Children Missing Education

FREE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES- BOOK VIA Skills 4 Bradford

You can download our leaflet on Children Missing Education. 

Children Missing Education (CME)

Children Missing Education (CME) 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 ie privately or electively home education (EHE).

You can view the current policy & processes document here. 

Why is the work around Children Missing Education (CME) a priority?

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.

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.

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 have a duty under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to make arrangements to establish the identities of children in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise. 

Starting school age

Most children start reception full-time in September after their fourth birthday. For example, if your child turns 4 in June, they’ll usually start school in September that same year.

Your child must start full-time education once they reach compulsory school age. This is on 31 December, 31 March or 31 August following their fifth birthday - whichever comes first. If your child’s fifth birthday is on one of those dates then they reach compulsory school age on that date.

Children Missing Education process in Bradford (not on the roll of a school)

If you are a member of the public and believe a child of compulsory school age to be missing education, please contact us on 01274 438877 or CME@bradford.gov.uk

If you are a professional and believe a child of compulsory school age to be missing education, please complete the CME referral form and submit securely to CME@bradford.gov.uk

Families new to Bradford

If you are a family that is new to Bradford and requires support to secure initial access to education for your children, please contact us on 01274 439393 or education.access@bradford.gov.uk

Alternatively you can attend our drop-in which runs on a Tuesday from 9:00-12:00 or a Thursday from 13:00-16:00 at Britannia House, BD1 1EE. This drop-in is only for families of pupils who are not on roll at a school. For families of pupils who are on roll of a school and need support in transferring schools, please contact the school in which your child is registered. In-year transfers should be discussed with the current school. Information about in-year transfers can be found here. 

If you are a professional working with a family new to Bradford who require support to secure initial access to education for their children, please visit the Bradford School Admissions webpage and support the family to apply using the relevant application form. 

For queries in relation to existing applications, please contact Bradford School Admissions. 

For families who do not have other professional support, please complete the Education Access Team referral form along with consent and submit securely to education.access@bradford.gov.uk 

For more information please visit Access Team | Bradford Schools Online

Joint Enquiries process in Bradford (children who are on the roll of a school whose absence is unexplained and their whereabouts unknown)

We offer a referral service to all maintained schools, academies, free schools and independent schools for pupils who have not returned from a leave of absence or has had a continuous period of absence. This is to allow for 'joint reasonable efforts' under regulation 9(1)(h) or (i) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 to try to find out where the pupil is.

You can read more about deletion of names from the admission register in 9(1) of the (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 in Chapter 7 of Working together to improve school attendance. 

Referrals should be made using the Joint Enquiries referral form completed electronically and sent securely to CME@bradford.gov.uk following their initial enquiries as part of their attendance procedures, if the the pupils whereabouts remains unknown. Referrals must be made within 5 school days of a child last attending or their whereabouts were last known but can be made as soon as schools have done their enquiries. Referrals must be fully complete, incomplete referrals will be returned to the sender and will need to be resubmitted in full completeness before action is taken.

Joint enquiries require the input of school and the local authority throughout the process, should you have any additional information about the family’s location, please update us urgently.

Once reasonable enquiries by the local authority have been concluded, the local authority will make contact with the school to advise of this. If it is agreed by both parties that the joint reasonable enquiries have failed to ascertain where the pupil is, and that the other grounds in 9(1)(h) or 9(1)(i) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 are met then the proprietor can look to remove from the register if they are satisfied that the grounds for removal have been met. Pupils should not be removed from roll under 9(1)(h) or 9(1)(i) until the Local Authority has confirmed the outcome of their reasonable enquiries.

Reasonable enquiries by school

Schools must follow their internal policies and procedures for responding to pupils not attending school. As soon as a child is believed to be missing education, enquiries in preparation for a referral for joint enquiries should include:

• Contacting family, relatives, neighbours and where appropriate landlords and other significant adults or contacts
• Making enquiries within school with class teachers, friends (if appropriate)
• Liaising with schools attended by siblings
• Conducting home visits -home visits must be recent (within the 5 school days before referring) and be completed within the period in which the child is believed to missing education.
• Sending letters, emails and/or text messages/whatsapps.
• Checking with previous schools
• Checking with other agencies known to be working with the family
• If you have been provided with a forwarding address in the UK, it is expected that you make enquiries with that Local Authority

This list is not exhaustive; cases should be taken on an individual basis meaning that enquiries may differ case to case.

