Up to 100,000 children missing from school rolls

[TheDailyCarbunkle]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60054253

If anyone has any doubt about the risk created by lockdowns, doubt no more. Many of those children will be absolutely fine, well cared for, educated at home. But many many of them will not - without regular attendance at school and someone outside their family monitoring them daily, they will have just fallen through the cracks. Who knows what the final fallout of this will be?

When we deregistered our children from school a few months ago our LA were very on the ball wanting to know what our plans were.

We had to submit a plan within a month which they said might be declined if they weren’t satisfied. Their school place was left open for them to return in fact until the LA did decide.

Agree much of this could be SEN failures. My cousin hasn't gone back to start his GCSEs due to social anxiety. School just told his dm to take him out. Now he just sits at home 'home schooling' but his dm is at work all day . I was really shocked at the school's attitude

My dd is outgoing and happy at school. She struggled to go back after lockdown and was very very anxious - but soon settled . But if she struggled then there must have been 1000s who just never made it back in.

And there are people who still think schools should be closed......

I have a friend who is a TA she said way back in March 2020 her big worry on closing schools was child safety and child mental health - the children who don't have a loving home, those who are abused, those who have SEND but arent supported at home, those who are young carers.

I unfortunately think the news stories so far are just the tip of the iceburg both in terms of abuse but also how Covid has effected childrens development.

@PegasusNo2 The fact that checked on you when you deregistered from private prep school is a safeguarding failure on the part of the private prep school. Just because they're a business does not absolve them from responsibility for their students. They should have informed the LEA.

"That no-one checked on you" - sorry.

And there are people who still think schools should be closed......

Many of the problems are not to do with school closure.

Just as some examples:

• Excluded and off-rolled pupils were already absent from schools (largely secondary) in large numbers, often because of lack of specialised support and alternative settings for children with SEN and SEMH difficulties.

• Home educated children have often had difficult experiences in school, and may not engage with authorities. HE is sometimes a last resort for families of SEN children for whom there is no provision and little support in mainstream due to lack of funds.

• In some areas, there are not enough school places, so there may be children absent from school for whom there are not places. Again, this is more common for children who need special school places, of which there is a terrible lack.

• Schools are not Covid-safe and little effort is made by the Government to make them so. CEV children and children within families with CEV members have had to select home education as the better of two bad options. This is the 'new' post-Covid cause of additional absence - the previous ones were already existing.

The lack of support for children with SEN and other difficulties is, as you can see, a common theme. Given that the pandemic has caused an explosion of MH difficulties in all age groups, as well as a range of additional support needs for education and health, these problems have all got larger.

I will go to my death bed saying we should NEVER have closed schools

Thieves, we never did close.

My school was open every day for vulnerable, SEN and keyworker children (including the Easter and Half term holidays).

From June 1st, we were as full as the Government allowed - half our normal capacity.

We worked tirelessly to get every child into school who was not attending online lessons or accessing online learning - despite virtually zero support from social services, government laptops or others, we managed to get every family engaged in either in school or home learning.

We have really suffered post-lockdown, with the school fully open to everyone, with lack of access to support services, and that is where we really feel the lack and where children are suffering needlessly. SEN referrals, special school moves, SaLT, family support workers, social services, local authority support - none. Also families having to keep children home for longer because CEV family members are not getting timely treatment and so families are often having to isolate repeatedly in the run up to operations that never happen. All of the latter are NOTHING to do with school closure. they are lacs in other areas, principally because many services are not allowed to come into schools 'because it is not safe', and thus cannot properly engage with the children.

to answer one point made above.

The LA has NO IDEA of the children living in their borough, until they register for school. They can get an idea of numebrs through number of births or numbers registered at GP surgeries.
They can see how many nurseries there are and how full, but there is no legal framework to count the children in any area.
As a consequence the LA is often caught out badly.
We had a large housing estate built. It was 1 and 2 bed houses. The first school intake after it was all sold off, there were a couple of hundred 4 year olds wanting school placed. No school provision had been planned as they did not expect any families to live in a 1 or 2 bed house
Caused chaos.

