Digital Education Resource Archive

Research and analysis
Children missing education
Published 19 May 2025
Applies to England
Background
In May 2023, the Department for Education (DfE) published the first statistics,
collected from local authorities, on estimated numbers of children missing from
education (CME) and elective home-educated (EHE) children. The first academic
year of data provided was 2022/23.
However, the quality and reliability of this data relies on local authorities collecting
this information, a process which has not been mandatory previously. For this
reason, we decided to explore whether we could get more realistic estimates of
children missing education by comparing the ONS population census from March
2021 with the DfE school census from the 2021 spring term (January to February
2021).
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Home Education, training and skills Pupil wellbeing, behaviour and attendance
School attendance and absence Children missing education: exploration of census data
Contents
Background
Caveats
Findings
Next steps
The census data was acquired through the Integrated Data Service (IDS), provided
by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
We compared the numbers of mandatory school age children (those aged 5 to 15 at
the start of the academic year) in the ONS population census from March 2021 with
the DfE school census for the 2020/21 academic year.
Caveats
There are some notable caveats with this data. Firstly, for the DfE school census,
the home local authority is only collected for pupils of maintained schools.
Therefore, for independent schools, we had to use the local authority of the school
that pupils attended as a proxy. There could be some crossover for independent
schools if pupils living in one local authority attend school across the border in a
neighbouring local authority.
Secondly, the data collection time points are slightly different because the ONS
population census was collected in March 2021 and the DfE school census for
spring 2021 is collected in January to February 2021. Moreover, although filling out
the ONS population census is mandatory, there are still variations in response rates
across local authorities.
We cannot compare the resulting CME estimates directly with those collected by the
DfE from each local authority (LA), as these LA collections first started being
collected in the 2022/23 academic year.
Findings
Unfortunately, as shown in the tables published alongside this commentary, some
data quality issues prevent us from using this data for its intended purpose. In some
local authorities, the number of pupils on roll from the DfE school census is higher
than in the ONS population census. Even after taking elective home-educated
children into account, the discrepancies should not be as high as they are. We can
see, from the DfE-published CME and EHE estimates, the approximate number of
EHE children in each local authority. These estimates are from a later time period,
but we would not expect them to fluctuate wildly enough year to year to account for
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these size differences. The discrepancy could be due to several factors, such as
certain local authorities having more children who are not reported in the ONS
population census for various reasons.
Next steps
More accurate estimates of CME/ EHE children might become available in future if
the Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill becomes law. The
Bill proposes that local authorities should be required to keep an up-to-date register
of children who are of compulsory school age and are not educated at full-time
schools. The Bill also proposes that local authorities should provide support to
home-educating families if they request it. It would be considered an offense for a
person who is served with a School Attendance Order to fail to comply with that
order (if the local authority considers the home education to be insufficient).
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In February 2025, it was announced that 750 schools will offer free, daily
breakfast clubs across England to all pupils from the start of summer term 2025.
This document provides estimates of the proportion of children attending early
adopter free breakfast clubs in the first half of the summer term 2025. It also
provides an indication of the number of breakfasts served.
Proportion of children attending early
adopter free breakfast clubs
In May 2025, 47% of school leaders delivering early adopter free breakfast clubs
reported that pupil take-up was between 20% and 40%. 35% of respondents
reported below 20% take-up, and 18% of respondents reported over 40%.
This is based on 518 survey responses from headteachers or free breakfast club
leads, gathered between 13 and 23 May 2025.
Table 1: Reported pupil take-up of early adopter free breakfast clubs on
average each day in the first half of the summer term 2025.
Transparency data
Early adopter free breakfast clubs
take-up: first half of the summer term
2025
Published 29 June 2025
Applies to England
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Home Education, training and skills Running and managing a school School food, accommodation, transport and uniform
Free breakfast clubs take-up: first half of the summer term 2025
Department 
for Education
Contents
Proportion of children
attending early adopter free
breakfast clubs
Indicative estimate of the
number of breakfasts served
Data sources
Assumptions and limitations
Estimated pupil take-up Proportion of respondents
Less than 20% 35%
Between 20% and 40% 47%
Between 41% and 60% 12%
Between 61% and 80% 4%
Over 80% 2%
Indicative estimate of the number of
breakfasts served
Combining estimates of the number of early adopter schools, the average number
of pupils per school, the median take-up rate, and the number of days that the
clubs have been active can give an indication of the reach of the programme.
For example, as of 29 June 2025, assuming 750 schools taking part in the
programme for 43 days, an average number of pupils per school of 250 and a
take-up rate of 30%, leads to an indicative estimate of over 2 million free
breakfasts served. This is not based on child-level data and there is uncertainty in
this indicative number due to the national assumptions of schools, pupils and take
up. 
Data sources
We gathered estimates of pupil take-up of early adopter free breakfast clubs via a
wider online survey to all early adopter school leaders, as part of the ongoing
evaluation of the early adopter scheme. We used the midpoint (30%) of the most
common take-up banding (20% to 40%) to estimate the number of breakfasts
served.
Data underpinning the average number of pupils per school is available in the
school level underlying data for school, pupils and their characteristics, 2024 to
2025. This is the average number of primary school aged children in state funded
primary schools, state funded special schools, state funded alternative provision
schools, and non-maintained special schools.
Assumptions and limitations
We asked survey respondents to estimate approximate pupil take-up in bandings.
We are collecting data on the number of pupils participating in the scheme over
the summer and we will release more accurate estimates of pupil take-up over the
summer term later this year.
As set out above, the estimate of the number of free breakfasts served is based
on broad national assumptions of schools, pupils and take-up. It is assumed that
free breakfast clubs in early adopter schools have been active since the start of
the summer term; for most schools this was 22 April 2025.
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Rhestr o Wasanaethau Cymraeg  Government Digital Service
 All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated
© Crown copyright


Early adopter free breakfast clubs take-up : first half of the summer term 2025 : Published 29 June 2025

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