Education Policy Institute calls for children not in school register

A report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found that there are an estimated 300,000 children in England missing education entirely. It has called on the Government to ‘build on its existing plans’ for a children not in school register to create a national one maintained by the ONS and collects data from education, health, and other sources. Humanists UK welcomes the EPI’s research and conclusions as a children not in school register would close one of the legal loopholes exploited by proprietors of illegal faith schools. 

The EPI’s report, Children Missing Education, highlights how unregistered, or illegal, schools can refuse to provide information on who is attending these settings to the Department for Education (DfE) as there is no legal requirement for them to do so. It recommends that any register ‘should include pupil-level data from all schools (state, independent, and unregistered) and a register of home-educated children to accurately account for all children’. 

For over a decade, Humanists UK has campaigned for the closure of illegal faith schools. To do this would have to include the introduction of a children not in school register and giving Ofsted powers to investigate suspected settings. There are at least 6,000 children in England missing from mainstream education and who are trapped in unsafe illegal faith ‘schools’, being subject to a narrow, scriptural education in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Proprietors of these institutions claim that children are being home-educated and attend their establishments for supplementary religious education. The lack of any register means these claims go uninvestigated.

It is hoped the loopholes exploited by proprietors of illegal schools, including a register of children not in school, will now be closed by the forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill. This was announced in the 2024 King’s Speech.

Calls for a register of children not in school continue to grow. In October the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, released her report, Children Missing Education: The Unrolled Story which found that local authorities lacked consistent access to the information they needed to locate children missing education. In conclusion, Dame Rachel called on the DfE to ‘make sure no child falls under the radar’ by introducing a central database of children not in school. The counter-extremism think tank Nahamu has also recently published research highlighting the need for legislation.

During the Second Reading of Lord Storey’s Home Education Register and Support Bill Private Members’ BIll in November, Members of the House of Lords spoke about the need for a register to close legal loopholes used by proprietors of illegal faith schools. In a follow-up Written Parliamentary Question to Education Minister Baroness Smith on unregistered schools, Lord Storey was told that the DfE ‘does not retain data about the number of unregistered schools operating’, making the case for a children not in school register more pressing to make sure every child is accounted for, appropriately educated, and kept safe.

Commenting on the report, Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Lewis Young said:

‘We welcome the EPI’s new report, which highlights the pressing need for legislation to close the loopholes exploited by proprietors of illegal schools, and make sure every child is accounted for, kept safe, and taught a balanced education.

‘There are growing calls to take action against these settings. We look forward to working with Government ministers and DfE officials to develop the proposals for a children not in school register and increasing investigatory powers for Ofsted as will be set out in the Children’s Wellbeing Bill.’