The Register of Children Not in School – Will it affect my family?

An important new Bill is currently being debated by MPs in parliament. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill sets out how the Labour Party aims to remove barriers to opportunity in schools and improve the education system to make it more consistent and safer for every child. It also seeks to strengthen regulation in children’s social care, improving quality of care and keeping children rooted in their families and local communities where possible. Adoption UK has welcomed these important proposals.  

As it stands, the Bill wholly excludes reference to adopted people. This is despite the fact that Labour’s own election manifesto acknowledged that “every child should have a loving, secure home” and promised to “work with local government to support children in care, including through kinship, foster care, and adoption, as well as strengthening regulation of the children’s social care sector”.  

We are working with policymakers to strengthen the Bill for adoptees and their families as it progresses. 

One of the proposals within the Bill is to create a new register of Children Not In School.  

Most of the public discussion around the new register of children not in school (CNIS) has focused on its impact on home education. Yet, since the publication of the government’s draft Children’s Wellbeing & Schools bill, it has become clear that the impact of these new measures could go much wider. Here, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about these new measures. 

What is the register? 

Every local authority will have to create a new register of children who are ‘not in school’ – the CNIS register. This is part of a series of new measures intended to strengthen safeguarding procedures. The bill also creates a duty on local authorities to provide support to children on the CNIS register should their parent request it. 

Is this just for home educated children? 

No. It will include any child of compulsory school age (5 - 16) who is not registered at school and also children who are registered at school but are not attending full time. This second category includes children who are flexi-schooled, and those who attend unregistered alternative provision for all or part of their education. It would also include children aged 14-16 who are attending part-time courses at FE colleges and are not also attending school. 

What information will be held on the register? 

The register must include the child’s name, date of birth and home address, the name and home address of each parent of the child, the name of each parent who is providing education to the child, the amount of time the child spends receiving education from each parent, and details of any other person from whom the child receives an education. The local authority should also seek to obtain information about the child’s protected characteristics (as in the Equality Act 2010), any special educational needs, any child protection investigations involving the child, the child’s social care status (whether they are or have ever been a child in need or a looked after child), any school or setting the child has attended in the past, and any other information that the Secretary of State or local authority considers appropriate.  

Who will have access to the register? 

The bill states that no information from the register should be published or made accessible to the public in a way that could identify the child or the parent, or that includes the child or parents’ name or address. However, the Secretary of State may request information from the register either at aggregated level (e.g. local authority-wide statistics) or in relation to an individual child. 

The Secretary of State and the local authority may provide information from the register to agencies involved in securing the safeguarding or promoting the welfare of the child (e.g. the police, children’s social care). If the local authority becomes aware that a child has moved to a different area, they must provide the new local authority with the child’s basic information from the CNIS register and may also provide any of the additional information. 

Who is responsible for providing information for the register? 

Home educating parents will have responsibility for ensuring their child is on the CNIS register, providing the local authority with the information requested, and updating the local authority about any changes. Children must be recorded on the register within 15 days of becoming home educated. Information must be provided to the local authority within a period of not less than 15 days of being requested. If the local authority’s conditions for providing information are not met, the local authority may serve a preliminary notice prior to seeking a school attendance order. 

What about activities and groups my child is involved in? 

There will be new duties for some providers of ‘out-of-school’ education. This is education that is being provided without any parent of the child being actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child, and that takes place for the “prescribed amount of time”. The prescribed amount of time is not specified in the wording of the bill and will be decided after further consultation. These providers will be required to notify the local authority if they are providing education to a child that is eligible to be on the CNIS register and give the local authority details of the child’s name, date of birth and home address, as well as the total amount of time they provide education to the child. There will be monetary fines for providers who do not comply with these regulations. 

My child has special educational needs – will I still be able to home educate them? 

If you are already home educating a child with special educational needs, you should be able to continue. However, once this bill becomes law, parents of children attending special schools (including independent special schools where the child’s place is funded by the local authority) will no longer be able to withdraw them to home educate without first getting permission from the local authority. 

We are involved with social services – will I still be able to home educate my child? 

If you are receiving post-adoption support or have a post-adoption support social worker, this should not affect your home education. However, children who are subject to child protection investigations (under Section 47) or who have a child protection plan will no longer automatically be able to leave school to become home educated. Instead, parents will have to seek permission to home educate from the local authority. If a child who has a child protection plan or is subject to child protection investigations is already being home educated, local authorities will have the power to review the situation to determine whether the child can continue to be home educated and, if they deem it appropriate, they will be able to issue a school attendance order. 

Will the local authority have powers to ‘inspect’ my child’s education? 

The local authority already has a statutory duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education, and many home educating parents are already used to providing information to the local authority to evidence the suitability of their child’s education. 

The bill does not create a duty on local authorities to visit the home of every home educated child, nor does it give local authorities powers to enter children’s homes without permission. However, there is a new requirement for local authorities to consider the home environment and other learning environments when assessing whether a child’s education is suitable. It is likely that, at the least, this will mean local authorities requiring detailed evidence as to the suitability of the home environment. 

If the local authority serves a preliminary notice of their intention to issue a school attendance order, they may request that the parent allows a local authority representative to visit the child inside any of the homes in which the child lives. If the parent refuses this visit, this would be considered a “relevant factor” in the local authority’s decision making. 

When will a local authority consider issuing a school attendance order? 

A school attendance order can’t be served unless the local authority has first issued a “preliminary notice”. They can serve a preliminary notice if your child is of compulsory school age and is not receiving a suitable education, or is subject to child protection investigations (Section 47) or has a child protection plan, or you as the parent have not complied with the provision of information for the CNIS register as requested by the local authority.  

Once a preliminary notice has been served, the parent has not less than 15 days to provide evidence that the child is receiving a suitable education or, in the case of children involved in child protection investigations or with a child protection plan, it is in the best interests of the child to be educated other than at school. If the parent cannot satisfy the local authority, then a school attendance order may be issued. 

Will these new regulations mean more support for home educators? 

The bill creates a new legal duty on local authorities to provide support for home educated children at the request of their parents. The wording of the bill states that support may be “advice and information” and “whatever the local authority considers fit” in response to the parent’s request. Adoption UK is working with MPs and others to strengthen these proposals.