April 2021 update for Children Missing Education
The focus on identifying and referring children missing from education continues to be a high priority. As soon as a pupil is suspected of being missing from education, the school should commence enquiries to establish their whereabouts. If, through these
enquiries, it is established that the child is missing from education and their whereabouts cannot be confirmed, then a CME referral should be made straight away. Schools need not wait any length of time to make that referral.
We have recently received guidance from the DfE around pupils who are out of the country. It states that schools will need to consider regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended, and consider taking legal advice
before deleting a pupil’s name from the register.
In order to delete the pupil under regulation 8(1)(e), a school would need to have evidence that the pupil ‘no longer ordinarily resides at a distance from the school which is reasonable.’ Regulation 8(4) sets out that ‘a pupil shall be treated as ordinarily
residing at a place where the pupil is habitually and normally resident apart from temporary or occasional absences’. Schools should communicate with the family and ascertain a residence which is a reasonable distance from school if they wish to remain on
roll.
In the absence of any communication from the family a CME referral may be appropriate. Please only refer to the CME team if you believe that a child is missing from education. If schools have reason to believe that the grounds for deletion are met, they
should make every effort to inform the family of this, and must alert the local authority via the Off rolling proforma when removing from roll.
The service has had an increased volume of referrals over recent weeks and are working to make initial enquires as quickly as possible. If you have any additional information to share following your initial referral, please do so by email. Please be assured
that your referral is being progressed and the team will contact the referrer when their enquires establish that a child can be removed from the school’s roll.
If you have any further queries, please refer to CME page via the Behaviour and Attendance tab.