Wanted – information to transform children’s lives

In uncertain economic times, children with issues such as a history of truancy or low educational attainment are at much higher risk of ending up not in education, employment or training (Neet) when they leave school.

And for some of the most vulnerable children in society, being Neet can lead to much more serious problems like falling prey to gangs or getting involved in crime, for example.

These spirals of vulnerability will be familiar to many children’s services staff, but they are by no means inevitable. Being able to identify vulnerability early gives councils the opportunity to take the right action sooner to improve a child’s life chances.

To do this effectively, teams need accurate and reliable information on the background and circumstances of children in their area.

In a recent survey of children’s services staff, more than half of respondents said that pupil data from schools is the most important for identifying vulnerable children, with health and social services data also high on the list. As the results suggest, having data from a broad range of sources is key to finding out who needs support and what help they require.  

I think the following example from one authority in the North West demonstrates this point particularly well. The council had been doing some work to identify and support children at risk of becoming Neet. Using technology to analyse data from different sources, one child was flagged as being at risk.

The child’s attendance and achievement in school had given their teachers no cause for concern. But what the data analysis highlighted was that the family had recently moved to an area of high deprivation. It was this that had increased the child’s chances of becoming Neet. Knowing this, the authority and school were able to work together to keep them engaged with education.

There is always a chance that a child such as this could be overlooked as there was nothing that their school was worried about. But having access to information on children from the different agencies in contact with them can provide a sharper focus. This will help to ensure that no child falls through the net.

Phil Neal is managing director at Capita Children's Services