The Department for Education has flagged concern about the education children are receiving when schools use a code that indicates they are absent from classrooms because they are receiving education activities outside of school grounds, Tes understands.
The issue with the use of the “B code” has been raised at a recent meeting of the government’s Attendance Action Alliance and led the department to focus on unregistered alternative provision.
Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza also raised concern about schools’ apparent inconsistent use of the absence category when she gave evidence to MPs this week at the Commons Education Select Committee.
Tes understands this issue is also a matter of concern within the department.
The DfE’s concerns are understood to be not only about inconsistent use of the code but also around the provision that children are being sent to.
However, officials also recognise that some unregistered placements will provide quality education and support to pupils and it is keen not to undermine this, Tes understands.
Government guidance says that the B code should be used by schools when a pupil is taking part in an off-site educational activity. They are recorded as being present rather than absent.
This means the pupil is attending a setting that has been approved by the school and supervised by someone authorised by the school.
The guidance says examples can include attending courses at college or attending unregistered alternative provision arranged or agreed by their school. But it warns that the code must not be used for any unsupervised educational activity such as when a pupil is at home doing some schoolwork.
At the select committee earlier this week, Dame Rachel said she was concerned about how the code was being applied by schools.
She added: “There are a lot of different codes used by schools around absence and I’m particularly concerned about the B code. And I just want to raise this with you.
“The B code is meant to be used for pupils who are present, but at an off-site educational activity that’s been approved by the school.
“Now, this code is not meant to be used for kids who are at home ‘working’.”
Alice Wilcock, the head of education for the Centre for Social Justice, told MPs the think tank had heard of cases whereby schools were using B codes to avoid scrutiny of managed moves when pupils were being trialled at another setting.
Last year, the department issued a call for evidence to better understand how unregistered alternative provision is commissioned and delivered.
The department has also sought to increase oversight of online schools - which can be used by schools to educate children using the B code.
It is establishing the online education accreditation scheme (OEAS).
The department said this aims “to incentivise online education providers to meet high standards of education and safeguarding arrangements for their students and, through public reporting, to share best practice across the sector.”
The OEAS is a non-statutory scheme and the DfE encourages all eligible providers to engage with the scheme on a voluntary basis.
The scheme consists of non-statutory standards for online education providers to follow and Ofsted inspections.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “It is the responsibility of schools to record attendance, ensuring that any code used complies with the pupil registration regulations.
“We are assessing how to strengthen the definition of education activity, which Code B is used to record, as part of a wider consultation on school registers and will publish a response in due course.”
