Councils would be forced to keep a register of all home-schooled kids under a proposed law to stop tens of thousands of “ghost children” falling through the cracks.
Tory MP Flick Drummond is pushing for a legal duty on local authorities to keep a record of all youngsters who are not in school amid fears kids are unsafe or losing out on their education.
The Government shelved its much-criticised Schools Bill last year – which included provision to modernise how attendance is recorded.
Ms Drummond told MPs there is no proper data on how many children are missing from school rolls – and whether they are receiving any education at all.
Unveiling her Children Not In School (Register) Bill, she said: “Thousands of children have not returned (since lockdown) and as each term passes, a growing number of children have started to disengage from education entirely.
“There’s been a catastrophic increase in the number of children that are severely absent. The latest figures on school attendance uncovers that 140,000 children were severely absent in summer 2022.
“This is the highest number on record.”
The Meon Valley MP said getting the “ghost children of the pandemic” back into the classroom must be a priority for the Government.
“This is the highest number on record.”
The Meon Valley MP said getting the “ghost children of the pandemic” back into the classroom must be a priority for the Government.
“Time to bring those children who are out of sight, out of mind, into the light,” Ms Drummond said.
She warned that poor education will “cast a long shadow” over the economic prospects of the country and urged the Government to “act now or we will have failed this generation.”
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the NAHT union, said: “Currently there is no legal obligation for a parent to provide any notification to a school about the withdrawal of a child to be home educated, and no way to check the quality of education that child is receiving.
“This is a clear safeguarding concern and could lead to a child at risk being missed, with neither school nor local authority knowing for certain what has happened to them. Without an officially maintained register, there remains the risk of children becoming lost outside the system.”
Julie McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The number of children being educated at home has been rising for several years and although local authorities do their best to provide appropriate oversight and support, there will likely be children that are falling through the net.
“The introduction of a system of mandatory registration was part of the Schools Bill before it was scrapped, and the government really should be making the parliamentary time available to ensure that this simple and necessary measure passes into law.
Source: Mirror Online
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