Counting children isn't the same as intervening

A reflection on producing a data set of children who are not registered at school

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, now at its third reading in the Commons, will create a duty for councils in England and Wales to produce a dataset of all children of compulsory school age who are not registered at a school. On paper, this looks like decisive action but in practice, having worked for Local Authorities, I’m not convinced this proposal is new or indeed, helpful.

Local Authorities who take their responsibilities seriously already hold this information. Children Missing Education duties have existed for years. Area inspections monitor this work, and Ofsted would take a dim view of any authority that could not account for the children in its patch. The councils doing this well are not waiting for legislation and the councils doing it badly will not suddenly do it well because a bill has told them to produce a spreadsheet.