School hubs will neglect vulnerable
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The use of schools as hubs for services risks overlooking some of England's most vulnerable children, The Children's Society has warned.
Speaking in front of MPs on the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee last week, Kathy Evans, the charity's policy director, said: "School should be safe and welcoming and concerned with welfare as well as achievement. But some children move round school places or have difficulty accessing school in the first place. Viewing school as the single and most important hub for services does not necessarily work for those children and means they risk missing out."
Evans said research carried out by The Children's Society found that amongst Traveller children the average school leaving age is 11.4-years-old. More than a third leave by the age of 10.
But John Reacroft, children's services manager at Barnardo's, told the committee that schools had a crucial role to play, even in helping to reach children who are off the radar. "In a child's life there's no one, other than their parents, who has the potential to see them as much as schools do," he said.