Autumn term 2024/25

Children missing education

Data guidance

Published 12 December 2024

Description

This document describes the data included in the Children missing education release underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). The methodology document should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

The release provides information on the number of children missing education in England at census date in each term, plus the number of children missing education at any time in the previous academic year.

File formats and conventions

Local authority and regional data has been rounded to the nearest 10, national figures are rounded to the nearest 100. 

The following convention is used throughout the underlying data. 

x - unavailable

low - denotes figures based on count that rounds to 0, but is not 0. Figures may not sum to breakdowns due to rounding.

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Children missing education at census date

• Filename: cme_census.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2022/23 Autumn term to 2024/25 Autumn term
• Content:
  The number of children missing education in England at the census date in each term, by sex, year group and length of time missing education.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
filter	CME on census date by characteristics
number	Number of CME on census date
pc	Percentage of CME on census date
rate	Rate of CME on census day by population

Footnotes

1. Local authority response rates to the data collection vary by census date. To account for non-response, where required national and regional figures have been uprated based on local authority pupil populations.
2. CME counts will vary depending on the population within the local authority, which may change over time. Increased identification of CME may also result from improved recording and support practices within local authorities. High or low counts of CME do not necessarily reflect ‘good’ or ‘bad’ practice.
3. A figure that rounds to 0, but is not 0 is denoted by 'low' - for rate of CME this is a figure less than 0.5%.

Children missing education at any point in the academic year

• Filename: cme_academic_year.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24
• Content:
  The number of children missing education in England at any point in the academic year (where a child has multiple episodes missing education they are counted only once).

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
cme_full_year	CME at any time in academic year

Footnotes

1. Local authority response rates to the data collection vary by census date. To account for non-response, where required national and regional figures have been uprated based on local authority pupil populations.
2. CME counts will vary depending on the population within the local authority, which may change over time. Increased identification of CME may also result from improved recording and support practices within local authorities. High or low counts of CME do not necessarily reflect ‘good’ or ‘bad’ practice.