Revised Children Missing Education Guidance September 2025
On 8 September 2025, the DfE updated the Children Missing Education (CME) statutory guidance for schools and Local Authorities on how they work together to identify and support CME to receive a suitable education. The update aims to address inconsistencies in practice and provide clarity on a number of aspects of schools and LAs collective duties in this area. The document moves from being advice for schools to statutory guidance and reflects the provisions outlined within the Pupil Registration Regulations that schools are already required to adhere to.
A summary of responsibilities and a policy and procedure checklist for LAs have also been published to compliment the guidance.
Whilst not a comprehensive list of all the changes, the guidance has been expanded and clarified in the following areas:
- Definitions and risk categories
The definition of CME has been updated and is defined as those of compulsory school age who are:
- not registered at a school
- not receiving suitable education otherwise (e.g. through approved home education or alternative provision)
Importantly, the guidance makes clear CME does not include children who are:
- registered at a school but persistently absent
- receiving suitable elective home education (EHE)
- awaiting a school place but still in education
New examples of CME include children in temporary accommodation, those awaiting school placements, and those receiving unsuitable EHE. There is a greater emphasis on children at risk of harm, exploitation, or radicalisation and therefore the need for CME processes to be embedded into wider safeguarding and attendance strategies.
- Clarity regarding legal duties
The guidance reinforces Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 which requires local authorities to identify CME in the LA and ensure they receive suitable education. In order to achieve this, the guidance emphasises the critical role schools play in early identification and intervention and reinforces that safeguarding and education access are shared responsibilities between schools and local authorities.
In order to achieve this the guidance outlines clear expectations for school as follows:
- maintain accurate admission registers and help prevent CME through taking a proactive approach to monitoring pupils' attendance in line with chapter 2 of Working together to improve school attendance
- do their own initial proactive work to locate a child at risk of becoming a CME, before working jointly with their local authority to conduct further reasonable enquiries to identify their whereabouts. The guidance is clear that schools must continue to play their role in conducting joint reasonable enquiries when a pupil's whereabouts is unknown even after they have submitted a CME referral to the local authority.
- work collaboratively with their local authority to return CME in their local area into education - this might also involve working with a child's home local authority, if different
- offer appropriate support to successfully integrate children into their school, including having efficient decision-making processes for admissions in place to prevent delays
- carefully follow guidance on removing or adding pupils' names from or to the admission register, which in some specific cases will involve joint actions to be undertaken between the school and local authority before this decision can be made.
Next steps
As you will understand, the beginning of the academic year always means high demand for our attendance and Children Missing Education Teams as we work collaboratively with schools and other agencies to identify and locate CME. Later this term we will publish revisions to our local CME policy to reflect the clarifications provided in the guidance and offer webinars to schools and other partners to consider our joint approach.
In Norfolk, pupil deletion and new pupil return rates indicate there is a high level of compliance with legislation in this area and contact with the Children Missing Education so far this term indicates schools are working hard to ensure that the location of expected pupils is confirmed. We would encourage you read the Guidance giving particular consideration to the changes and its statutory basis and review relevant policies accordingly.
Further guidance
The Department for Education is hosting a webinar following the publication of updated statutory guidance on Wednesday 8 October 2025 at 4pm. The session is specifically designed to help schools better understand their individual and shared responsibilities towards CME. It will also include a live Q&A to address any questions on the new guidance. You can register for the webinar by following this link: Registration Form.
