Thousands of pupils missing from school and authorities don’t know where they are
Thousands of children have vanished from school with authorities often having no idea where they are, according to figures seen by Sky News.
On a single day in spring this year, local authorities in England reported an estimated 24,700 children as missing education – a worrying snapshot of the crisis facing schools.
They are categorised as Children Missing Education (CME), and include any child of school age not in school or receiving an education anywhere else.
Last year a staggering 94,900 children went missing at some point during the 2021/22 academic year.
Often, they are youngsters who have moved on from one area to another and they have not been enrolled into a new school.
By law, councils have to take “all reasonable steps” to find these children, but many remain missing for long periods.
Sky News can reveal that the number of council staff in England whose job it is to monitor school absences has been cut by nearly half in the past decade, making it harder for a lot of councils to track children down.
In 2013, there were 751 education welfare officers, or their equivalent, compared with just 402 this year – a cut of 46%.
That has put huge strain on councils to keep an eye on missing school children.
Read more: Inside a pupil welfare unit where a small team tries to track down missing children
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A spokesperson for the Local Government Association told Sky News: “Funding pressures faced by councils over the last 10 years have impacted on the number of roles councils are able to provide.
“We have long raised with government that councils lack the powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t slip through the net.
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Why are children missing school?
“Under the current arrangements, children not in school are invisible to councils and the services that keep them safe. This is why it is vital the government legislates for a register of children who are not in school, combined with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children.”
In response the Department for Education said: “The government is committed to ensuring that all children, especially the most vulnerable in our society, are safe and have access to an excellent education.
“We are continuing to work with local authorities to improve support for children missing education which includes their voluntary registers of children not in school.
“We estimate nationally there are currently more than 1,500 FTE local authority attendance staff and remain committed to introducing a statutory system so that no child falls through the cracks.”
The number of children missing significant amounts of school has risen sharply since the pandemic and is now regarded as a national crisis.
Read more:
An urgent national crisis: The number of children missing school soars
The ‘ghost children’: Thousands are missing school – and COVID made the problem worse
More than 1.7 million schoolchildren are missing from class more than 10% of the time, the equivalent of a morning a week. That has gone up by 108% since COVID.
And more than 125,000 children are spending more time out of school than in – double since the pandemic.
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Thousands of school children missing
The government has set up so-called attendance “hubs” in some of the areas with the highest absence rates.
It has also introduced attendance “mentors” to help support families and schools get children back into class.
The crash involving a cargo ship and oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast is bad news for the sea, fish and air in the area. What we don’t know yet is quite how bad it will be.
That depends on a few things – but the speed of the collision, clouds of filthy black smoke from the fires and the leaked fuel are certainly worrying.
Firstly, it matters what was on board those two massive vessels.
Follow live: Jet fuel spilling into sea after tanker collision
Analytics firm Vortexa estimates the 183m-long tanker was carrying about 130,000 barrels of jet fuel (kerosene), which is now leaking into the sea.
Jet fuel is not as sticky or viscous as heavier types of oil, thankfully, so it’s less likely to clog the feathers and fur of birds and seals. It can also be broken down by natural bacteria.
But it can still poison fish and kill animals and plants on the shoreline if it makes its way into the soil there.
The Marine Conservation Society has pointed out the site in the Humber estuary is close to some protected areas and is important for seabirds and harbour porpoises.
And both ships will have been powered by a dirtier, heavier kind of oil – likely marine gas oil or heavy fuel oil, though we don’t know the details yet.
Heavy fuel oil is nasty stuff.
Pic: Bartek Smialek/PA
Cheap, thick and tar-like, it can smother animals and is very dangerous if they consume it, and is extremely difficult to clean up. Let’s hope this isn’t creeping around the North Sea already.
We don’t know how much of either the jet fuel or the oil powering the ships has leaked, or how much will be burned off in the violent fires – which themselves are ploughing black smoke and filthy air pollution into the surrounding atmosphere.
And we don’t know for sure what was on the Solong cargo ship and if, or what, will go into the sea.
Cargo ship ‘had sodium cyanide on board’
It was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, said the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – citing a message from the local coastguard.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down, and potentially can choke or trap animals.
Many of us have seen that uncomfortable viral video of a turtle having a straw yanked out of its nose. Previous accidents on cargo ships have seen plastic Lego pieces wash up in Cornwall 25 years later.
Read more:
How UK North Sea platforms dump gas
Secondly, the impact depends on the sea and weather conditions around it.
Things like the wind and currents affect how an oil spill spreads in the sea. Scientists can draw up computer models to simulate how the oil could behave.
Thirdly, it matters how quickly this is all tackled and then cleaned up, if necessary, and if it can be.
Usually the slower the response, the worse the impact.
The coastguard has said the incident “remains ongoing” and it has started assessing the “likely counter pollution response” that will be required.
Such a response might need the help of numerous public bodies: the government environment department, the transport department, the Environment Agency and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
So for now the best we can hope for – aside from the welfare of the people involved – is that not all the oil is spilled or burnt, that conditions are calm and that rescuers and those cleaning up can work swiftly.
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