Children missing education Statutory guidance for local authorities August 2024 2 Contents Summary 3 About this guidance 3 What legislation does this guidance refer to? 3 Who is this guidance for? 3 What are the main changes from 19 August 2024? 3 Introduction - overview 4 Local authorities’ responsibilities 4 Parents’ responsibilities 7 Schools’ responsibilities 7 Providing information on standard transitions 11 Making reasonable enquiries 13 Using Common Transfer Files to transfer pupil information 16 Sharing information with others 17 Children at particular risk of missing education 18 Further sources of information 21 Associated resources (external links) 21 Additional departmental advice and guidance 21 Annex A: Grounds for deleting a pupil from the school admission register 22 Annex B: CME policies and procedures checklist 30 3 Summary About this guidance This statutory guidance sets out key principles to enable local authorities in England to implement their legal duty under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to make arrangements to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, children missing education (CME). Local authorities should be able to demonstrate that they have considered this statutory guidance and where it is not followed, the local authority should have reasonable grounds for not doing so. This advice is not exhaustive and local authorities will need to take into account the circumstances of individual cases. This guidance replaces the September 2016 version. What legislation does this guidance refer to? • Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 (added by section 4 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006) • Education Act 1996 (section 7, 8, 14 and 19) • Education and Inspections Act 2006 (section 4 and 38) • School Attendance (Pupil Registratio