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Contents

1. Introduction

2. General Procedures

3. Procedures Regarding Transfer of Children’s Records from School to School

4. Appendices

1.  Local Contact Details

2.  Child moving from Shetland School - Flowchart

3.  CME Request into Shetland - Flowchart

4.  Child arrives with no record - Flowchart

5.  Pupil Transfer Form

6.  Information tracing Request Form – Children Arriving at School

1. Introduction

1.1  Children and young people may disappear from the view of the school and Shetland Islands Council for many reasons. Typical reasons are outlined in the Safe and Well guidelines published by the Scottish Executive. [1] However children have a right to education and Shetland Islands Council has a duty to provide education for all children in Shetland and to plan and provide support for vulnerable children. It is essential that all agencies work well together to try and maintain contact and to trace children if they disappear. Action must be taken to try and locate missing children and to try to re-engage them with relevant services.

1.2  The definition of children ‘missing from education’ given in Safe and Well is that they are: “…children and young people of compulsory school age who are not on a school roll and are not being educated otherwise (at home, privately or in an alternative provision). They have usually not attended school for a substantial period of time (usually agreed as 4 weeks, or considerably less for vulnerable children).”

1.3  Each school will have in place its own systems and procedures relating to the general welfare of pupils which will help to prevent children disappearing from the view of the school. These will include procedures regarding the transfer of pupils from school to school.

1.4  The national initiative for dealing with issues relating to the situation described in 1.1 above is the Children Missing From Education (CME) initiative. This is coordinated nationally by the CME Unit which is a part of the Scottish Executive.

1.5  Every Scottish local authority now has a named contact for the CME initiative. The named contact for this authority is given in Appendix 1. The MIS Support Assistant, also identified in Appendix 1, provides administrative support in this area.

1.6  It should be noted that schools will not contact the national CME Unit directly. All referrals nationally are to go through the local CME named contact.

2  General Procedures

2.1  When a child is missing as described in the definition set out in 1.2 above, the school should follow all of its existing procedures to locate the child. If these have proved unsuccessful, the school should inform the local-authority CME named contact. Responsibility for tracing the child will pass from the school to the CME named contact, although the school should ensure any further information coming to light should be passed directly to the CME named contact as a matter of urgency. Schools will be kept informed as appropriate.

2.2  It is very important that any child still missing four working weeks after their last day in school should be removed from the school roll. Such children should be marked ‘Left For An Unknown Destination’. Schools must however contact the local CME Coordinator, either direct or through one of the MIS Assistants, to obtain authorisation for making use of this code. This process is necessary in order to prevent potential difficulties at national level where a referral has been made to the national CME Unit.

2.3  It should be noted that, when children are missing as described in the definition set out in 1.2 above, the local child protection guidelines are followed.

3  Procedures Regarding Transfer of Children’s Records from School to School

3.1  The appendices to this document are intended to cover the situation where pupils transfer from school to school outwith the normal transfer points at the end of P7and S4 (the latter in the case of Junior High School pupils). However it should be remembered that children could go missing at the normal transfer points.

3.2  Appendices 2-4 set out in flowchart form the procedures to be followed in the situations described in paragraph 3.1.

3.3  Appendix 5 is the form which it is recommended that schools use when a pupil has transferred out of the school and there has been no contact from the receiving school within one week.

3.4  Appendix 6 is the form which it is recommended that schools use when a pupil has arrived at school without any records. Please note both of these forms are available within the Safe and Well folder.


Appendix 1

USEFUL CONTACTS

Robert Sim

Local CME Named Contact

Quality Improvement Officer

Children’s Services

Hayfield House

Hayfield Lane

Lerwick

Shetland

ZE1 0QD

E-mail:

Telephone: 01595 744093

Gail Burgess

MIS Support Assistant (job-share)

Children’s Services

Hayfield House

Hayfield Lane

Lerwick

Shetland

ZE1 0QD

E-mail:

Telephone: 01595 744757

Anna Hutcheon

MIS Support Assistant (job-share)

Children’s Services

Hayfield House

Hayfield Lane

Lerwick

Shetland

ZE1 0QD

E-mail:

Telephone: 01595 744757


Appendix 2

Child moving from Shetland School


Appendix 3

CME Request into Shetland


Appendix 4

Child arrives with no record


Appendix 5

SHETLAND ISLANDS COUNCIL

CHILDREN MISSING FROM EDUCATION

PUPIL TRANSFER FORM

Name of School: Stage/class:

Please return this form to Robert Sim, Quality Improvement Officer, Children’s Services, Hayfield House, Lerwick, Shetland.

Appendix 6

SHETLAND ISLANDS COUNCIL

INFORMATION TRACING REQUEST FORM

CHILDREN ARRIVING AT SCHOOL

Please return this form to Robert Sim, Quality Improvement Officer, Children’s Services, Hayfield House, Lerwick, Shetland.

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[1] Scottish Executive, 2005 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications