School measures - Children not in school

This is arguably the most important measures sought to be introduced by this Bill to help ensure that children not in school are receiving a suitable education and are safe. The proposed measures will introduce: –

• Compulsory Children Not in School registers in each local authority area in England.
• A duty on local authorities to provide support to the parents of children on their registers.
• Changes to the School Attendance Order (SAO) process to make it more efficient.
• A requirement whereby parents of some children for whom there are existing safeguarding concerns or attend special schools will need local authority consent to home educate (and where children subject to some child protection processes are already being home educated, the local authority will be able to require them to attend school).
• A requirement for local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments when determining whether or not children should be required to attend school.

All parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child receives a suitable, efficient, full-time education. Most parents choose to fulfil this responsibility by ensuring their child regularly attends school, but some choose to educate them otherwise than at school (for example, by home-educating them).

The number of children in home education has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 111,700 children believed to be home-educated as of October 2024. The statistics show an increase in parents reporting that they are moving their children into home education due to mental health concerns or special educational needs.

Going forward parents will require the consent of the local authority to home educate if a child registered at a school is:

• Subject to an enquiry under section 47 of the Children’s Act 1989.
• On a child protection plan.
• At a special school maintained by a local authority, special academy or non-maintained special school, or at an independent school which is specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs, where the child became a registered pupil at that school under arrangements made by the local authority, i.e. is subject to an EHCP which names the school in Section I of the plan.

If children subject to Section 47 enquiries or on child protection plans are already being home educated, the local authority will be able to require them to attend school.

The local authority must decide promptly whether to grant consent. They can refuse to do so on the grounds that it is not in the child’s best interests to be educated otherwise than at school or no suitable educational arrangements have been made for the child outside of school. The proposed legislation also provides a process by which parents can appeal to the Secretary of State if they disagree with the local authority’s decision.

The Registration clause will make it mandatory for a child to be registered on their local authority’s Children Not in School register if they are of compulsory school age, living in the authority’s area, and are either: –

• Not registered at a relevant school.
• They are registered as a pupil at a relevant school but do not attend full time and it has been agreed that they can receive some or all of their education otherwise than at a school (for example, they are flexi-schooled or the local authority has placed them in an alternative provision setting).
• They are a student registered at a further education setting that provides education for children aged 14 and above but they attend that setting on a parttime basis and do not also attend a school.

The registration system will require: –

• Each local authority in England to maintain a Children Not in School register.
• Parents of children who are eligible for inclusion on the register to provide certain information for it, such as the child’s name, date-of-birth, and home address and details about the education provided, such as the amount of time being educated by a parent and by other people.
• Certain providers of out-of-school education to provide information for the register in cases where they are providing education to an eligible child for more than a prescribed amount of time without any parent of the child being actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child.
• Local authorities to provide support to families on their registers, where it is requested by the parent.
• Local authorities to include relevant information about the child’s circumstances (where held or possible to obtain), such as whether they have special educational needs, or current or historic children’s social care involvement.

The changes to the School Attendance Order (SAO) process proposed in the legislation will: –

• Introduce statutory timeframes for issuing and processing SAOs.
• Align the SAO process for academies with maintained schools, creating consistency and simplifying the process.
• Make it an offence for parents to withdraw a child subject to an SAO from school without following the proper procedure. Parents convicted of breaching an SAO can be prosecuted again if they continue to breach it without local authorities having to begin the process again.
• Align the maximum penalty for breaching an SAO with the offence of knowingly failing to ensure a child attends school.
• Require local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments when deciding whether education is suitable or for children subject to child protection processes, whether it is in their best interests to attend school.
• Enable local authorities to request to see the child in their home(s) and where this request is refused, consider this a relevant factor when determining whether to issue a SAO.
• Enable local authorities to use the SAO process for children who are subject to Section 47 enquiries or on child protection plans to require them to attend school where it is in their best interests to do so.

As well as requiring local authorities to keep registers of children not in school, this legislation would require schools to check with the local authority if the child can be removed from the school roll immediately, or if the child falls into one of the categories which require parents to obtain local authority consent before they can be removed from the school roll to be home educated.

The Bill introduces a support duty whereby local authorities will be required to provide support to the parent of a child that is included on their register by giving advice or information about the child’s education, if requested by the parent. Local authorities have discretion over what advice and information they think is appropriate to provide based on what the parent has requested. This can include, for example, advice about the child’s education or information about other sources of support for the child’s education. Local authorities we still be able to offer other forms of support if they wish to do so, but this duty places a minimum requirement on authorities to offer advice and information to parents who want it.

The above analysis relates to Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which has not yet become law and may be subject to change as it passes through Parliament. We will be posting updates to this page if there are any key developments but the above may not reflect the latest changes to the legislation.  Please contact our School Support (schoolsupport@wslaw.co.uk)  or Schools HR (schoolshr@wslaw.co.uk) teams if you require an update on the latest status of the Bill.