So child who has never been registered and who is not registered with a GP is completely invisible. These are the ghost children a pp spoke about.

@cantkeepawayforever ut many aren't on the radar. For example many children don't have an EHCP and weren't offered a school place. Brilliant if yours did but many didn't. Schools don't know of everything going on in homes and can't know everything but by being open the give children a space to get away, giving them (hopefully) an adult to speak to

Stress on parents increased during lockdown- trying to cope with work, with children homeschooling, fear of redundancy- these have a knock on effect and increase the risk of domestic abuse to both woman and children.

@Booklover3

When we deregistered our children from school a few months ago our LA were very on the ball wanting to know what our plans were.

We had to submit a plan within a month which they said might be declined if they weren’t satisfied. Their school place was left open for them to return in fact until the LA did decide.

some of that I am pretty sure is actually illegal.

I am pretty sure that Home Educators are not obliged to provide a plan by law. The LA have no legal right to accept or decline anything.

But LAs will try it on, continually.

I apologise for repeated posts on this thread.

It is obviously a problem that nobody has a clear idea of where children are.

However, to frame it as a 'school related' problem, that only exists because the school buildings closed to most pupils for two periods over the last 2 years - an maximum of 1.5 terms out of 6 for most, not at all for some - is misleading and misdirects the blame.

It is a system problem. The country does not know where its children are. In term time, when schools are open, during school hours, we have some idea about most of them. We should not be relying on school registers as our only check on children.

The systems that should be in place to care for the most vulnerable in society - immigration, social services, SEN experts, health staff - and all the infrastructure of schools and hospitals and asylum centres and special schools and children's centres - are woefully inadequate.

To expect schools to take on all of these lacks, and to blame them for the fact that some children 'remain uncounted' by the country's government, is appalling and unjust, both to the schools and to the children.

[quote 3cats4poniesandababy]@cantkeepawayforever ut many aren't on the radar. For example many children don't have an EHCP and weren't offered a school place. Brilliant if yours did but many didn't. Schools don't know of everything going on in homes and can't know everything but by being open the give children a space to get away, giving them (hopefully) an adult to speak to

Stress on parents increased during lockdown- trying to cope with work, with children homeschooling, fear of redundancy- these have a knock on effect and increase the risk of domestic abuse to both woman and children.[/quote]
Absolutely. So where are the social services staff we referred multiple families to and who wouldn't do anything because despite us being in school with children every day, they could not go out into the community and had to wfh?

Where, during and after each closure, are the support groups for children? The extra CAMHS staff? The trained therapists coming into schools? The play therapists coming in their hundreds into schools and children's centres to work with the schools? The Ed Psychs? The SaLT staff?

Schools were deperately trying to feed families. They were trying to educate children remotely and in person. They were doing all of this within a broken system, where it often felt that nobody else was able to work with families at all and we were the only lifeline. Why is it then that schools are blamed for the system's failure? Why were we working face to face when nobody else did or would?

And why are schools still not Covid-safer spaces, so we still cannot help many families because it is too dangerous to send their children in?

You don't need to apologise for multiple posts @cantkeepawayforever. You make some excellent points.

The headline talking about COVID is not telling a fraction of the story.

Many will be where they have changed schools/home educated/gone private/moved countries in the UK but whilst they're on roll, there isn't a central register of movements/registers - and if a parent refuses to tell you where they're going at 16, you can't make them or find out unless the post 16 provider contacts you, which many, as they're academies/private, don't do because they don't use the electronic file system.

Councils haven't really done much about it before and I have a feeling that the requirement to notify leavers and starters to them only became law a couple of years ago when they started realising that thousands dropped off the radar every year. Additionally, if you look at home ed threads here, many posters say 'you just tell the Head and they can't do a thing about it' - there's no compulsory Home Ed registration with councils and if the parent doesn't want to engage or notify the council themselves for an optional register, there's bugger all you can do about it, as it's their legal right - you have to offroll them.

