Consultation outcome

Children not in school

From:
Department for Education
Published
2 April 2019
Last updated
3 February 2022 — See all updates
This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Children not in school: consultation response

PDF, 443 KB, 34 pages

Children not in school: annex to the consultation response

PDF, 682 KB, 91 pages

Detail of outcome

The Department for Education’s (DfE’s) response to the children not in school consultation, which sought proposals on:

  • a local authority register of children not attending school
  • support for home-educating families

This consultation closed in June 2019. It was a follow-up to the consultation and call for evidence on elective home education held by DfE in 2018.

The consultation response provides details on DfE’s commitment to a form of local authority administered register for children not in school.

The consultation response outlines our intentions to legislate at the earliest opportunity to implement a duty on:

  • local authorities to:
    • keep a register of all children of compulsory age in their area who are not registered pupils at a state or independent school
    • provide support to home educating families
  • parents of children to supply information to such a register

  • proprietors of defined settings to supply information on relevant children

Original consultation

Summary

We are seeking views on a local authority registration system for children who do not attend state-funded or registered independent schools.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

This consultation is a follow-up to the consultation and call for evidence on elective home education held by the Department for Education in 2018.

It seeks views on proposed legislation to establish:

  • a register maintained by local authorities of children not attending mainstream schools
  • duties on parents and the proprietors of certain educational settings

It also consults on proposed legislation to establish a duty to support parents who educate children at home and seek support from their local authority in doing so.

Updates to this page

Published 2 April 2019
Last updated 3 February 2022 + show all updates

  1. Page 16 of the consultation response and page 47 of the annex updated: “not” added prior to “in mainstream education” to resolve an error and ensure the meaning is clear.

  2. Added the consultation response and annex.

  3. First published.

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