Consultation outcome

Children not in school

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government
This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

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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