Essentially, it's always been an issue, but lockdown has led to somebody saying 'hang on, we need to know where they've gone' and realising that nobody's ever linked all the records together before.

Our children would be included in that number. Because we had no choice but to keep them home because one of them us CEV
They are not invisable. They see medical, neighbours etc.
So many families like ours. Waiting for when tje children can safely return. Where is the venilation, where is the vaccines we are still waiting for?

A few years pre covid we were begging for support and help but the LA didnt provide what they should provide and left the child to struggle. I expect more battles when they can return but for now we will continue to be part of the 'invisable' data. That is being manipulated to suit an agenda which isnt about the children at all

I wish to be clear that I am not blaming other services for not being able to come into schools or visit children in their homes or provide much needed therapy within a reasonable timeframe.

I know that they too are working in a broken, underfunded system with far too little capacity and far too few people for the needs that are there.

I am blaming the Government for all the failures of the system, and much of the public for swallowing and parroting the Government's narrative uncritically.

@Covidworries, it was your story, among other real life ones, that I was thinking of when posting about families who have faced the bitter and unwanted choice between health and home education, due to the government's failure to make schools Covid-safer.

How are you all doing?

Sorry this is long and stolen but so poignant. These are the children and families no one really cared about pre COVID.

An inquiry is being launched into children who are not attending school in the wake of national lockdowns, the Children's Commissioner for England has announced.

Come over Dame Rachel– take a seat.

Families like ours, we “disappeared”. We didn’t want to. SEN was new to our family and I didn’t know it would be this hard. We’re trying really hard not to disappear, actually, it feels as though our Local Authority has disappeared rather than us.

&Did you know that the way SEN is funded means it’s better for a school to deny SEN, than support them?*

That schools have been underfunded since 2010?

We disappear when we are threatened with prosecution, parenting courses, and social services investigation without evidence.

Those who can’t afford to pay for private SEN assessment are particularly disadvantaged.

Falling into a chasm of “no proof” and parent blaming.

Evidence is king. Evidence costs. Evidence is a privilege.

When we de-register we are seen as “electively” home educating.

We disappear.

We disappear too whilst we fight for the needs of our children to be met by a school or personal budget. The refusals, appeals that we will most likely win but that exhaust us.

The money the LA spends on fighting parents to deny educational support rather than supporting children with SEN. It’s cheaper you see.

That LA’s act unlawfully. All the time. They are fined. That’s cheaper too than meeting a child’s needs.

My child doesn’t need finding, he’s here. But he’s invisible. I need you to see him. No, really see him. See that mainstream school harmed him. That you won’t simply “get him in” because that isn’t the answer. Because if it was, he’d be there.

I need you to understand that children with SEN aren't "safe" in mainstream education if their needs are masked, unmet, denied.

That the treatment of children with SEN in our Education system is a scandal of our time.

Directly penalising neurodivergent and many more children.

But a generation of them adults now, speaking their truths – changing education. There is hope.

So launch the inquiry. Ask our children why the Education system is failing them. Maybe you’ll learn something.

We did.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60054253

Susan Liverman

(A member of the ‘Not Fine in School’ parent support group)

@Northsoutheastwest76 that captures it so well it might be the end of the thread. At one stage I felt we were sending DS into school every day to feel like he was failing. Every day another day of failing, drip drip drip, destroying his confidence, his love of learning, making him dread going to school.

Thankfully, a change of school and some amazing teachers and support staff turned everything around even before SEN was diagnosed.

@Northsoutheastwest76

Sorry this is long and stolen but so poignant. These are the children and families no one really cared about pre COVID.

An inquiry is being launched into children who are not attending school in the wake of national lockdowns, the Children's Commissioner for England has announced.

Come over Dame Rachel– take a seat.

Families like ours, we “disappeared”. We didn’t want to. SEN was new to our family and I didn’t know it would be this hard. We’re trying really hard not to disappear, actually, it feels as though our Local Authority has disappeared rather than us.

