Thousands of pupils missing from school and authorities don’t know where they are
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Thousands of children have vanished from school with authorities often having no idea where they are, according to figures seen by Sky News.
On a single day in spring this year, local authorities in England reported an estimated 24,700 children as missing education – a worrying snapshot of the crisis facing schools.
They are categorised as Children Missing Education (CME), and include any child of school age not in school or receiving an education anywhere else.
Last year a staggering 94,900 children went missing at some point during the 2021/22 academic year.
Often, they are youngsters who have moved on from one area to another and they have not been enrolled into a new school.
By law, councils have to take “all reasonable steps” to find these children, but many remain missing for long periods.
Sky News can reveal that the number of council staff in England whose job it is to monitor school absences has been cut by nearly half in the past decade, making it harder for a lot of councils to track children down.
In 2013, there were 751 education welfare officers, or their equivalent, compared with just 402 this year – a cut of 46%.
That has put huge strain on councils to keep an eye on missing school children.
Read more: Inside a pupil welfare unit where a small team tries to track down missing children
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A spokesperson for the Local Government Association told Sky News: “Funding pressures faced by councils over the last 10 years have impacted on the number of roles councils are able to provide.
“We have long raised with government that councils lack the powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t slip through the net.
“Under the current arrangements, children not in school are invisible to councils and the services that keep them safe. This is why it is vital the government legislates for a register of children who are not in school, combined with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children.”
In response the Department for Education said: “The government is committed to ensuring that all children, especially the most vulnerable in our society, are safe and have access to an excellent education.
“We are continuing to work with local authorities to improve support for children missing education which includes their voluntary registers of children not in school.
“We estimate nationally there are currently more than 1,500 FTE local authority attendance staff and remain committed to introducing a statutory system so that no child falls through the cracks.”
The number of children missing significant amounts of school has risen sharply since the pandemic and is now regarded as a national crisis.
Read more:
An urgent national crisis: The number of children missing school soars
The ‘ghost children’: Thousands are missing school – and COVID made the problem worse
More than 1.7 million schoolchildren are missing from class more than 10% of the time, the equivalent of a morning a week. That has gone up by 108% since COVID.
And more than 125,000 children are spending more time out of school than in – double since the pandemic.
The government has set up so-called attendance “hubs” in some of the areas with the highest absence rates.
It has also introduced attendance “mentors” to help support families and schools get children back into class.
