t they have effective systems in place. Where there is concern for a child’s welfare, this should be referred to local authority children’s social care. If there is reason to suspect a crime has been committed, the police should also be involved. Where there is a concern that a child’s safety or well- being is at risk, it is essential to take action without delay. Local authorities have other duties, powers and expectations to support their work on CME. These include: 6 • Arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils from the sixth school day of exclusion2, • Safeguarding children’s welfare, and their duty3 to cooperate with other agencies in improving children’s well-being, including protection from harm and neglect; • Serving notice on parents requiring them to satisfy the local authority that the child is receiving suitable education, when it comes to the local authority’s attention that a child might not be receiving such education4, • Issuing School Attendance Orders (SAOs) to parents who fail to satisfy the local authority that their child is receiving suitable education, if the local authority deems it is appropriate that the child should attend school5, • Prosecuting parents who do not comply with an SAO6, • Prosecuting or issuing penalty notices to parents who fail to ensure their school-registered child attends school regularly7, • Applying to court for an Education Supervision Order8 for a child9 to support them to go to school, and • Carrying out the expectations of local authority School Attendance Support Teams set out in the statutory guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’.10 To enable effective CME processes, all schools must make a ‘new pupil return11’ or a ‘deletion return12’ to the local authority when a pupi