A new taskforce staffed by Department for Education and Ofsted officials has been launched to lead work around the country to gather data on vulnerable children’s attendance at school.
The DfE said today that the data will provide an overall picture of the risks facing these children so that councils “can follow best practice” to support them.
“Education is a strong protective factor for many vulnerable children and young people, which is why the government is also ensuring there is a place in nursery, school or college for them,” the DfE said in a statement announcing the measures.
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DfE figures this week showed that only around 5 per cent of pupils classified as “children in need” or who have an EHC plan were turning up for school.
But speaking online at Parliament’s Education Committee on Wednesday, children’s minister Vicky Ford said the DfE’s “most experienced personnel” alongside redeployed Ofsted inspectors would be working in the regional teams, and that a “dashboard” had been set up to “monitor what’s happening with young people who are not attending [schools] as well as with young people who are attending”.
She said: “We’ve been working with the children’s commissioner to set up a data tracking process which is bringing in data, both hard and soft data from schools and local authorities and [the] health [service] and the home office, and that is helping us build a picture of what’s happening nationally but it’s also helping us to see what’s happening in each of the local authorities.”
Meanwhile, the DfE has also announced that more than £12 million will be spent on 14 projects across the country to tackle the increased risk some children and young people are facing as they stay at home to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
This will include money to pay for individual support for families at risk of domestic abuse, community volunteers to work with families, and continued support for teenagers at risk of exploitation.
The money includes a package of funding to give young people in some project areas unlimited data on their phones for three months so they can stay connected and prevent them suffering from isolation.
The DfE has also announced support for data-sharing between safeguarding partners, and has already announced it will provide laptops and tablets for children with social workers and care leavers to help them keep in touch with the services they need as well as continued funding for free school meals.
