Reliable data is vital to prevent children from missing education

Over the past year, the National Children's Bureau has been highlighting issues around inequality and disadvantage in childhood to mark its 50th anniversary year. We launched Greater Expectations, which looks at indicators of inequality and disadvantage and their impact on children's life chances; Why Children Die: Death in Infants, Children and Young People in the UK, a review of evidence and policy recommendations to reduce childhood mortality; and earlier this month, we released a report Not Present, What Future? Children missing education in England, which investigates the numbers of children missing education in England.

This last report highlights an issue in our schools system that we don't know enough about: we estimate that on any given day, nearly 15,000 children are missing education. Children who miss out on education are at significant risk of failing academically and ending up as Neet (not in education, employment or training). There is even the possibility that some will be suffering physical and emotional harm. Finding them becomes even more difficult if they have been taken off the school roll. In certain ethnic groups, there is a correlation with missing education and becoming a victim of forced marriage, while some child sexual exploitation cases have involved children missing from education.