School reforms will stop ‘vulnerable children falling through the cracks’, experts say

Unauthorised absence rates are 34 per cent higher in the North compared with the South, and this is worse for children with special education needs and those on free school meals.

It’s a particular issue in Yorkshire and the Humber, which has the second highest persistent absence rate in England after the South West.

Former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield told The Yorkshire Post: “There’s been a huge increase in the number of children who aren’t in school, either excluded from school or they’ve come off the school roll to be educated at home.

“There’s a real difficulty for children who are not in school and we know that not only are they missing out on learning, but they’re also potentially at increased risk of both safeguarding and exploitation.”

While IPPR’s associate director for education Avnee Morjaria said that these measures were a “no brainer in terms of keeping children safe”.

“At the moment, there are lots and lots of vulnerable children that fall through the cracks because local authorities, schools and other people responsible for keeping children safe just don’t have the means or the mechanisms to track people’s whereabouts,” she said.

“While the identification number seems a very simple introduction, it will give local authorities great levers to see where they are,” the former headteacher and Ofsted inspector added.

Ilkley-based Ms Longfield, who now runs the Centre for Young Lives, said she had been campaigning for an out-of-school register for five years “which is something that most people would expect”.

A Yorkshire Post investigation into the absence crisis found that a draconian approach to tackling school attendance is forcing children to often be taught at home, in what could be considered unsuitable environments.

Parents from across the region have said they felt forced to home educate as their children with autism were not given enough support, and ended up lashing out and getting excluded.

While many parents offer an excellent education, the judge which jailed the father and stepmother killers of 10-year-old Sara Sharif warned against the automatic right to homeschooling.

The bill would remove the right if the child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan, which Ms Longfield said “was a really important element”.

It will also ensure all teachers will be part of the same core pay and conditions framework whether they work in a local authority-run school or an academy.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson insisted teachers would not face a pay cut, with the reforms branded a “wrecking ball” by the Conservatives.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart said the bill will “bring about kind-of a gross, socialist uniformity” in the education sector.

The Conservatives had put forward a so-called “wrecking amendment” to the bill, which called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

If passed, it would have halted the progress of the entire bill, which includes measures aimed at improving safeguarding for children.

It called for ministers “to develop new legislative proposals for children’s wellbeing including establishing a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs”.

However it was rejected by Labour MPs, as the Government wants to roll out the recommendations of the investigation led by Professor Alexis Jay rather than open a new inquiry.