Education unlocks the door of opportunity, raises aspiration and sets our children up for future success.
However, since the pandemic, it has been difficult not to notice the worrying rise in the number of children missing school.
Some of this is persistent absence - it is estimated that one in five pupils is persistently absent, an issue the government is trying to rectify through the School Attendance Bill.
However, many children are simply not in school at all. In a 2020 report, the Local Government Association estimated the number of children not in school at 250,000.
Children not in school
That’s a worryingly high figure, but the true number could be a lot higher because, as noted in investigations by the children’s commissioner for England in 2022, there are no reliable figures for children who never go to school.
Some of these children will be homeschooled in nurturing environments where they will excel. However, it is naive to think that this accounts for all of them.
From the limited data available, we know that many come from homes where rates of unemployment are high, where the risk of being evicted is greatest. Many come from some of the country’s most deprived areas.
However, without proper data we do not know exactly how many children are not in school. We do not know where these children are and what quality of education they are receiving, if any. We do not even know if they are safe. This is not acceptable.
Given this situation, we must do more to support children not in school - starting with knowing the true number of these children.
That’s why I’ve been working on a parliamentary bill, backed by the government, to introduce a register for children not in school in England. This bill is going through its second reading in Parliament today.
Compiled by local authorities, the register will identify where these children are and help in offering support to these families and protecting children from abuse. Regardless of where our children are educated, they will not be left behind.
Collecting vital data
Of course, parents’ right to choose where to educate their children is fundamental, and this bill will help them, too.
It will help the parents who choose to educate their children at home. It will be far easier for them to seek the support they need from local authorities, which will be duty-bound to help.
It will also make it easier for their children to sit public exams.
Over the past 14 years there has been a focus on relentless improvements in school standards - as evidenced by the number of “good” and “outstanding” schools rising from 68 per cent in 2010 to almost 90 per cent today.
We have also shot to the top of the class in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings, with England the best in the West when it comes to reading at primary school age, and we have raced up the leaderboards in maths and science.
Yet children not in school are unable to benefit from these improvements.
This register will help those who, for whatever reason, are not in schools to be tracked and supported as best as possible to ensure that they have the greatest chance of an education that can unlock their future.
Flick Drummond is the Conservative MP for Meon Valley, in Hampshire
