Responsibilities of partner agencies
A multi-agency approach
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (now Department for Education) document Working Together to Safeguard Children published in March 2010 (updated 2018) states: "Every practitioner working with a child has a responsibility to inform their CME contact if they know or suspect that a child is not receiving education".
The Children Act 2004 places a duty on all agencies to work together to promote the safeguarding and welfare of children and to share information so that children and young people do not ‘slip through the net’ and become missing. All council professionals and partners have a level of responsibility around the issue of children missing education in terms of:
- ensuring that children are identified and tracked
- referred appropriately, with needs assessed and coordinated interventions put in place.
Practitioner’s guidance to make a CME/EHE/Pupil Tracking referral: