Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) removing and (b) reducing the 97 per cent attendance requirement during the trial period of managed moves.

The Government does not set any attendance requirements during the period of a managed move.

The law does not allow for ‘trial admissions’, once a child has been admitted to a school, they may only be deleted from the admissions register in limited circumstances prescribed by The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.

The updated Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance, published in July 2022, makes clear a managed move should be used to initiate a process which leads to the transfer of a pupil to another mainstream school permanently. Managed moves should be voluntary and agreed with all parties involved, including parents/carers and the admission authority of the new school. A managed move should only occur when it is in the pupil’s best interests.

Some Local Authorities use their Fair Access Protocols to also consider managed moves. Should anyone have any concerns about the protocols in a particular area, they should take this up with the relevant Local Authority directly.