ContactPoint database to track children not in school

Monthly reports created by the ContactPoint database will be sent to local authorities listing the names of children not recorded at an education setting.

The School Census for state schools and pupil lists from independent schools and pupil referral units will be used to complete the relevant field on ContactPoint. Children not accounted for will feature in the reports, which are intended to help children missing education teams focus their work.

But Fiona Nicholson, chair of home schooling organisation Education Otherwise, said the reports will mean councils target home-educated children. She said: "ContactPoint should not be used for this."

But Richard Stiff, chair of the information systems and technology policy committee at the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said the reports would not change the way councils treat home-educated children: "It is unlikely this will be a tool in the armoury of the state."