We have recently received a number of enquiries seeking clarification on how the Missing Education and Child Employment Service is funded and how our services may be accessed by all schools and academies within Essex. This paper seeks to provide clarification in this respect.
What is the cost to schools/academies for the Missing Education and Child Employment Service?
There is no cost to academies and schools; the service is funded through core funding. There is no DSG contribution to this Service. This is why the Missing Education and Child Employment Service now focuses solely on statutory investigations and interventions.
Accessing the Missing Education and Child Employment Service referral process:
Following schools intervention and work with the family to improve attendance, a referral can be made to the service if a young person has 8 unauthorised absences recorded within a 4 week period
The referrercan request that:
o Missing Education and Child Employment Service issues a warning letter advising that attendance is being monitored by the local authority and further unauthorised absences may lead to a penalty notice being issued in line with the Essex Code of Conduct; or
o An Investigation Officer (previously known as Education Welfare Officer) convenes a school attendance meeting and provides a warning letter to the parent, issues a formal caution in line with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and agrees an improvement plan; or
o Where the school has issued a warning letter to parent(s), warning of the possibility of penalty notice(s) if further unauthorised absences are recorded, schools may request, when the code of conduct criteria has been met that the Missing Education and Child Employment Service issue a penalty notice.
o Where absence rates are high and the school feels that there are enough unauthorised absences to warrant prosecution (without the issue of a penalty notice), we ask that schools call their local team to discuss the individual cases(s).
Each case is then subject to a 16 week monitoring period and a penalty notice will be issued by the service if the Essex Code of Conduct criteria is met – i.e. 10 unauthorised sessions within a 6 week period
What happens if a penalty notice remains unpaid 28 days after the date of issue?
For every penalty notice issued within Essex, the Missing Education and Child Employment Service monitors and accepts payments from parents wishing to discharge the offence. If the penalty notice is not paid the service will conduct investigations and where no defence or extenuating mitigation is identified, the service will progress the case to the magistrates court.
Can parents be prosecuted without a penalty notice being issued?
Where absence rates justify such action, the Missing Education and Child Employment Service will undertake investigations and instigate legal proceedings where prosecution is deemed more likely to bring about an improvement in attendance.
Are penalty notices or prosecutions the only legal interventions available via the Missing Education and Child Employment Service?
If a referrer does not believe that a penalty notice or prosecution is appropriate they may discuss this with the service, and seek advice on whether an Education Supervision Order (ESO) may be beneficial. Local Authorities have a duty to consider applying for an ESO before proceeding to prosecution.
Locating children missing from education
Following school enquiries to try to locate a child who goes ‘missing’, the Missing Education and Child Employment Service will accept referrals via Missing Child Checklist (Appendix A) and undertake further investigations to ascertain the whereabouts of children and return them to education in order to safeguard children’s education. The Appendix A may be accessed using the following link:
ChildrenMissingFromEducationReferral-Appendix A
Accessing expert advice on school attendance, children missing education, child employment, entertainment licensing, whole school attendance strategies and elective home education:
A duty telephone line/email inbox isavailable from 9am – 5pm every day. Missing Education and Child Employment Service staff can provide clear advice on all of the above matters. Please contact your local office as per the contact details listed below:
Mid – 0333 013 9944 or ME&
North East - 0333 013 9983 or ME&
South - 0333 013 9845 or ME&
West - 0333 013 9910 or ME&
Schools/Academies with challenging absence rates may access additional bespoke advice on how to improve their whole school approach in relation to attendance.
Can I buy early intervention attendance support?
The Missing Education and Child Employment Service no longer have the capacity to provide this to schools/academies on an individual basis, however advice, strategies and examples of good practice are offered via the regular Attendance Matters workshops held around the county.
Many individual or clusters of schools and academies have employed their own attendance improvement staff and/or commissioned private companies to identify reasons for absence and to offer support strategies to families where absence rates are a cause for concern. The Missing Education and Child Employment Service values thorough pre-referral work as this enables swift progression of legal intervention.
Julie Weddell
County Manager, Missing Education and Child Employment Service
January 2016