Children Missing Education

Last Tuesday Shelley Horne, senior children missing education officer, met with vulnerable children's attendance policy officers from the Department for Education who have been undertaking some work to better understand local authority practices for identifying and supporting Children Missing Education (CME). Based on the information shared about our practices in Norfolk to track pupil movement and identify children missing from education, the policy advisers felt that we had some very good practice examples and invited Shelley to showcase this to other local authorities across England.

Shelley, along with the designated nurse from the Integrated Care Board, presented our joint working approach to over 400 delegates. We use information from health services to trace children who are missing from education. We know that from the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2024, the Government is proposing further safeguards for children through the introduction of the 'Children Not at School Register' and the current practice of the Children Missing Education Team provides us with a strong foundation for implementing these new requirements.