Children Who Go Missing from Home or Care, or who are Vulnerable to Exploitation

Schools should monitor attendance closely and address poor or irregular attendance. It is important that pupils' poor attendance is referred to the local authority.

In order to monitor attendance the school must ensure that an admission register is kept.

The school must ensure that a register is kept electronically and that a back-up copy of that register is made at least once a month in the form of an electronic or printed copy. The amendments set out the requirements of the register. It also sets out the rules regarding deletion of names from the register.

Key issues: A child is off register if:

• They are attending another school or schools and there is no school attendance order requiring attendance at that school;
• A parent of the pupil has told the school in writing that the pupil will no longer attend the school after a certain day and will receive education otherwise than at school;
• The pupil has not attended the school within the ten school days immediately after the end of the period of leave;
• Reasonable efforts have been made to find the pupils location but they have not been found or are refusing to attend and there is little or no likelihood of them attending;
• There is continuous absence for 20 or more days;
• The pupil has been sentenced to detention at his majesty’s pleasure;
• The pupil has been permanently excluded;
• The Local Authority agrees the pupil is no longer attending the school.

Should a child leave a Hertfordshire school without notice being given by the parent or without the school being advised by the parent of the new address and/or school the child is to attend, the school should notify their allocated Attendance Improvement Officer (AIO) as soon as possible:

Where a pupil has not returned to school for ten consecutive school days after a leave of absence or is absent from school for reasons statistically recorded as unauthorised absence for twenty consecutive school days, the pupil’s name can be removed from the admission register when the school and the local authority have failed, after jointly making reasonable enquiries, to find out the location and circumstances of the child or have succeeded but agree there are no reasonable grounds to believe that they will attend the school again. In deciding there are no reasonable grounds to believe the pupil will attend the school again both school and local authority must agree, including that there are no reasonable steps that could be taken (either jointly or separately) to secure the pupil’s attendance. Neither ground for deletion applies if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil is unable to attend because of sickness or an unavoidable cause.

In these circumstances the child's name is kept on a centrally held register, and should be clearly identified as missing from education.

The term ‘reasonable’ also makes clear that there is a limit to what the school and local authority is expected to do.

In line with the duty under section 10 of the Children Act 2004, the expectation is that the school and the local authority will have in place procedures designed to carry out reasonable enquiries. The type of procedures may include the appropriate person checking with relatives, neighbours, landlords – private or social housing providers – and other local stakeholders who are involved. They should also record that they have completed these procedures. If there is reason to believe a child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, a referral should be made to children’s social care (and the police if appropriate).

• The Attendance Improvement Officer will work with the school to make reasonable enquiries to try to identify the child's whereabouts;
• If after four weeks, enquiries fail to locate the child the school should remove the child's name from its roll and create a 'lost' common transfer file CTF. XXX should be used as the destination local authority and XXXX as the destination school number. Each file should hold information on only one pupil. This lost CTF should be immediately uploaded onto the Department of Education s2s secure site where it should be held in the 'Lost Pupil Database ‘XXX XXXX’  should only be used when the school has no knowledge of the pupil's destination;
• When a pupil moves to a non-maintained school or one outside England and Wales, the school should use ‘MMMMMMM’ as the destination code. This enables the CTF to be stored securely and to be available if the pupil returns to a maintained school;
• Should a pupil leave a Hertfordshire school to be home educated, on receiving written confirmation from the parent(s), the school should remove their name from the school roll and send the CTF to the s2s Database using MMMMMMM, so that the CTF goes into the database of pupils who have moved outside the maintained system this does not apply to special schools;
• The number of home-educated children in England is increasing. Most parents who home educate do so in their children’s best interests, and many home-educated children receive a suitable education that supports them to thrive. However, there are concerns that not all children educated at home are being educated properly and that some are at risk of or suffering harm. Increasingly, parents of children with complex needs are choosing to home educate and may not be well prepared or equipped to provide a suitable education. As there is currently no duty on parents to notify local authorities when they are home educating, local authorities are unlikely to be aware of all the children not in school in their areas, including those who are not receiving a suitable education or those who are at risk of harm. Therefore, some children may be spending long periods of time receiving unsuitable education or, in some cases, no education at all, without intervention; and there are also children who may be in unsafe home environments and under the radar of practitioners that are there to protect them. There is an urgent need for local authorities to be able to better identify these children and, if a child is not receiving a suitable education or is at risk of harm, to take action to help them back into school or to take other necessary steps to safeguard them. NOTE There is also a growing trend for Flexi Schooling whereby the child is in school for part of the time and at home for some time too;
• Should a pupil join a Hertfordshire school without that school receiving a CTF from their previous school, the receiving school should contact the 'Lost Pupil Coordinator' and request that a search be made of the Lost Pupil Database for a matching record using gender, names or former names and date of birth. Schools cannot search the lost pupil database;
• Should a Hertfordshire school which has previously sent a lost child CTF to the Lost Pupil Database be subsequently contacted by a school at which the lost child has subsequently registered, the:
  • School which sent the CTF to the Lost Pupil Database should create a new CTF file and send it to the receiving school and request the Lost Pupil Coordinator to download the original CTF from the Lost Pupils database and delete it; and
  • Receiving school should request its own LA to download the original CTF from the Lost Pupils Database.

