Plan to Register Children Not in School in Motion
A register to identify children who are not in school in England will be part of a bill introduced to Parliament soon. The Department for Education says knowledge of where children are will enable councils to ensure a high-quality education is being provided and deliver the necessary support.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said it would be a “seminal moment for child protection”.
The register, part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, is expected to come into force in 2025.
The Labour government says the bill will also make sure that teachers and schools are always involved in decisions around safeguarding children in their area, and that if a child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities have the power to intervene.
A unique identifier number will be given to children across services, similar to an adult’s national insurance number.
Phillipson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the government wanted “everyone pulling together to keep children safe. It’s about police, schools, children’s social care,” she said. “And the measures today will require those agencies to work together much more effectively to keep children safe.”
The unique identifier would enable information held by different services, such as health and education, to be shared between them to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks, Phillipson added.
Sara Sharif, 10, was removed from school to be home-educated by her father and stepmother four months before she died. Under the government’s plans, parents will no longer have an automatic right to educate their children at home if their child is under a child protection plan and will have to get the local council’s permission.
The previous, Conservative government had also proposed a register of children not in school.
But the Children’s Charities Coalition, representing Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the National Children’s Bureau, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), and The Children’s Society, said: “The money announced today falls far short of what’s needed.
“Children and families desperately need – and deserve – sustained investment in early help services, mental-health support and children’s social care. This needs to be underpinned by an ambitious strategy to tackle child poverty.”
The number of children being home-educated in England has risen by 20% this year according to the most recent government figures.
Phillipson told BBC’s Breakfast programme she was worried about the “big increase” in home-schooling.
“I respect the rights of parents to seek to home-educate their children,” she said. “My concern is that some parents are choosing to opt out of the system because they feel their children’s needs are not being met. There’s a lot that needs to happen to get children back into school, to be there regularly. We face some really big and stark attendance challenges.”
The Education Policy Institute warned that up to 300,000 children may be missing from education entirely.
“I have called on successive governments to introduce a unique identifying number for children and a register of all children not in school,” Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza says.
“Writing these two landmark measures into law will be of huge significance for any child currently at risk of harm in this country – it must now be supported by proper data-sharing between organisations so no child can become invisible in the system.”
The general secretary at the school leaders’ union NAHT, Paul Whiteman, also welcomed the bill, saying they had “long called for a register of pupils who are not in school” and “it is very positive to see that this important safeguarding measure is finally being taken after years of delay”.
The government says protecting children at risk of abuse and stopping vulnerable children falling through the cracks is at the heart of the bill.
First unveiled in the King’s Speech, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is wide ranging, also including free breakfast clubs in all primary schools and legislation to limit branded uniform items.