������Ƶ

See the Department for Education (DfE) guidance on attendance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools, and local authorities. 

All schools and professionals supporting any children and young people should be following the new guidance:

The government defines CME as:

"Children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school"

CME does not include:

• children who are registered at an educational provision who are not attending regularly
• children who are receiving alternative provision
• children who are being Electively Home Educated (EHE)

The Local Authority has a statutory duty to identify and support all Children Missing Education.

We do this on behalf of the Local Authority by:

• consistently encouraging all schools, partners and external agencies to notify us of any potential CME
• operating a CME triage system to identify and prioritise the most vulnerable CME
• leading the investigations in all reported CME to identify whereabouts and secure appropriate educational provision
• working closely with children, young people, parents and carers and all relevant agencies for each individual case
• identifying and appropriately challenging any perceived barriers preventing a child’s right to access education
• providing caseworker support for each individual CME until successful resolution
• developing trusted networks with other LAs and external partners to assist in wider CME investigations
• escalating relevant complex cases to multi agency forums such as Missing Mondays, Fair Access Panels and Children who Cannot Attend School (CCAS) panels, whilst ensuring the voice of the child.
• utilising School Attendance Orders and legal sanctions where required

Once a child or young person is confirmed to be on a school roll/suitably in educational provision otherwise, the CME definition ceases.

• Children Missing Education Policy (PDF)

If a child is a registered pupil, on a school roll, it remains the schools’ responsibility to work with the child or young person and family to secure regular school attendance.

This is classed as a school attendance matter.

Many schools may have their own internal attendance support worker (sometimes called an attendance, education or welfare officer, pastoral support officer, family liaison worker or family support worker). 

Every school is required to have a named attendance lead who is part of the school’s senior leadership team.

Addressing attendance concerns

In addressing attendance concerns all schools, as a minimum requirement, should be:

• using a first day calling mechanism to make daily contact with the parents of any child not attending school and seeking information on each pupil’s well-being and reason for absence
• regularly visiting the home addresses of pupils who are not attending school in order to see the child or young person to ensure their welfare and uphold safeguarding responsibilities
• meeting with the pupil, parents or carers and most relevant school staff to identify the barriers to education and provide support to find agreed solutions (e.g., through completing an Early Help assessment or utilising the children with medical difficulties or graduated response models)
• making reasonable adjustments to assist improved attendance
• having a robust action plan in place, drawn up collectively and agreed by all parties, capturing the child or young person voice
• seeking external multi agency support where required
• adhering to the legal guidance by reporting into the local authority Children's Services portal any pupils who are on part time timetables, or who are regularly absent from school, have irregular attendance, or have missed 10 school days or more without the school’s permission
• escalating any extreme cases (whereby robust casework and substantially evidenced multi agency support has continually failed to secure regular attendance) into the local authority for legal considerations

Schools have a safeguarding duty, under section 175 Education Act 2002 to investigate any unexplained absences.

For more information, see:

• Information and resources for schools

This document contains information from the DfE to support social workers to improve the attendance of children in their care:

• Supporting social workers to improve a child's attendance (PDF)

More resources:

• Education plan to support CIN CP (Word document)
• The Virtual School