receive education otherwise than at school, the school will refer the case to the child's home local-authority CME team as soon as possible.

During this period, the school will continue reasonable enquiries about the pupil's whereabouts. Regular communication with the local authority carrying out the enquiries will continue until it is mutually agreed that the enquiries have concluded or that there are no further actions for the school to take.

7. Identified children missing education

When a pupil is identified as a child missing education, the school will work jointly with the relevant local authority to conduct reasonable enquiries immediately. Enquiries will be thorough and collaborative where possible, and actions will be based on the individual circumstances and available evidence.

The school and local authority will use careful judgement about the sequence and nature of actions. The child's welfare will be treated as the paramount concern and action will be taken without delay.

8. Safeguarding concerns

Where staff have safeguarding concerns about a child's safety or wellbeing, they will take immediate action under the school's child protection policy and involve the designated safeguarding lead.

The designated safeguarding lead or relevant staff member will immediately consider whether a referral to local-authority children's social care is needed and, where appropriate, whether to contact the police, particularly where there is concern that the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.

Where a child missing education may be experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation, the school will follow local child-protection procedures. If the child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, an immediate referral will be made to children's social care and the police will be contacted where appropriate.

9. Children with SEND

Where unmet special educational needs or disabilities may be contributing to reduced attendance or withdrawal from school, the school will work closely with the pupil and parents to put appropriate support in place and keep it under regular review.

Where a child with an education, health and care plan has significant unmet need, the school will liaise with the local authority about whether an early review of the plan is needed.

10. Deletion from the admission register

For grounds H and I, where a pupil has not returned within 10 school days following a leave of absence or has been continually absent for 20 school days unauthorised, the school will complete joint reasonable enquiries with the local authority to locate the pupil and establish the pupil's circumstances before deleting the pupil's name.

Before the name is deleted in these circumstances, the school and local authority must agree that there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil will attend the school again.

When making a deletion return to the local authority, the school will provide the required information held in the admission register, including the pupil's full name, current address, relevant parent details and contact information, applicable future address or destination information, and the reason under regulation 9 for deleting the pupil's name.

11. In-year admissions and fair access

Where the school manages its own in-year admissions, it will set out on its website by 31 August how in-year applications will be handled, how parents can apply and how to obtain and complete a suitable application form.

For each in-year application, the school will inform the local authority of the application and its outcome. Applicants will be informed in writing of the outcome within 15 school days of the application being received.

The school will comply with the applicable local-authority fair access protocol, including admitting children allocated to the school through that protocol.

The school will not refuse to admit a child on behavioural grounds in the normal admissions round or at the normal year of entry, except where the stated permanent-exclusion exception applies. For an eligible in-year application outside the normal point of entry, where admission is refused because of challenging behaviour, the school will use the fair access protocol.

Where the local authority is considering naming the school in a School Attendance Order, the school will engage with the local authority's naming process, raise relevant concerns promptly and work with the local authority towards an agreement on the proposed admission.

12. Communication with parents

The school will regularly encourage parents, through existing communication channels such as emails and newsletters, to notify the school whenever their child's personal details or education arrangements change.

13. Records and case closure

The school will record concerns, enquiries, referrals, information sharing, decisions, communications with the local authority, safeguarding actions and the reasons for any departure from the statutory guidance. Records will identify the evidence considered, the action taken, the person responsible and the outcome or agreed next step.

A case will remain subject to follow-up until the relevant enquiries have concluded, the school and local authority have agreed that no further school action is available, or another documented outcome has been reached.