Children Missing Education (CME) or Children Missing Out on Education (CMOOE)
This guidance sets out Plymouth City Council’s policy and procedures for identifying, registering, tracking and locating children missing education; local arrangements and school responsibilities for pupils missing out on education. It also explains the statutory responsibility of schools and local authorities. This guidance will next be reviewed in September 2024.
Alternative Provision
This guidance is based upon Section 19(1) of the Education Act 1996, which defines the exceptional provision of education in pupil referral units or elsewhere, such as Alternative Provision providers. It follows the Alternative Provision Statutory Guidance, which provides a set of guiding principles that Plymouth schools should follow to ensure that children and young people benefit from high quality provision, which is safe, secure and appropriate to their individual needs.
Recording and Monitoring Attendance - The Local Authority has a statutory responsibility to identify and track pupils missing, or at risk of missing out on education. This includes children who are not attending school provision full time and those accessing alternative provision. Plymouth City Council does this using a central database of all children not accessing full-time education in the usual way, including those who are accessing alternative provision.
Plymouth City Council should be notified of all pupils attending alternative provision using the Plymouth City Council Alternative Provision Form.
Alternative provision guidance