Register of Children not in School

Tim Loughton Excerpts

Tuesday 20th February 2024 Westminster Hall

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

I had not intended to speak in this debate, but I was inspired to do so by the opening speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond). I congratulate her not just on securing today’s debate, but on her Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which I will certainly support and which I hope the Government will pick up.

I should declare an interest: I chair the safeguarding board of the National Fostering Group, which is relevant because of the access of children in care to education. One of the things we do is monitor the attendance in school of children in foster care. We have consistently had well above the national average, which shows that even more challenging children in the care system, when properly monitored, can get a full education, and it is perhaps even more important that they do.

This subject is really important, so it is somewhat surprising that there is not a single Labour Back Bencher or Liberal Democrat MP here, such is their constant criticism of the Government’s education policy, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley set out at the beginning of the debate, has been a largely unsung success story for literacy and numeracy rates and the improvements that we have seen over the last 14 years. That was helped substantially by the drive for phonics and making sure that children in schools have a grasp of the basic skills that are needed for every job and for success in life.

I am glad to report that in my constituency, every single primary and secondary school bar one is rated “good” or “outstanding”. Across the UK, and certainly across England, the figures are now something like 86% or 88% against 66% back in 2010, so there is good progress there—but it is not progress for everybody. We must be particularly concerned for children whose progress is much more difficult to monitor because they are not within the conventional, mainstream school sector. That is the purpose of this debate.

That problem has absolutely been exacerbated during and since covid. The Children’s Commissioner has done work on identifying more than 100,000 so-called ghost children who are at school less often than they are absent from school, and in some cases are not at school at all. That is a really worrying phenomenon. We have only just started to see the consequences of lockdown and the closure of our schools. That was such an error, which the Government were forced into. I have to say, there was triumphalism—I remember it well, receiving the press releases from the National Education Union, which forced its members not to turn up at school. I think something like 8,000 schools had to close simply because the NEU staff did not turn up. That was the beginning of a slippery slope, supported by the Labour Opposition, of keeping our schools closed.

There was no evidential base on which children were more vulnerable than anybody else; indeed, they were far less vulnerable. The consequences for their education, socialising and mental health of not being in a regular school setting are only now coming out of the woodwork. The impact of that will be with those children for many years to come. It is deeply worrying that, quite aside from the academic catch-up, there are many other consequences. It has led to a lot of children not going back into mainstream school since covid. They are supposedly being home educated in most cases, but we are not sure how well they are being home educated, and if they are getting any reasonable education at all.

The problem of children not in school and, hopefully, being educated outside a school setting is not new, although it has been exacerbated since covid. When I was the Children’s Minister some while ago, we looked at regulating out-of-school provision and keeping tabs on children who were not attending school, particularly from a safeguarding point of view. I absolutely echo the points made earlier by my hon. Friends the Members for Hastings and Rye (Sally-Ann Hart) and for Meon Valley about the generally high quality of care, and hopefully education standards that go with it, provided by parents who choose actively to home educate their children for whatever reason. There are some, however, who cannot and do not sufficiently, adequately and appropriately provide that education to their children.

There are also establishments setting themselves up as unregulated schools, often with a religious bent. Some years ago, there was a big scandal about madrassahs exposed, I think, by “Panorama”. There was some really worrying treatment of children attending those schools, either in place of regular school or as religious schools available at weekends and evenings, in completely unregulated settings. It applies to other unofficial faith schools as well. I was keen to bring in some form of regulation of those establishments at the time, but alas I was thwarted. The issue has returned, but I am pleased to note that the Government are at last taking action on it.

There is also the issue of what we more formally know as alternative provision. Again, there are some really good examples of this—I can cite some in my own constituency—but they are not regulated. Many of them actually want to be regulated, but there is not the facility to do that. It would give them a degree of respectability and status, from which many of them would benefit. It is a bit of a wild west out there, and it absolutely needs to be addressed.

The reasons parents choose to home educate, as my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley has said, are varied. In some cases, they do not want to send their children to faith schools, and there are no alternatives available. Increasingly, it is because of problems with special educational needs. Despite the good reforms that the Government have brought in, with the use of education, health and care plans, there is still a serious problem with the number of children identified with special educational needs who are waiting to be assessed for an EHCP. If it goes to appeal, the vast majority of appeals by parents are upheld. There has been something like a 24% increase in appeals between 2022 and 2023, and parents usually win them. Even when they get that status, the support that is supposed to come with it is not always forthcoming, and certainly not to the level that certain children need. It is no wonder that some parents choose to take their children out of school because their special educational needs are not being provided for in those schools.

I recently held a summit with the heads of SEN provision for every primary school in the Adur district in my constituency. Most of the heads turned up as well, such was the seriousness of the subject. I arranged a follow-up meeting with the cabinet member for schools and the director of children’s services in West Sussex because this is a real problem, and it is driving more children out of the mainstream system.

There are other reasons why parents keep their children out of school—for example, because their child is suffering from mental health problems. We know how bad that has gotten—again, exacerbated by covid. Something like one in six school-age children now demonstrate some form of mental illness. Again, the Government have done good work on mental health support in schools, but they are not keeping up with the demand. The threshold for identifying children with mental health requirements is quite high. Even when a child does reach it, they need to access the support in a timely manner, and it is not always as forthcoming, and certainly not as urgent, as it needs to be.

There are also problems with bullying and the impact of social media, which is why I very much welcomed the announced yesterday by the Secretary of State for Education about limitations on mobile phones, which have an awful lot to answer for in our schools. Good schools, such as Worthing High School, which the Secretary of State visited yesterday in launching the new programme, have been practising that for some time, and it is clear for all to see how it has benefited the children. Another reason is eating disorders—a fast-growing phenomenon. Again, that was exacerbated by the pandemic for those children who now feel they cannot attend school because of it. There is a whole raft of reasons why children are being home educated and effectively going under the radar.

