Failure of database pilots would make it necessary for the government to find a way to impose a duty on parents to register their children as being home educated
On 17 September, MS for South Wales Central Rhys ab Owen, (Independent) tabled two Written Questions.
Firstly he asked:
“Why doesn’t the Cabinet Secretary make it mandatory for parents or guardians to notify local authorities if their child is not receiving education at a school in the area, to ensure the children missing education database is as accurate as possible?”
His second question read:
“When will the Cabinet Secretary publish the results of the local pilots regarding the effectiveness of the regulations for identifying children who may be missing education?”
These were answered jointly by Lynne Neagle, Cabinet Secretary for Education on 24 September, who said:
“The purpose of the Children Missing Education Database (Wales) Regulations is to help local authorities to identify children in their areas who may be missing education. A pilot for the database regulations will commence from March 2025 with a small number of local authorities.
An evaluation will be undertaken alongside the pilot, which will focus on the effectiveness of the database regulations in helping local authorities to identify children who may be missing education. The evaluation report will help inform whether separate measures, including a duty to notify local authorities if a child is not receiving education at a maintained school in the area, may be necessary.
A timetable for the evaluation, including a date for submission of a final report, will be agreed once researchers have been appointed to undertake the evaluation.”
According to his Senedd biography, ab Owen “takes a keen interest in constitutional affairs… He has practised as a barrister since 2010 and was a Panel Member Welsh Government Public Law Scheme and a Law Lecturer at Swansea University from 2014-2019.”
His first question asks why the Cabinet Secretary isn’t tightening up requirements on parents to notify LAs, as this could easily be justified if it resulted in increased accuracy of the databases.
Pressing to know when the outcome of the pilots would be available did not draw Neagle on timing, apart from a non-specific allusion to the timing of any final report being dependent on researchers having been appointed to undertake this evaluation – i.e. still early days.
However, her answer is informative in that it tells us that an evaluation would be undertaken alongside the pilot (rather than following it), and it appears that the content of the evaluation report will determine whether or not separate measures (including a duty to “notify local authorities if a child is not receiving education at a maintained school in the area”) would actually be needed.
This could not be clearer; the Government is not trialling the databases to see if they are acceptable to health staff and members of the public, but to determine whether or not they actually uncover the expected numbers of children they don’t know about.
If they don’t, then they will seek to introduce a duty on parents to inform LAs if their children are being educated elsewhere than in a state-funded school.
Ed Yourself has been following the database proposals carefully for some time, and recently published an informative article about the pilot areas as these had been reported, though at the time it was originally published no official statement was available concerning which authorities would participate in them. Also provided is a downloadable compilation of responses to Freedom of Information Requests they submitted to Welsh local authorities in April 2024 with various CME-related questions. Interestingly, Ed Yourself reports that at the time there was “a wide variation in how CME are defined and tracked.”
A further Written Questions was tabled by ab Owen on 24 September, in which he asked:
“How long will the pilot for the database regulations starting in March 2025 last, and who are the local authorities?”
This was helpfully answered by the Cabinet Secretary for Education on 3 October, enabling EdYourself to update their article on the same.
“The Children Missing Education Database (Wales) Regulations pilot will last for one year. The local authorities participating in the pilot are: Anglesey, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd, Monmouthshire, Powys and Rhondda Cynon Taff.”
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