Lifelong Learning Project - School Inclusion - Preventing Early School Leaving

Children Missing Education: Experiences of Implementing the DfES Guidelines - September 2006

Steve Griggs, Ros Payne and Sunita Bhabra - Creative Research

Department for Education and Skills

United Kingdom September 2006

Research Report RR797

English

The DfES in 2002 set a target of ensuring by 2005 that systems were in place in each local authority to track children missing from education. They then issued non-statutory guidelines to help put in place such systems.

This is document is the result of research undertaken to identify experiences in implementing the gudelines, leading in February 2007 to more formal statutory guidance.

I found this an interesting document because it helped to confirm one of the problems encountered in researching this project - namely the difficulty in obtaining comparative statistics, because of the difficulty in the UK of defining who falls under the umbrella of 'Children Missing Education'. While the guidelines state it covers "all children of compulsory school age who are not on a school roll, nor being educatied otherwise (e.g. privately or in alternative provision) and who have been out of any educational provision for a substantial period of time (usually agreed as four weeks or more)" not everyone interpreted this definition in the same way. The document is also useful to provide an understanding of how the legislation in the UK has been developed, problems encountered sharing information etc.

www.everychildmatters.gov.uk then put - Children Missing Education - in the search box

Roger Murfin

Wilsthorpe Business & Enterprise College

Business Manager