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.
Our findings were based on Freedom of Information requests to local authorities in January 2014. Of the 152 councils in England, 139 responded and supplied data about their area. By using what comparable data there was available, we estimated that at any one time, about 14,800 children are missing from school, of which an estimated 5,000 on any given day are awaiting a place in school or alternative provision. There are a further 3,000 children whose whereabouts are unknown to the school or local authority.
Every child under 16 should be receiving an education, either through school, alternative provision or home education. Children are classed as missing education if they are not on a school roll or receiving education by other means. The reasons for dropping out of the system are diverse and often complex with more than one factor involved. Some pupils will have been permanently excluded. Among girls, small numbers will be pregnant or young mothers. Some have complex needs, including behavioural difficulties, and no suitable school place has been found for them. Others have health needs that prevent them from going to school full-time.
Certain groups are particularly vulnerable to missing education. They include children at risk of harm or neglect; children of gypsy, Roma and traveller families; families in the armed forces; runaways; and those supervised by the youth justice system.
For the majority of these 14,800 children, there are legitimate reasons for them missing education. Nevertheless, even when this is the case, missing education is likely to have a detrimental effect on their future success in life as well as increasing the risk of getting involved with drugs and crime. For the 3,000 whose whereabouts are totally unknown, there is the very real possibility that some will be at risk of abuse.
Reliable data on the numbers of children affected is extremely hard to come by. Each local authority seems to record something different. But our data suggests the problem is widespread and more research is required to better understand what is happening.
At the NCB, we are calling on the government to conduct a national review of children missing education and to improve the way data is collected both locally and nationally. The review should consider how local authorities, schools, social services, health services and their partners can work with children and their families to ensure they can and do attend school and receive the best education possible. Without these improvements, we risk children continuing to miss education, with their needs poorly understood and unsupported.
This is just one of a number of issues that during our 50th anniversary year NCB has highlighted as in need of urgent attention, both nationally and locally.
Over the past three years while I have been at the NCB, I have been pleased to see that policy makers are listening to issues raised about the impact of inequalities on children's lives and changing practices. For example, we have started to see significant changes in how health services work with children and young people. But as this report and last year's Greater Expectations study show, there is more to be done. While I step down as NCB chief executive at the end of June, our board and my successor as chief executive, Anna Feuchtwang, will continue to gather evidence of children and young people's experiences and look for ways in which we can reduce the impact of inequalities working with and for children and young people.
NCB chief executive Hilary Emery is chief executive of National Children's Bureau
