Number of children investigated by Children Missing Education (CME) officers

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Education,

It is my understanding that each local authority has a Children Missing Education (CME) officer.

The role of the CME officer is to identify children in their authority who are :
- not on a school roll
and
- not being educated other than at school
and
- identified as having been out of any educational provision for a substantial period of time (greater than 4 weeks)

Do you store the number of children found to meet the 3 criteria above for each local authority?

If so I would like to request this data for the academic year 2010 to 2011 and 2009 to 2010.

Is the data requested in part 1 (above) collected for use by the Department for Education? If so would also like to request the name of the database or the way to refer to this centrally collected data.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2012/0024323.

Thank you

Department for Education
Public Communications Unit
Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: www.education.gov.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/educationgovuk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans,
Thank you for your emails dated 25 April 2012 about Children Missing
Education and the ‘Lost Pupil’ database.
You asked:-

Q1. - (1) Do you store the number of children found to meet the 3 CME
criteria specified for each local authority? (2) If so I would like to
request this data for the academic year 2010 to 2011 and 2009 to 2010. (3)
Is the data requested in part 1 (above) collected for use by the
Department for Education? If so, I would also like to request the name of
the database or the way to refer to this centrally collected data.
 
Q2. - The following Ofsted report mentions the "lost pupil" database:    
     [1]http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/child...
    
I would like you to clarify if this database is used to keep a record of
children who have been found by Children Missing Education (CME) officers
to be:
 - not on a school roll and
- not being educated other than at school and  out of any educational
provision for a substantial period of time (greater than 4 weeks)
- between the age of 5 to 16
If this is not what the database contains then please could you  explain
the data stored.
However if this understanding of the database is correct I would like to
request the number of children from each local authority stored on the
database and if they have been returned back into the school system. I
would like this for the academic years 2010-11  and 2009-10 and any
additional years would be excellent.”  

With regard to the first question asked above, I am writing to confirm
that the Department has considered your request for information on the
number of children missing education under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Department does not collect or publish national data on children
missing education in each local authority, and therefore does not hold
such information for the school academic years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.  

With regard to the second question asked above, I can confirm that the
'lost pupil' database is not used by Children Missing Education (CME)
officers to record CME data.
 
The facility referred to is part of the Department's School to School
(S2S) secure data transfer website.  The primary function of S2S is to
provide schools and Local Authorities (LAs) with a mechanism for the
secure and ongoing transfer of thousands of statutory child-level data
files per week to new schools/LAs when children move school.

The secondary function is the provision of a simple repository
(often referred to incorrectly as the “lost pupils’ database”) in which
files are retained whenever a child leaves a school for a ‘destination’
outside the maintained school sector.  These ‘destinations’ are often
classified as ‘gone to an independent school’, ‘gone sick’, ‘moved abroad
with parents’ or 'moved on without reason' etc.  Files are retained for 12
months in case the child’s personal details are required by any new
school/LA, during which period schools and LAs can access the repository
and search for pupils that may have arrived in their jurisdiction.  In
view of that, the term “lost pupils database” is misleading in implying
that pupils are lost and it would be more accurate to say that pupils’
transfer records have been placed there because their correct destination
is not known.
 
Not all schools and LAs use S2S and those that do tend to use the file
transfer facility but not the repository.  This means the repository is
incomplete and therefore does not support tracking of ‘lost pupils’ or
those missing education.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote our reference number in any future communications. 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to me within two calendar months of the date of this
letter. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our complaints/review
procedure.
 

Yours sincerely,

Ade Alao
Behaviour and Attendance in Schools Division
[email address]
[2]www.education.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0024323.

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/child...
2. http://www.education.gov.uk/

Lisa Evans left an annotation ()

Just to be clear the second question answered in this response comes from here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lo...