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Rishi Sunak’s government is stepping up efforts to create a register of children “missing” from schools in England following criticism of its delay in tackling chronic pupil absences during the pandemic.
A members’ bill to create a database of students being home educated or absent from primary and secondary school is due to be debated in parliament on March 15.
During the Covid-19 pandemic thousands of pupils, dubbed “ghost children”, went missing from class as attendances plummeted. MPs across all parties have pushed for a national register as concerns intensify over the number of students who have dropped out of the education system.
The database was mooted in the schools bill laid before parliament in 2022 but the draft legislation, which also included proposals to regulate academies and change school funding models, was later dropped.
Hopes that legislation to create a register would be put forward as part of the King’s Speech in November did not materialise, sparking criticism from opposition MPs and child wellbeing advocates.
Flick Drummond, the Conservative MP for Meon Valley who put forward the new members’ bill, said: “We hold no comprehensive data about how many children are not on a school roll, where they are and what quality of education they are receiving”. Some, she added, “may not be safe”.
Education minister Gillian Keegan said the government would support the bill at its “second reading” in parliament in March, which could pave the way for it to become law before the general election expected in the autumn.
The opposition Labour party is also expected to support the proposed bill. In an interview with the Financial Times in November, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said she would “back the government up tomorrow” if it put forward legislation to form a register.
A missing child is defined as someone of compulsory school age who is either not registered at any school or is registered but not attending classes.
Between 81,000 and 115,000 children are estimated to be missing from the school roll altogether, according to research by the Centre for Social Justice. However, there is uncertainty over the figures given the lack of official national data and inconsistent monitoring by local authorities.
In the summer of 2022, 140,000 children were “severely absent” from school — the highest number on record, according to the Centre for Social Justice think-tank. This represented a 134 per cent increase compared to 2019 levels.
Meanwhile, by the start of the 2021-22 academic year, a record high of around 80,000 pupils were being home educated, 34 per cent more than before the pandemic, according to CSJ estimates.
A person close to Keegan said she was committed to legislating for the register “at the earliest possibility”, adding that she is “trying every avenue to achieve this”.
