Working Together 2026 introduces a clear 5-day notification duty when a child is removed from the school roll at a non-standard transition point, and requires schools to share safeguarding information — not just administrative details — at that point. This guide covers what the duty means in practice, what to include in the notification, and the warning signs that warrant a closer look before the file closes.
⚠️ Duty applies now under Working Together 2026 (in force 18 March 2026)
The 5-day notification duty is part of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, published on 18 March 2026. It is not a future change. If your school does not yet have a clear process for EHE notifications that includes safeguarding information-sharing, put one in place now. See the official guidance on GOV.UK.
Elective home education is a legal right. Parents in England have the right to educate their children at home, and the majority who do so are making a considered, positive choice — motivated by educational philosophy, their child's needs, religious conviction or family circumstances. This article is not about casting suspicion on home education as a practice.
The safeguarding concern is specific and different: it is about the visibility gap that exists once a child leaves the school roll. The number of children registered as electively home educated has risen significantly over the past decade. Unlike school-educated children, home-educated children have no regular contact with a statutory institution. There is no automatic mechanism to check on their welfare, no teacher to notice a change in mood or behaviour, and — historically — no reliable way for local authorities to know they exist.
That visibility gap has been exploited. Links between sudden or unexplained deregistration and county lines exploitation, forced marriage, fabricated or induced illness, and child criminal exploitation are documented in serious case reviews. The risk is not that home education causes harm — it is that, for some children, removal from school is the moment at which adult oversight disappears entirely.
The documented risk pattern
Serious case reviews have identified a recurring pattern: a child is removed from school under the guise of elective home education shortly before a planned exclusion, after a safeguarding concern is raised, or following a period of unexplained absence — and then becomes hard to locate. Working Together 2026 addresses this pattern directly by requiring schools to act as an information handover point, not just an administrative deregistration authority.
Under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, schools must notify the local authority within five working days when a child is removed from the school roll at a non-standard transition point. A standard transition point is the end of a key stage or academic year — children moving to secondary school, completing Year 11, or joining the school in the normal September intake. Everything else is non-standard: mid-year deregistrations, children removed during a safeguarding investigation, withdrawals after a period of school refusal.
The duty is not simply to report the administrative fact of deregistration. Schools must share any pertinent safeguarding knowledge with the local authority at the same time. If there is an open referral, a history with children's social care, a previous disclosure, or a known concern about the child's home circumstances, that information must travel with the notification. The LA cannot assess risk it does not know about.
What counts as a "non-standard transition point"?
Any removal from the school roll that is not a standard end-of-year or end-of-key-stage move. This includes: mid-year deregistrations at the parent's request, removals during term time, deregistrations following a period of absence, and withdrawals where the family indicates they will be educating at home without having given advance notice. If in doubt, notify.
The five-day clock starts from the date the school is formally notified or becomes aware that the child will be home educated. Schools should have a named member of staff responsible for making these notifications — in most cases that will be the DSL or the attendance officer working alongside the DSL — and a pro forma or checklist to ensure that safeguarding information is included every time, not just in cases the school already has open concerns about.
The notification duty connects to provisions in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which proposes a national register of children not in school. Under these proposals, the local authority would be required to add a child to the register when notified by the school, creating a legal record of their status.
The national register is not yet in force — the Bill was progressing through Parliament at the time of writing. But practitioners are already expected to work as though the handover matters. When notifying the LA under Working Together 2026, contact the LA's elective home education team directly, not just a general duty address. Confirm receipt. Follow up if you do not receive an acknowledgement.
If a child who has been deregistered is the subject of a strategy discussion or multi-agency child protection assessment, the LA's EHE team should be involved. They hold information about other children in a family who may be home educated, information about previous LA visits, and — where the national register comes into force — the child's formal registration status. That information may be material to the assessment.
Most home education is a legitimate parental choice and most deregistrations are unremarkable. The warning signs listed here are not grounds for refusing to deregister a child — parents have a legal right to home educate — but they are grounds for ensuring the notification to the LA is made promptly, that all relevant information is included, and that a welfare check is considered where concerns are serious enough.
Sudden or unexplained deregistration
A parent who contacts the school with little notice, does not come in to discuss the decision, and provides no clear educational rationale may be acting for reasons the school is not aware of. This is not automatically concerning — some families act quickly for legitimate reasons — but it is a prompt to check whether any safeguarding information is being left behind.
Deregistration shortly before a planned exclusion or after a concern is raised
If a school is in the process of considering a fixed-period or permanent exclusion and the parent deregisters the child to avoid it, that is a known risk indicator for off-rolling. Similarly, a deregistration that comes shortly after a safeguarding referral was made or a disclosure was received warrants particular care. The timing is not definitive but it is relevant.
Children who become hard to locate after leaving roll
If you attempt to make a welfare contact after deregistration — perhaps as part of your standard process — and cannot reach the family, or if the address provided turns out to be incorrect, escalate promptly to the LA and consider a police welfare check. A child who was visible last week and is invisible this week is a child who needs to be found. Cross-reference with the guidance on attendance and children missing from education and, where exploitation is a concern, the missing from home and education guide.
The notification is not a form-filling exercise. It is an information handover. The LA's ability to assess whether this child needs any follow-up depends entirely on what you tell them. A bare notification that says "Child X removed from roll on [date], parent says home education" is almost useless.
✓ Bottom line for DSLs
The five-day notification duty exists because a child leaving school should not mean a child disappearing. The notification is your school's part of that chain. Make it count: include the safeguarding information, confirm receipt, and follow up if the LA doesn't acknowledge. The child has no one else to do this for them.
📚 Statutory References
Sources
[1] HM Government / Department for Education (2026). Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026. GOV.UK. Published 18 March 2026.
[2] Education Act 1996. s.7 (parental duty). legislation.gov.uk.
[3] Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill (2025–26). Parliament.uk.
This article has been reviewed against the published Working Together 2026 text and does not constitute legal advice. Always refer to the official version on GOV.UK before updating live policy. Last reviewed: August 2026.