If at any point 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).

Bradford Children and Families Trust can be contacted by professionals on 01274 433999.

Pupils who no longer normally live a reasonable distance from the school

Under 9(1)(g) schools need to be satisfied that the pupil no longer lives a reasonable distance from the school and the school does not have reasonable grounds to believe the pupil will attend the school again, and the pupil is not a boarder. Joint enquiries between the school and the local authority are not required but there are actions that school need to take in order to confirm whether they have met the criteria for removal under this ground.

In circumstances where there the family are moving away and withdrawing their child but are unable to say how their child will continue with their education, the school should attempt to ascertain the new address and key information such as who the pupil will reside with, contact information and whether a new school place has been secured.

School should also complete necessary reasonable enquiries including contacting the new area/local authority to check whether they are aware of the movement in. If a place at a new school has not been secured then a transfer must be made to the Lost Pupil database upon removal from the register.

A deletion return should also be made in every case of removal from roll under 9(1)(g) where it is not a standard transition. It is crucial that a deletion return is completed as the local authority will use the information provided on the deletion return to make further enquiries on children who have been removed under ground G without a confirmed destination. 

When a pupil transfers from a school in Bradford and the destination school is not known, the school must delete the pupil’s name from the admission register and the pupil’s information should be transferred to the Lost Pupil Database via the S2S system. 

If the school cannot satisfy themselves that they meet ground G, they may need to refer for joint enquiries under 9(1((h) or (9(1)(i) or take legal advice. 

Further information on ground 9(1)(g) and 9(1)(h) can be found here or in Chapter 7 of Working together to improve school attendance. 

Deletion returns for removals under ground G will request additional information, this is to ensure that we are all adhering to our duties of following up on children who may be missing from education. Please ensure this additional information is required, this will be triaged by our CME team to decide whether further action and follow-up is required to ensure the child is not CME. You may be contacted for further information as part of our follow-up enquiries. 

Important points:

• New statutory guidance and legislation- Please be aware of the 2024 Working together to improve school attendance statutory guidance and The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.
• Joint Enquiries referrals- Under 9(1)(h) and 9(1)(i) the school and the local authority are required to have jointly made reasonable efforts to find out the pupil’s location before the ground for removal is met.  
• Siblings-Where there are siblings at other schools, please liaise with them before making a referral. In some cases, the other schools may have located the family through enquiries and therefore a referral will not be required.
• Reasonable distance- DfE does not define reasonable distance because each case depends on the family situation and the geography of the area for example, the parent's ability to get the child to the school, a safe walking route or the accessibility of local transportation.
• Movement- Schools should make their best endeavours ahead of a pupil leaving their school to move to a new address; to seek details of the pupil’s future address, the person they will be residing with and the date they will start living there. They should also ascertain, wherever possible, the name of the pupil’s new school and when they began or will begin attending.We have provided considerations and a template to support gathering information here.
• Non-compulsory school aged children- Children who are not compulsory school age should be referred as CME if the child is a sibling of a compulsory school aged child and/or if they are due to become compulsory school age in the upcoming term (January, April, September). Information on compulsory school age can be found here. Guidance on removal of children who are not compulsory school age from the register can be found on pages 74-75 of Working together to improve school attendance 2024.
• Additional information- Not all children reported for joint enquiries are located, if you have any information about a family’s whereabouts, even after conclusion, please contact us straight away.

Secure email

Emails can be sent securely to the CME@bradford.gov.uk if you are sending from one of the following domains: @bradford.gov.uk, @oneadoptionwy.leeds.gov.uk, @bdct.nhs.uk, @anhst.nhs.uk, @bthft.nhs.uk, @bradford.nhs.uk, @cabad.org.uk, @westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk, @NSPCC.org.uk

If you are not sending from one of these domains, you will need to check with the relevant person within your organisation about using additional encryption such as Galaxkey before you send the email. It is your responsibility to assure yourself that information you send can be received securely by its intended recipient.

