Children Missing from Education – advice for practitioners

Statutory guidance for local authorities, and advice for other groups, on helping children who are missing education get back into it can be found at www.gov.uk

Whilst the guidance is written principally for schools and the Local Authority, it is also applicable to the wider children’s workforce and applies to situations where:

• a pupil may leave school without their parents/carers giving details of their new school
• the destination school given by the parent has not received the pupil
• parents/carers are unsure of the pupil’s new school
• the pupil has stopped attending without the school receiving any notification.

In Manchester each year children either fail to start in a new school or appropriate education provision; or simply become lost from school rolls and fail to re-register at a new school when they move into the city.

These ‘missing’ children can be among the most vulnerable in our city. It is essential that all services work together to identify and re-engage these children back into appropriate education provision as quickly as possible.

Children who remain disengaged from education are potentially exposed to higher degrees of risk that could include engagement in antisocial or criminal behaviour, social disengagement and/or sexual exploitation. Missing children may also be vulnerable to other forms of exploitation including violent crime, gang exploitation, or drug and alcohol misuse.

Local authorities are responsible for protecting children whether they go missing from their family home, from local authority care or from education.

• Find out more about the local offer and how to get a school place on the City Council’s website at www.manchester.gov.uk/children_missing_from_education
• Find out more about home education (or home schooling) on the City Council’s website at  www.manchester.gov.uk/educating_your_child_at_home
• view the MCC Elective Home Education Policy documents on their website at www.manchester.gov.uk/elective_home_education_policy

See also our missing children resource