5th September
In addition to the amendments to the Pupil Registration Regulations, the Government has opted to issue a new version of Children Missing Education Guidance. This is the fifth time that CME Guidance has been rewritten, and on every occasion the Government makes some changes to the home education part. This time round the changes to home education are minor, but I think they are an improvement because they make it clearer exactly when the school should inform the council. This version also marks a departure for the Government in not publishing a draft for consultation but jumping straight to the final version which in its entirety is vastly different from its predecessor. I assume this was because everything had to be put in place in a tremendous hurry and the Government could conceivably argue that the changes were mostly ‘technical’ but it is still a notable precedent.