The children’s commissioner has claimed the schools system has “significant weaknesses in supplying accurate numbers” on those children who are not in school or who are persistently or severely absent.
A new report published by Dame Rachel de Souza has found only around half of local authorities know how many children in their area are persistently or severely absent from school, which she claimed hinders their ability to provide support for these children to get back into education.
As part of an audit, the children’s commissioner requested information from all 151 local education authorities in England asking about the whereabouts of children in their areas.
Of the 145 areas that responded, only 8 per cent could provide an estimate of the number of children being home educated where the families have not notified the council.
Dame Rachel warned this meant the authority could not identify whether these children were receiving education at all.
Out of 145 local authorities surveyed, which makes up 96 per cent of the total, 39 per cent could provide an estimate on the number of children who missed at least a week of school waiting for a school placement, while fewer than one in five (18 per cent) could estimate the number of children attending private schools.
The report said that figures from councils suggested that 22 per cent of pupils were persistently absent last term, while 1.5 per cent of pupils were severely absent.
“These estimates suggest 1,782,000 children were persistently absent and 124,000 children were severely absent,” it added.
The report does not say how much of this absence relates to Covid.
Real-time data collection
In her initial recommendations, Dame Rachel suggests collecting data between schools and local authorities in “real-time” and on a pupil-level basis as opposed to a school-level basis.
She also recommended a “rationalising” of Management Information Systems (MIS) used by schools to record attendance data.
“Rather than a single, streamlined system enabling data to be used in real-time, we see a piecemeal approach beset by delays in data provision and onerous data cleaning,” the report states.
Tes reported earlier this year how Dame Rachel called for “live data” on school attendance to be provided by the Department for Education to ensure there is an oversight of who is attending.
She made this recommendation to MPs while giving evidence to the Commons Education Select Committee in January.
Attendance key to ‘unlocking children’s futures’
Commenting on the new report today, Dame Rachel said: “Everyone working with children needs to do everything they can to make sure children are in school - to help them get the keys to unlocking their futures, keep them safe, and receive additional support in a timely way if, and when, they need it.”
She also warned there are tens of thousands of children who are persistently absent, severely absent or missing from education altogether.
“I made it my mission to establish where they are instead, and then to find out how we can remove the barriers to getting them back into school,” she said.
The next stage of the children’s commissioner’s work will involve a “deep dive” into 10 local authorities to explore the barriers to pupils attending school.
Schools’ ‘safety net’ stretched to capacity
A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “Good attendance at school plays a vital role in children’s development and for their wellbeing.
“We were pleased the government recently acted on councils’ concerns by introducing a register of children not in school, to help councils to ensure that children are receiving a suitable education in a safe environment.
“However, the safety net that schools and councils provide to ensure that children do not miss out on their entitlement to education is stretched to capacity, exacerbated by a lack of resources and powers available to councils to fulfil their statutory duties - which worsened as a result of the pandemic.
“We would like the government to work to raise the profile of children missing formal full-time education, and resource councils adequately to fulfil their responsibilities in ensuring all children receive a suitable education.”
