Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to establish a register of children who are not in school, with a view to monitoring school absence data more closely; and if so, to what timeline.

The government remains committed to introducing statutory local authority registers for children not in school, as well as a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. We will legislate for these at the next suitable opportunity, to support local authorities to undertake their existing duties to ensure that all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated.

There are existing processes in place for schools to manage cases where children are persistently absent from school. As set out in our ‘Children Not in School’ consultation response, the proposed local authority registers would only have in scope children of compulsory school age that are either not on a school roll, flexi-schooled, or receiving some or all of their education in a non-school setting. The proposed registers would not include children on a school roll who are simply absent from school, as these children will already be visible through existing school registers.

The department has recently begun collecting data on electively home educated children from local authorities on a voluntary basis. Following publication of data from the autumn and spring terms of the 2022/2023 academic year on 18 May 2023, it is the department’s intention that local authority data on elective home education will be published annually thereafter.