Children missing education are at significant risk of underachieving, being victims of harm, exploitation or radicalisation, and becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) later in life. Local authorities have a legal duty to make arrangements to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, the identities of children in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education.
CME continued to increase compared to previous terms
Local authorities reported 39,200 children missing education on census day in autumn 2024. The rate of CME was 0.5% of the population of comparable ages (based on ONS mid-year population estimates (opens in a new tab) for children aged 5 to 16 years).
In autumn term 2024/25, CME increased by an estimated 6,200 compared to autumn term 2023/24 and 14,500 compared to autumn term 2022/23.
As this is a relatively new data collection, which first started in autumn 2022 and became mandatory in autumn 2024, increases are likely to be in part due to improvements in data quality and recording practices, for example use of more consistent working definitions and improved familiarity with the collection. Please see the Data Quality section for further information.
The length of time children are missing education varies
Of those children that were CME on census day in autumn 2024, 50% had been missing education for 12 weeks or less and 44% of CME had been missing education for more than 12 weeks. The length of time the remaining 7% had been CME was unknown.
The length of time a child was missing education was collected for the first time in autumn 2023, and the proportion of unknown values is expected to continue to decrease in future collections.
‘Believed to have moved out of the country’ was the most reported reason for CME
The primary reasons known or provided for CME continued to be similar to the previous autumn term. The reason most reported for CME was ‘believed to have moved out of the country’ (enquiries being/have been conducted to locate child), accounting for 13% of children, followed by school application awaiting outcome, accounting for 10% of children.
Primary reason given for CME, autumn term 2024
| Reason | 2023/24 Autumn term | 2024/25 Autumn term |
|---|---|---|
| Believed to have moved out of country | 11% | 13% |
| School application awaiting outcome | 8% | 10% |
| Believed to have moved to another local authority | 9% | 8% |
| Moved in from another local authority | 7% | 7% |
| Unsuitable elective home education | 6% | 7% |
| Waiting school start | 5% | 7% |
| Did not get school preference | 3% | 4% |
| Moved in from another country | 3% | 3% |
| Difficulty accessing suitable school place | 2% | 3% |
| Challenging School Attendance Order | 1% | 1% |
| School dissatisfaction general | 1% | <0.5% |
| School dissatisfaction SEND | <0.5% | <0.5% |
| School dissatisfaction bullying | <0.5% | <0.5% |
| Other | 10% | 14% |
| Not recorded | 20% | 12% |
| Unknown | 14% | 10% |
CME by characteristic
The proportion of children missing education varies by characteristics. The figures below relate to autumn 2024 but trends remain similar to previous years.
Sex - 45% of CME were reported as female and 54% of CME were reported as male (the rest were unknown). This compares to 49% of the overall school population as female and 51% male as at January 2024.
Year group – The number of CME in primary year groups was less than in secondary with 6-7% of CME in each of the year groups 1 to 6 and 10-13% in each of the year groups 7 to 11.
Ethnicity - 35% of CME were of White ethnicity, 3% were of Mixed ethnicity, 7% were of Asian ethnicity, 4% were of Black ethnicity and 3% of other ethnicity. The remaining 48% had refused to provide their ethnicity or were unknown.
Special educational needs (SEN) *- 6% of CME had an additional requirement of SEN support and 7% of CME had an education, health and care plan. This compares with 14% and 5%, respectively, for the overall school population.
Children in need * - 3% of CME were recorded as a child in need, while 1% were recorded as having a child protection plan and a further 1% were a looked after child. This compares with 2.6% children in need, 0.4% having a child protection plan and 0.7% looked after children amongst the overall child population.
*SEN provision and Child in need status was as known to the local authority as at the census day and therefore may exclude children who previously held these additional requirements and those for whom these requirements were not known.
CME by local authority
The number and rate of children missing education varies across local authorities. Counts will vary depending on the population within the local authority, which may change over time, for example there can be higher numbers of CME at the start of a school year as parents await their preferred school place. Increased identification of CME may also result from improved recording and support practices within local authorities. High or low counts do not necessarily reflect ‘good’ or ‘bad’ practice.