When a pupil fails to turn up for classes, it is initially the job of school staff to find out why. If they come up against a blank wall - or if the child is known to have an attendance problem - they will seek help from the education welfare officer.

If the pupil is known to be at risk, the school should alert the authority’s child protection officer who can decide whether to call in social services. They can then seek information through the Child Benefit system (parents are likely to claim benefit even if they don’t take their child to school) or from the police.

But EWOs cannot seek this information themselves: they have to go to social services. This restriction, introduced as a data-protection measure, is criticised by EWOs. Michael Sunderland of the National Association of Social Workers in Education says it adds to the burden on social services and to the bureaucracy of the system.

“If there’s a genuine concern about children, we should be able to make inquiries without breaching data protection,” he said. “It would certainly improve a lot of local education authorities’ ability to trace missing children.”

The recent introduction of unique pupil numbers for each school child, and the Government’s push towards greater computerisation of records, should also help.

There will soon be a national database covering every child in the system. It is being established with the aim of tracking pupils’ educational progress through the years, but it could also lend itself to just keeping track of them.