ADR Wales analysts within Welsh Government have published a new report that explores the feasibility of estimating the numbers of children not in state school.
The report, which uses linked administrative data held within the SAIL databank, has tested the feasibility of estimating the numbers of children not in state education within local authorities in Wales ahead of a possible regulatory change in Wales.
At present Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 places a duty on parents to ensure that a child of compulsory school age receives efficient full–time education suitable to the child’s age, ability and to any additional learning needs the child may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. With a further Section (436A), stating that local authorities must make arrangements to identify children not receiving suitable education and to have regard to guidance issued by the Welsh Ministers.
To assist local authorities to fulfil their duty, the Welsh Government is proposing regulations to require local authorities to establish a database of children missing education and issue statutory guidance using existing law. It is envisaged that the database would be produced by linking education data to GP registration data to identify those children missing from state education.
The report carried out by the ADR Wales team, replicates the proposed data linkage method using de-identified education and GP records held within the SAIL Databank to test the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed approach.
The report team produced estimates of school age children not in state education records on 20 April 2021 and broke them down by age and local authority. The team looked at three categories; those found in education, those no longer recorded as in education in April 2021 and those who could not be found at all.
The report considers why some children recorded in the GP registration dataset were not recorded in the education data, and also the effects the effects of attendance at independent schools or schools in England on the age and geographical spread of children missing from the education data.
To further assess the accuracy of the linkage undertaken, the report team compared their estimates with a parallel linked data analysis undertaken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using Census 2021 education data.
Full details of the report can be found here.