&Did you know that the way SEN is funded means it’s better for a school to deny SEN, than support them?*

That schools have been underfunded since 2010?

We disappear when we are threatened with prosecution, parenting courses, and social services investigation without evidence.

Those who can’t afford to pay for private SEN assessment are particularly disadvantaged.

Falling into a chasm of “no proof” and parent blaming.

Evidence is king. Evidence costs. Evidence is a privilege.

When we de-register we are seen as “electively” home educating.

We disappear.

We disappear too whilst we fight for the needs of our children to be met by a school or personal budget. The refusals, appeals that we will most likely win but that exhaust us.

The money the LA spends on fighting parents to deny educational support rather than supporting children with SEN. It’s cheaper you see.

That LA’s act unlawfully. All the time. They are fined. That’s cheaper too than meeting a child’s needs.

My child doesn’t need finding, he’s here. But he’s invisible. I need you to see him. No, really see him. See that mainstream school harmed him. That you won’t simply “get him in” because that isn’t the answer. Because if it was, he’d be there.

I need you to understand that children with SEN aren't "safe" in mainstream education if their needs are masked, unmet, denied.

That the treatment of children with SEN in our Education system is a scandal of our time.

Directly penalising neurodivergent and many more children.

But a generation of them adults now, speaking their truths – changing education. There is hope.

So launch the inquiry. Ask our children why the Education system is failing them. Maybe you’ll learn something.

We did.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60054253

Susan Liverman

(A member of the ‘Not Fine in School’ parent support group)

poignant

People who say 'this was a problem pre-covid' are right but I'm struggling to understand the point they're making? Is it that, because it was a problem pre-covid the fact that lockdowns made it worse is a non-issue? Or what?

The whole bollocks about making schools 'covid-safe' really makes me angry. It is just pure nonsense to think there is any reliable way to ensure that a highly transmissible airborne infection isn't spread among children who are in a room together all day every day. The position that it is more important for children to miss education than to run the very small risk (to them personally) of being very ill with covid is, frankly, idiotic. If you expect your child to be constantly protected from illness, then you'll have to lock them in an airtight room forever. It's just not possible. The only thing mitigations like ventilation etc do is slow down transmission (often not very effectively) which might be good for the overall burden of disease but does absolutely nothing for the children themselves, who may not get covid in January but instead get it in February. Perpetually 'protecting' them, while limiting their lives and putting them at risk by damaging their education makes no sense.

I agree that multiple services should be involved in this issue and that funding and resourcing is the major problem. People seem to be reading too much into the fact that this story is about the school roll - the school roll represents the extent to which children are present and visible in the normal, everyday system of childhood. If anyone isn't accounted for on it, there could be a very good explanation for it, but it raises a red flag. The fact that 100,000 children are missing is a huge problem. It's not implying that schools have to solve the problem, it's just talking about the fact that the problem exists.

I am sick of the constant mentioning of the fact that some children attended school throughout. Apart from the fact that this shows that children going to school wasn't the major threat some people made it out to be (otherwise it would never be ethical to send any child to school) it misses the fact that many children were at home without the daily interaction from mid March - September 2020 and January- March 2021. While there might have been some justification for the closure in 2020 the closure in 2021 was completely inexcusable - children were let down in an absolutely massive, unforgivable way. And anyone spouting about the fact that vulnerable children were in school is either stupid or covering the fact that they know full well that thousands of vulnerable children aren't identified in any way - they live with violence, neglect, abuse and chaos every single day and not a soul knows about it. Those children were just left there, no outlet, no support for months on end. There is no justification for it.

The fact that 100,000 children are missing is a huge problem.

But are they missing? My children are not in school but they are most certainly not missing. I would be interested to know how many children are really missing and how many simply aren’t on a school roll, there is a big difference between the two and I find it pretty insulting to say my children should be red flagged because I chose to home educate instead of opting into the school system which is not compulsory.

I am not arguing btw that there will be children out there who are genuinely missing and need intervention but I do question the 100,000 number being quoted because if a child is seen by others then they are not missing.