Vulnerable children ‘hidden’ during lockdown, children’s commissioner warns
Nina Jacobs
Saturday, April 25, 2020
New data profiling the extent of child vulnerability across each local authority during lockdown does not take into account that much of it is hidden from sight, the children’s commissioner for England has warned.
Anne Longfield, whose office today published a new matrix of childhood vulnerability, called on the government to step up its efforts to ensure all vulnerable children are seen and contact is maintained during the Covid-19 emergency.
The commissioner said while the new data profiles for local areas showed the vast challenge facing schools and councils in protecting children under lockdown, many vulnerable young people were not being seen.
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“The coronavirus emergency has put hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children in England at heightened risk.
“While the government’s decision to keep schools open for the most vulnerable children is welcome, sadly most of them are just not showing up,” she said.
The data profiles, the latest stage in a three-year project by the commissioner, help identify how many vulnerable children are in each local authority area and highlight groups at increased risk during the coronavirus crisis.
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This could include children and young people living in overcrowded or inadequate accommodation, those with fragile parents, young carers or households without internet access.
Longfield said many vulnerable children and young people were missing out on vital support from schools and councils during the lockdown.
“They are most likely at home, often exposed to a cocktail of secondary risks - a lack of food in the house, sofa-surfing or cramped living conditions, neglect, or experiencing acute difficulties due to parental domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health problems.
“Many will be caring for parents and siblings themselves in these incredibly difficult circumstances,” she warned.
Longfield praised the efforts of schools and councils trying to ensure vulnerable children were still visited by teachers and social workers, but called for this to be extended throughout the country.
“Our figures on local need lay bare the extent and nature of child vulnerability in each area, and the extraordinary pressures on some councils to try and protect them all,” she said.
Local and national government could harness, if needed, suitable volunteers from services currently close or those recently retired from child-facing work to help in this effort, she added.
Responding to the report, the Children’s Society said a drop in social care referrals and small numbers of vulnerable children attending schools was a “big concern”.
“It’s crucial that social care and schools encourage families to send children to school where possible but we also want them to ensure that all vulnerable children have a named trusted professional who they can turn to,” said Sam Royston, the charity’s director of policy and research.
Royston said such individuals should be able to make regular safety checks and provide help where needed as well as ensuring there were opportunities to learn at home if young people were not at school.
The National Education Union (NEU) said it welcomed the release of the data but cautioned some areas of the analysis confused safeguarding risk and attainment ‘risk’.
“This is unhelpful. We must not jumble up vulnerable children, low attaining children, low income families, and children who are ‘at risk’, explained Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary.
Expecting all vulnerable children to attend on -site provision was not realistic or necessarily the safest option, he added.
“Where vulnerable children are not attending, school leaders are working closely with local authorities to implement additional support in the home and community and we need support and funding to make co-operation possible,” he said.