Calls for local authorities to be given resources to trace children missing education

More than 11,500 children in England went missing from education over the course of one year – despite having previously attended, new research has found.

New analysis finds that more than 11,500 children went missing between spring 2022 and spring 2023 – and many have particular vulnerabilities that makes tracing them even more urgent.

Compared to their peers in state-funded education, the children whose last-known destination was missing education were 1.4 times as likely to have a special educational need (SEN), 1.5 times as likely to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods and 2.7 times as likely to have a social worker as a child in need.

They were also more likely to be making the transition to secondary school from primary, aged 10 at the start of the school year.

As a new school year begins, the Children’s Commissioner has used statutory data powers to shine a light on a crisis of increasing seriousness, laying bare the need for a unique identifier for every child to stop them falling through the gaps in services – as well as a rehaul of the support available to children in order to get them back into the classroom.

The analysis found that there were many inconsistences in how local authorities address the problem of children missing education in their area. There is currently no shared national definition – 40% of authorities had different interpretations – and only 33 out of 129 authorities provided information about proactive steps they take to prevent children becoming missing.

In two authorities, children had to be missing for two months before investigations were even opened into their case. In many cases, investigations were dropped and archived if data checks were inconclusive, often as a result of poor access to the right kind of data, such as Border Force or council tax records.

The Children’s Commissioner has used the publication of this new data to reiterate her call for a unique ID for every child, in order to prevent them from falling through the gaps in services and support them back into education.

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said many of the children already face challenges, either from living in deprived neighbourhoods, needing support for a special educational need, or already known to social care.

“It reflects a troubling gap in our society to protect and support some of the most vulnerable,” she said.

“But this isn’t simply about the numbers. The numbers alone are a scandal but added to that is the fact that in far too many instances, no one knows where these children are, if they’re safe, or even offer a consistent definition of what they mean locally by ‘missing’.

“There is a shocking lack of urgency in trying to trace these children. Local authorities, despite their best efforts, are hampered by poor resources, insufficient access to the right data and inadequate powers to rectify this.

“Children have told me how much they want to be in school, and we need to be as ambitious for them as they are for themselves. We need to do much more, much earlier, to proactively prevent these children from going missing – and to help reengage those who already are.”