Where there is a concern that a child’s safety or well-being is at risk, it is essential to take action without delay. If school staff have safeguarding concerns about a child, they should take immediate action, follow their child protection policy and involve their designated safeguarding lead. Where designated safeguarding leads or any staff in schools or local authorities have concerns about a child’s welfare, they should immediately consider whether a referral needs to be made to local authority children’s social care and, if appropriate, whether to call the police, particularly if there is a concern that the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.
Further information about schools’ safeguarding responsibilities can be found in the statutory guidance on keeping children safe in education.
Schools’ responsibilities
- maintain accurate admission registers and take a proactive approach to monitoring pupils’ attendance in line with chapter 2 of Working together to improve school attendance
- conduct their own initial proactive work to locate a child at risk of becoming a CME, before working jointly with their local authority to conduct further reasonable enquiries to identify their whereabouts – schools should also continue to play their role in conducting joint reasonable enquiries even after they have submitted a CME referral to the local authority (refer to making reasonable enquiries)
- work collaboratively with their local authority to return CME in their local area into education – this might also involve working with a child’s home local authority, if different
- offer appropriate support to successfully integrate children into their school, including having efficient decision-making processes for admissions in place to prevent delays
- carefully follow guidance on removing or adding pupils’ names from or to the admission register, which in some specific cases will involve joint actions to be undertaken between the school and local authority before this decision can be made
