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Dear  Jen Persson 

Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 3 May.

A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible and this should be within
20 working days, as you are requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2023-0017557.

Yours sincerely

  

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.education.gov.uk/
2. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
3. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

I refer to your request for information (reference number 2023-0017557),
which was received on 3^rd May 2023. You requested:

Under the terms of the FOI Act 2000, please can you provide the following
information with regards to the Lost Pupil Database, as recorded on May
1st, 2023:

1. The total number of individual pupil transfer records in the database,
and the date since when the oldest of these has been retained (which year
was it entered) and confirm it is for settings in England only;

2a. The number of individual pupil transfer records (unique pupils, not
multiple entries for the same child) created within each of the last five
full academic years (September 1st 2017 to August 31 2018, September 1st
2018 to August 31 2019, September 1st 2019 to August 31 2020, September
1st 2020 to August 31 2021, September 1st 2021 to August 31 2022);

2b. The number of individual pupil transfer records currently "live" in
the Lost Pupil Database of current school age (i.e. are expected to be in
education today but are recorded as destination unknown, excluding any old
records for pupils who are older than 18 today)

2c. The number of individual pupils recorded as CME (child missing
education) in any database at the Department for Education (i.e. a child
expected to be in education today within the compulsory age range, but who
is recorded as a child missing education) and which database(s) that comes
from.

3. The (a) criteria for which data must be added and submitted to add to
the DfE Lost Pupil Database and (b) any exceptions to these criteria (c)
the criteria for deletion; (if all three of these criteria are somewhere
publicly available, please direct me to where)

4. A list of the minimum required and/or all possible data items included
in a single record by field type (eg first name, last name, postcode, UPN)
when creating/ submitting such a record in a CTF file;

5. A copy of any audit of usage or report run to interpret the use of the
data it holds, i.e to report the number of times any query has been run
since September 1, 2022 and by which users (e.g. understanding how such
data are used in/by the Department or others).

6. Please provide a link to any online published guidance / explainer of
how this database and the National Pupil Database overlap in terms of one
updating the other where CME is recorded as a child's status or if this is
only internal information, please provide the document.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Jen Persson

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I have answered each of your questions separately below. However, to
assist with your understanding of those answers, it is useful to be aware
that the School to School (S2S) website is a secure data transfer
mechanism provided to schools and local authorities in England and Wales.
S2S was designed to enable Common Transfer Files (CTF) to be sent from,
and to, any maintained school (when children move from one school to
another) to ensure essential information needed to support a child’s
continuing education and well-being is available to the receiving school.

When a pupil leaves a school, and the destination is unknown to the former
school or the destination is known but outside of England or Wales, CTFs
generated by schools are uploaded to an area of S2S historically referred
to as the “Lost Pupils Database”. This name is, perhaps, misleading by
implying that pupils are lost and their details are added to a database
when it is more accurate to describe the “Lost Pupils Database” as a
repository for CTFs where the correct destination is unknown or outside of
England or Wales. This allows those CTFs to be available to schools who
have a received a pupil and the school does not know the previous school
or when the pupil might arrive back in a school in England and Wales after
a period of absence (e.g. where they have lived outside of England or
Wales).

With regards to your specific questions:

1. The total number of individual pupil transfer records in the database,
and the date since when the oldest of these has been retained (which year
was it entered) and confirm it is for settings in England only;

As at 22/05/2023 there were 94,869 Common Transfer Files stored in the
area of S2S commonly known as the “Lost Pupils Database”. The oldest of
these files was uploaded on 05/12/2017.

Of these, there were 87,183 unique individual transfer records (i.e. where
multiple entries for the same pupil unique pupil number have been removed)
in the Lost Pupils Database.

As outlined above, the S2S website is a secure data transfer mechanism
provided to schools and local authorities in England and Wales.

2a. The number of individual pupil transfer records (unique pupils, not
multiple entries for the same child) created within each of the last five
full academic years (September 1st 2017 to August 31 2018, September 1st
2018 to August 31 2019, September 1st 2019 to August 31 2020, September
1st 2020 to August 31 2021, September 1st 2021 to August 31 2022).

As outlined in response to question 1, the oldest file currently available
was uploaded on 5 December 2017. Data is not available for records created
prior to that date which are no longer stored on S2S. The number of Common
Transfer Files for unique pupils (where a unique pupil is defined as a
record with a distinct unique pupil number) for the requested period for
which data is held is as follows:

• 5^th December 2017 to 31 August 2018 – 12,580 files   
• 1^st September 2018 to 31 August 2019 – 17,507 files
• 1^st September 2019 to 31 August 2020 – 13.896 files
• 1^st September 2020 to 31 August 2021 – 17,919 files
• 1^st September 2021 to 31 August 2022 – 14,706 files

2b. The number of individual pupil transfer records currently "live" in
the Lost Pupil Database of current school age (i.e. are expected to be in
education today but are recorded as destination unknown, excluding any old
records for pupils who are older than 18 today)

A child must start full-time education once they reach compulsory school
age. This is on 31 December, 31 March or 31 August following their fifth
birthday - whichever comes first. In addition, a child can leave school on
the last Friday in June if they will be 16 by the end of the summer
holidays. Further information on compulsory school age is available from
the links below:

• [1]School admissions: School starting age - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• [2]School leaving age - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

As such, the current compulsory school age for children (aged 5 to 16) as
at 22 May 2023 is children born between 1 September 2006 and 31 March 2018
inclusive and there are 73,814 unique individual pupil records in the area
of S2S commonly known as the “Lost Pupils Database” for children born
between that period.

Please note: Whilst compulsory school age is from 5 to 16, an individual
must be in education or training until age 18 and may be in school based
education longer depending on circumstances (for example, the SEN code of
practice applies until age 25). Hence, just because a file available on
S2S is for an individual not currently of compulsory school age, that does
not imply that they are not currently attending school (or intend on
returning to school).

2c. The number of individual pupils recorded as CME (child missing
education) in any database at the Department for Education (i.e. a child
expected to be in education today within the compulsory age range, but who
is recorded as a child missing education) and which database(s) that comes
from.

The Department do not currently collect or hold individual records of
children missing education and therefore the information requested is not
held. We do collect aggregated counts of elective home educated children
and children missing education from local authorities via the [3]elective
home education and children missing education data collection introduced
in autumn 2022. Statistics from that collection are publicly available
from the links below:

• [4]Elective home education, Academic year 2022/23 – Explore education
statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
• [5]Children missing education, Academic year 2022/23 – Explore
education statistics – GOV.UK
(explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)

3. The (a) criteria for which data must be added and submitted to add to
the DfE Lost Pupil Database and (b) any exceptions to these criteria (c)
the criteria for deletion; (if all three of these criteria are somewhere
publicly available, please direct me to where)

For (a), the circumstances when schools are expected to add a Common
Transfer File to the “Lost Pupils Database” are as outlined in the [6]S2S
guidance (page 15, Lost Pupils Leaving or Joining your School) referenced
in your request for information and the [7]Common Transfer File guidance
(page 12, When to send CTFs and xml data transfers).

For (b), the same section of the aforementioned CTF guidance also include
details of situations when it is not considered appropriate to transfer a
CTF.

For (c), files will be deleted from the area of S2S commonly known as the
“Lost Pupils Database” when it is not reasonable to expect the file to
relate to an individual currently in education or not likely to return to
education and this is reviewed by the system business owner on an ongoing
basis. Of the 87,183 unique individual transfer records currently
available in the system, there are no records for anyone over the age of
21 and no records which have been there more than 6 years.

4. A list of the minimum required and/or all possible data items included
in a single record by field type (eg first name, last name, postcode, UPN)
when creating/ submitting such a record in a CTF file;

The information required to be included in a Common Transfer File are as
outlined in the CTF specification which includes details of which fields
are mandatory and which fields are optional. The specification for files
to be transferred during the 20222/23 academic year are available from the
link below:

[8]Common transfer file 22: specification - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

5. A copy of any audit of usage or report run to interpret the use of the
data it holds, i.e to report the number of times any query has been run
since September 1, 2022 and by which users (e.g. understanding how such
data are used in/by the Department or others).

As at 22/05/2023, the area of S2S commonly known as the “Lost Pupils
Database” has been queried via the user interface a total of 876 times
since 1^st September 1 2022. All of these queries have been from users in
local authorities who are the only users with the ability to search the
database.

Within DfE, there are no users with the ability to query the database via
the user interface and therefore no searches by DfE users. The only users
within the DfE with the ability to access the system are a limited number
of specialist database administrators with access restricted to purposes
neccesary for maintaining and securing the S2S database.

6. Please provide a link to any online published guidance / explainer of
how this database and the National Pupil Database overlap in terms of one
updating the other where CME is recorded as a child's status or if this is
only internal information, please provide the document.

As outlined above, the “Lost Pupils Database” is a repository for the
storage of Common Transfer Files for pupils where the correct destination
is unknown or outside of England or Wales. This allows those CTFs to be
available to schools who have a received a pupil and the school does not
know the previous school or when the pupil might arrive back in a school
in England and Wales after a period of absence. The database is not used
for any other purpose and therefore there is no overlap or data flows
between the “Lost Pupils Database” and the National Pupil Database (or any
other DfE database). As such, the requested information is not held.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study
and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an
exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be
also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would
require the permission of the copyright holder.

Most documents produced by a government department or agency will be
protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be
re-used under the Open Government Licence
([9]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For
information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information
please see The National Archives website
-http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.
Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information
about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual
Property Office’s website at [10]www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. If you are not content with the outcome of
your complaint to the Department, you may then contact the Information
Commissioner’s Office. 

Yours sincerely

DfE School to School Service Desk

 

References

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1. https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/sc...
2. https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-lea...
3. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/elective-hom...
4. https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
5. https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
https://explore-education-statistics.ser...
6. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
7. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
8. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
9. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
10. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/