Guidance on adding/removing children from the admission register

A pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register for a reason set out in regulation 9 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. When any of the situations set out in regulation 9 occurs, the pupil’s name must be deleted. A pupil’s name must not be removed for any other reason and doing so could constitute off-rolling. Schools should seek legal advice if they unsure on whether they meet the grounds for removal.

In accordance with regulation 13(4) to (6), a school must make a return to the local authority when a pupil’s name is deleted from the admission register (a Deletion Return). Deletion returns should be made within 5 days of removing from the register. This does not apply where the pupil’s name is deleted at or after the end of the last term of the school year when they are in the school’s most senior class (for example, pupils who leave primary school at the end of Year 6).

A school cannot retrospectively delete a pupil’s name from the admission register or attendance register.

In accordance with regulation 13(1) to (3), a school must make a return to the local authority within 5 days of adding a pupil’s name to the admission register (a New Pupil Return) and must provide the local authority with all the information held within the admission register about the pupil. This does not apply to pupils who are added to the admission register at the start of the school’s most junior year (for example, pupils who are registered at secondary school at the start of Year 7)

You can submit a New Pupil Return or Deletion here. You will be required to log onto Bradford Schools Online to access this function. Watch our how-to video here. 

Please ensure the proforma is completed in full with your most up to date information. If you have ascertained details of a new school, please check that you have the full name and address of the school. https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/ is a useful website to use when confirming the details of other schools in England.

School 2 school (S2S) data transfer system

When a pupil transfers from a school in Bradford and the destination school is not known, the school must delete the pupil’s name from the admission register and the pupil’s information should be transferred to the Lost Pupil Database via the S2S system. See Lost pupil database for further information. Further guidance on S2S is available online.

If a pupil arrives in a school and the previous school is not known, the school should ask IMT to search the database for a matching record using gender, names or former names and date of birth. School users cannot search the lost pupil database. See Common Transfer Files (CTFs) | Bradford Schools Online.

Further information and guides can be found online.

New Reception / Year 7 pupils - September 2025 

The purpose of this guidance is to help clarify the situation and to ensure that children who fail to arrive at their new secondary school are identified and supported as soon as possible.

1. All Reception/Year 7 children who arrive at their allocated school in September should be admitted onto the Admissions and Attendance Rolls automatically.
2. All Reception/Year 7 children who fail to arrive, but whose parents have informed the school that they wish to accept the offer of a place should be placed on roll automatically – poor attendance procedures should then be followed and their non-attendance escalated via the Staged Intervention Approach to Poor Attendance if necessary.
3. Reception/Year 7 children who do not arrive at their allocated school, AND have not notified the school that they wish to accept a place, should not be placed on roll until either…
   1. The school conducts reasonable enquiries (such as home visits, contacting previous school, family members, emergency contacts etc) and the child finally arrives at the school and can then be placed on the school roll from the first date of attendance OR
   2. The school conducts reasonable enquiries, and the school ascertains that the family are refusing to send their child to the allocated school, in which case the LA Prosecution Team must be informed via attlegal@bradford.gov.uk, and a place must be held by the school for the child whilst enquiries are ongoing and a School Attendance Order considered, OR
   3. The school conducts reasonable enquiries, and the family cannot be found, at which point a CME Referral is made.  The LA will undertake their enquiries and once the school and the LA can agree that: they have not succeeded in locating the pupil, or they have succeeded but there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil will attend the school again, it will be agreed that the place is no longer needed.
   4. The school conducts reasonable enquiries, and the family advise they are Electively Home Educating (EHE). School must notify EHE@bradford.gov.uk

Schools are primarily responsible for notifying the council of any children who fail to arrive and for completing reasonable checks. Failure to do so may place a child at significant risk and constitutes a breach of the school’s safeguarding duties.

This guidance also applies to children who are due to start at any other standard transition point i.e. Reception.  If you have any further questions about this guidance, please contact CME@bradford.gov.uk

Links

• Education Access Team including CME and Joint Enquiries policy and procedure.
• Joint Enquiries referral form
• Education Access referral form
• ES consent to sharing information 
• Deletion and New Pupil Returns
• The Department for Education 'Children Missing Education: Statutory guidance for local authorities'
• The Department for Education 'Working together to improve school attendance: Statutory  guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities'.