These procedures will only be effective if all schools adhere to the principle that whenever a pupil joins or leaves a school then a common transfer file must accompany them.

Further information on the transfer of a CTF can be found on teachernet.

Local agencies and professionals, working with children and families where there are outstanding child protection concerns, must bear in mind that unusual non-school attendance, missed appointments, or abortive home visits, may indicate the family has moved out of the area.

This possibility must also be borne in mind when there are concerns about an unborn child who may be at an increased likelihood of suffering significant harm.

In any of the circumstances listed above all agencies who become aware that the child, pregnant woman or family are missing must alert the responsible Children's Services social worker immediately.

All reasonable steps need to be taken immediately to locate a missing child and alert other agencies with whom they may have contact.

Existing records in these agencies must be checked to obtain any information, which might help trace the missing child, e.g. details of friends and relatives.

The case needs to remain open and active steps must be taken to try to trace the child by visiting the last known address, checking with family members, any individuals known to hold parental responsibility and neighbours, if appropriate.

The following steps will need to be taken in all cases:

• A 'need to know' needs to be sent detailing the circumstances, (procedure in Children's Services Good Guide, form Children's Services 3645 on Connect);
• Child(ren) or family need to be reported missing to uniformed Police (who will alert Joint Child Protection Investigation Team (JCPIT)) if it is one child of the family missing, it may be most appropriate for the parents to do this, however it needs to be done as a matter of urgency, thus if the parents delay, Children's Services staff need to ensure it is done;
• All members of the Core Group need to be updated and asked for any information they have about child(ren)'s possible whereabouts - and anything leant should be passed to the Police;
• All relevant other local authorities must be notified (pass details of the nature and category of concerns, and key dates to the Child Protection Administrator, tel: 01992 556935, comnet 56935 who will do this - they will also notify Health Trusts in Hertfordshire);
• Hospitals need to be notified, either locally or nationally according to the circumstances (if a pregnant woman whose unborn child is subject of a Child Protection Plan goes missing);
• It may be helpful to bring forward the Review Conference so as to update all agencies and to revise the Child Protection Plan (in this case, the Police officer in the case should be asked to attend).

Health records for all members of the family who are missing need to be tagged so that if their records are requested Health will be notified. The Lead Social Worker/Social Worker should contact the health representative (health visitor / school nurse) for missing children and ask them to do this and to ensure GP records for all family members (including parents) who are missing are flagged.

If the child is of school age, a note should be posted on the Department for Education database indicating the circumstances (e.g. subject of a Child Protection Plan), that they has left their previous school and are currently missing. Anyone contacted about a school place for the child should then contact the social worker. The Principal Attendance Improvement Officer can assist (tel: 01992 588580 comnet 28580).

If the family is missing, or the child is of age to claim benefits, themselves, the Department of Works & Pensions (DWP) need to be notified and asked to alert Children's Services if the family attempt to claim benefits.

If the child or family are known to the UK Border Agency, it should be notified of the status of the child(ren) and asked to contact Children's Services if it subsequently has any contact with the family.

If the family remain missing and all reasonable steps have been taken a child(ren)'s name(s) may, with the agreement at a Review Child Protection Conference be removed from the List of Children Subject of a Child Protection Plan.

If the child is 'looked after', the Children's Services Team Manager must decide and record whether to bring forward the next Looked After Review.

If the child is subject of a Child Protection Plan, the Team Manager must decide and record whether to bring forward the next Review Conference.

Where a Section 47 Enquiry has taken place, the Children's Services, the Police Joint Child Protection Investigation Team (JCPIT) and other involved agencies must have a final Strategy Discussion to agree the outcome, including any need for a Child Protection Conference.

The social worker and Team Manager must give explicit consideration to any need for legal action, and record the reasons for their decision.