Government under pressure over ‘ghost children’ missing from class

The government “remains committed” to legislate to establish a register of pupils who are not in school, the education secretary said.

It comes after criticism that the King’s Speech on Tuesday, which set out the legislative agenda for the year, did not include anything about the plan to reduce the number of so-called “ghost children”.

As Sky News has reported, since the pandemic there has been a rise in the number youngsters who have stopped going to school.

Often this is pupils who have been excluded from the classroom and then fall out of the system – making them vulnerable to being targeted by gangs.

Making an intervention as Education Secretary Gillian Keegan opened a debate in the House of Commons, Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson said: “What was crystal clear from the King’s Speech yesterday is despite her [Ms Keegan’s] grandiose statements here, education is not a priority for this government.”

Ms Wilson asked why there was no announcement “about bringing forward legislation for a children-not-in-school register” – something ministers promised they would still do after scrapping the Schools Bill last year.

The education secretary said that remains the government’s position – though she did not say when the plans would be brought before parliament, only saying it would happen at a “suitable opportunity”.

“We do remain committed to legislating to take forward the children-not-in-school measures and we will progress these at a future suitable legislative opportunity,” Ms Keegan said.

“We are continuing to work with local authorities to improve the non-statutory registers. And we have also launched a consultation on revised elective home education guidance.

“So there is work going on, the consultation is open until January 18, 2024. So there is a lot of work going on and we do intend to bring forward that legislation.”

Read more:
Thousands are missing school
The ‘ghost children’ crisis explained
Absence in schools is now at crisis point

The law requires all children of school age to receive suitable full-time education, but last year 141,000 children spent more time out of class than in – up by 137% since the pandemic.

Local councils blame funding problems for not being able to keep track of missing pupils well enough.

Last May the government launched a piece of legislation known as the Schools Bill, which promised to raise standards through a series of measures including the creation of local authority-administered register for children not in school.

However, come December it was scrapped, with ministers insisting they were committed to its objectives despite not taking the legislation further.

Speaking in the Commons, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson paid tribute to Sky News “for being relentless in pursuing this issue”.

She said persistent absenteeism means we are now on track for two million children to be regularly missing school by 2025.

She said: “That’s one in four of our children. There is no greater failing by this government than standing by as more and more children are missing from school for days on end, term after term, a lost generation of children missing from England’s schools.”

A broad and complex crisis damaging the lives of thousands

Nick Martin

People and politics correspondent

@NickMartinSKY

For months now I’ve been speaking to children, parents, teachers and experts all struggling with one major issue – children not going to school.

It’s a quiet, hidden crisis; the child too anxious to get out of the car, the parent spending hours on the phone fighting for a special school place. And all that time, learning is lost.

The latest data paints a really worrying picture, too. It shows that 140,000 children are missing 50% or more of their education – called severe absence.

And a staggering 1.5 million children are what’s called persistently absent – missing the equivalent of a morning a week. These figures are double what they were before the pandemic.

Back in July, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan accepted this is “crisis”. She said wished she could drive children to school herself, and even said it was the job of headteachers to do the same, if necessary.

Her department has introduced attendance hubs and mentors to tackle the problem in the worst affected areas.

But campaigners – including the children’s commissioner for England – have been calling for legislation in the King’s Speech to focus efforts to get children back to the classroom, to enshrine a solution into law. But nothing materialised.

Labour now appears to be seizing the opportunity.

It’s always been thought that education won’t be a big issue in the next election. That could be about to change with the party choosing to take valuable parliamentary debate time to raise the issue in the House.

There are lots of issues at play here; the cost of living crisis, NHS waiting lists for mental health services, school places and council funding.

It is a broad and hugely complex crisis that’s damaging the lives of thousands of children.

Ms Phillipson earlier told Sky News that if she becomes education secretary after the next election, she will “take action to make sure our children are supported, that every day in school matters”.

She said that would mean: “More mental health support, with mental health hubs in every community, improved access to mental health support within our secondary schools, and alongside that for our younger children, universal free breakfast clubs to support children with a softer start to the school day, and also wider help for families during what’s a really difficult time with the cost of living crisis.”

Meanwhile, Andy Cook, chief executive of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a centre-right think tank, warned the crisis could have far-reaching consequences for society.

He told Sky News: “You go into any prison and you talk to the people there, 90% of them say they missed a lot of school on a regular basis. So we need to take this seriously.”