Introduction
This page explains more about the pilot for local authority children missing education databases in Wales which is to begin with 7 LAs in March 2025. Read more about opting out here including template letters requesting that data NOT be shared.
In January 2024 the government in Wales put forward proposals for LHBs (and GPs) to send children’s details to local authorities with a view to identifying children not registered at school thereby discovering which children are home educated (and subsequently assessing whether the home education can be approved). Read more about Children Missing Education (Wales) here and the CME Database for Wales here
Wales has 22 local authorities (LAs), also known as unitary authorities, principal areas or councils. Cardiff has the highest population at over 350,000 in 2021, while Merthyr Tydfil has the lowest (under 60,000) see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Welsh_principal_areas A corresponding ratio can be seen amongst school-age children; this link shows that Cardiff had 57,000 pupils, with Merthyr Tydfil only having 9,000.
NHS Wales delivers services through 7 Local Health Boards or LHBs. A list of LHBs – and which LAs they serve – can be found here
Database Pilot
In September 2024 the Education Secretary Lynn Neagle made the following statement: “To determine the effectiveness of the regulations in identifying children who may be missing education, and to identify any practical difficulties that may need to be addressed, I have agreed that the database arrangements will be piloted across a small number of local authorities for the first year. The pilot will undergo a full evaluation, with any required changes made ahead of the proposed wider roll-out across Wales.“
The Education Secretary subsequently said that the pilot would begin in March 2025 and later confirmed that the pilot would run for a year. The pilot areas were named in early October 2024 as follows (with the relevant LHB in brackets)
- Anglesey (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board)
- Cardiff (Cardiff and Vale University Health Board)
- Carmarthenshire (Hywel Dda University Health Board)
- Gwynedd (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board)
- Monmouthshire (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board)
- Powys (Powys Teaching Health Board)
- Rhondda Cynon Taf (Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board)
It seems likely that the pilot areas were determined by which local authorities put themselves forward, ie that it is driven by education rather than by health.
Why?
By way of background, the reason why health services are being asked to share information is to make use of existing database legislation which has been on the statute books since 2004 but has never been brought into force in Wales. The government in Wales believes this is easier and more achievable than trying to bring in controversial new law such as a requirement for parents to notify the local authority if their child is home educated. Read more here
Existing CME Processes
Unless they are being educated otherwise than at school, children are missing education [CME] if they are of compulsory school age and don’t have a school place. This is often as a result of needing a place outside the normal admission round because the family has moved out of the catchment area of the old school.
Sometimes children fail to start school at all; an application is made but then the child does not attend, or parents don’t get their preferred school. A child might also lose a school place by being permanently excluded and will be CME if alternative arrangements are not made. Read more here
FOI April 2024
Unlike in England, local authorities in Wales are not required to supply information to the government about children missing education and when I made Freedom of Information requests to Welsh LAs in April 2024 I found a wide variation in how CME are defined and tracked.
Some of the areas NOT taking part in the pilot appear to have more comprehensive CME systems in place than those who ARE in the pilot. Currently however, the Welsh government does not appear interested in models of good practice for CME.
I asked local authorities in Wales how many children were recorded as CME in 2022-23, how many in each month, whether there were different categories of CME, how long a child was CME, and whether Additional Learning Needs [ALN] were noted. The reason for the subsidiary questions was to see if there were patterns such as a spike in numbers, or a possible correlation between certain characteristics and length of time out of school.
Where LAs did provide monthly numbers, these were sometimes, as with Blaenau Gwent, Carmarthenshire and Wrexham, noticeably higher at the start of the school year, although for Vale of Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire the highest number was around Easter.
Gwnedd and Anglesey – two of the LAs subsequently identified as taking part in the database pilot – answered “The Authority does not hold this information” to all my questions.
Caerphilly told me that “CME recording is an ongoing process which is updated as cases come into the LA or move to a new LA”. This suggests that Caerphilly may close the case once it knows the child has moved out of the area. Caerphilly also told me they were “working with Welsh Government on a pilot project to review practice and consult on a CME database which will allow much stronger tracking to prevent pupils becoming CME.” However, Caerphilly does not now appear to be a pilot area.
Powys – now known to be a pilot area – said they “maintain a database of CME queries“ adding that “queries logged on this database would include those where another Local Authority will check-in on a child who has recently moved to Powys. These cases are usually then resolved and closed immediately.” Powys also said it “logs cases where the child is Electively Home Educated but the Council have not received evidence of the provision of a suitable education.” In this respect, Powys would appear to be the model for the database regulations.
Blaenau Gwent on the other hand – not a pilot area – appears to keep CME cases open when a child moves out of the area, saying “The average time taken to track a child moving out of local authority is 104 days. The average time taken to track and place a child moving into the local authority is 40 days”. (It is not clear whether tracking a child moving out of area refers to discovering where the child has moved or waiting until it has confirmation of the child being placed in school elsewhere)
Monmouthshire – now known to be a pilot area – divided CME into categories based on whether the child had become CME within the LA or had moved into the area. Cardiff appears to operate a similar system, although they also break down the reasons for CME referrals from within the area such failing to complete the admissions process for school, or being permanently excluded, or where a School Attendance Order was in force. (SAOs may be most familiar to home educators in the context of failed home education but they can also be issued where home education is not a factor and the parent has simply not taken up a school place) Monmouthshire also said it would know about any ALN for local children, but would not necessarily be aware of ALN if the child had moved from another area.
The Vale of Glamorgan – not a pilot area – did track monthly CME numbers, recorded whether a child had Additional Learning Needs [ALN], was looked after by the LA [CLA], or was in receipt of Free School Meals [FSM] VoG also had a note of ethnicity, and provided a breakdown of how many months the child had been CME.
Cardiff – a pilot area – records ALN for children not in provision and they know whether this is at School Action level or Individual Development Plan [IDP], and even whether it is a school-maintained IDP, or a local authority maintained IDP (Read more about ALN in Wales here https://edyourself.org/wales-aln-changes/)
I have combined all the LA FOI responses into a single PDF which can be downloaded here https://edyourself.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CME_FOI_response-merged.pdf I have marked up which areas are taking part in the pilot plus the relevant Local Health Board.