There is also the question of parents not being able to get their children into their school of choice. I have a particular problem, which I have raised in this Chamber before—and my right hon. Friend the Minister of State has agreed to meet me shortly to discuss it—as children in Adur, in Shoreham, in particular, have to go out of district because the county council has effectively messed up its calculation of secondary school place need in the area. A lot of parents—from one school, about 50 children are faced with this—have chosen to home educate their children rather than sending them to a school they know little about and which is a long way from home. It is important that we can monitor how many and which children are being home educated, what sort of home education they are getting and who is providing it.

[Mrs Drummond]

Part of the Bill that I propose to introduce will give support to parents who are home educating and put the burden on local authorities to provide that support and funding. I assume that that would help my hon. Friend’s constituents.

--- Later in debate ---

[Tim Loughton]

I hope so. I hope those parents will be helped because the local authority will get its figures right and provide the number of places needed, because by and large they want their children to go to one of our excellent local secondary schools; it is just that the places are not there. They have almost been forced to make the decision to home educate their children.

It is important that we get a handle on this matter. We closely regulate our schools—some would say over-regulate, and some of the recent problems regarding Ofsted have raised the question of whether we are regulating the right things—and impose stiff penalties on parents who fail to send their children to school on a regular basis without good reason. Once a child is deemed to be home educated, all that regulation and all those checks fall away, and it is down to trust with the parents.

As I say, it is important that we identify what is going on outside of the school setting because there is a safeguarding issue. That was highlighted during lockdown, when social workers with children on their radar were in many cases unable to make home visits, and the amount of abuse against children behind closed doors went up substantially—the number of calls to Childline and other services absolutely skyrocketed. I am in no way trying to say that all home educated children are subject to safeguarding concerns, but there is a high propensity for children who are out of the sight of teachers, who can spot signs that something is not quite right at home, to suffer safeguarding issues under the radar, so we need to be absolutely assured that they are safe.

The point of having a register and greater sight of those children is to ensure their parents receive appropriate support. Statutorily, they are entitled to just five hours of supported education at home, if it is available and they choose to take it. That does not go far, and its quality is rather patchy. There are also serious question marks about children accessing public exams. A lot of parents of home educated children have complained to me that they cannot access schools to take public exams—GCSEs, A-levels or whatever—and if they can, they have to pay a substantial premium.

There is also an issue with access to the very successful Government school holiday programme. The additional support available for school meals, and the activities, exercise and everything else that goes with it, are again not automatically available to home educated children. Children are not just missing out on the academic advantages of being at school; being at school is also about socialising, integrating, engaging with other children, learning to work as a team, regulating one’s mental health, and getting involved in sport and all sorts of other physical activities. Team games do not appear to be readily available to home educated children, so there is much more to this issue than just academic achievement. As I say, it is also about ensuring children are safe and on the radar.

When we provide that support to parents, it is important that we ensure that flexible arrangements are available too. Some children may not be able to go into mainstream school full time because of mental health challenges, bullying or whatever, but they may be able to have a blend whereby they combine home or alternative-provision learning with going to regular school for one or two days or sessions a week to gradually get them back to a full-time school schedule. That flexibility is just not there, but a full register that tells us what the child’s standard is, what their problems are and what support is and is not being provided would enable us to provide a much better wraparound solution.

Last year, the fantastic Red Balloon school charity, which I dealt with a lot when I was a Minister, set up a new school in Worthing. That was largely down to the munificence of one of my constituents, Nick Munday, whose daughter benefited from an alternative provision school. The charity has a small number of schools throughout the country and offers places to kids who cannot go into mainstream school for all sorts of reasons. It gives them a really good education and, in many cases, enables them to go back into school part time and, hopefully, ultimately full time. We need more places like that.

Like other alternative provision establishments, Red Balloon would love to be regulated. Part of this debate is about ensuring that we have eyes on the support that every child is getting, on what alternative provision establishments and others are able to offer and on whether they are up to the task. There are something like 40,900 children in alternative provision across the United Kingdom. Ultimately, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, this is not about intruding or meddling: it is about supporting, monitoring and tracking. Even if children are not on the school register, and are not presenting at school on a daily basis and getting all the advantages school offers, because they are unable for the sorts of reasons I have set out, we must ensure that they are being properly looked after and that the appropriate support is provided to them and their parents. They should not be prevented from getting the very best start in life simply because they are not in a physical school establishment; they deserve that just as anybody else does.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Hayes]

I am grateful for that intervention. On persistent absence, it is not enough to say that schools know who those children are; a more comprehensive strategy is needed, and that is what I will move on to talk about.

We will of course study carefully the wording of the Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Meon Valley when it is published, but it should not be the responsibility of Back Benchers to force the Government to act. There have been plenty of opportunities for Ministers to act. The only thing missing is the sense of urgency and ambition for our country’s children.

We must also be honest that the crisis of persistent absence requires much wider action. We need a comprehensive strategy to address the challenges to children attending school. The Opposition has set out our fully funded plans to break down the barriers. We will introduce free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil in England, providing every child with a nutritious meal at the start of the day. We know that breakfast clubs can improve children’s learning and development, boost their concentration and help to improve behaviour. They take the pressure off parents in the morning and give children a chance to play and socialise.

[Tim Loughton]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Helen Hayes]

I will not; the hon. Gentleman has had plenty of time this morning.

Good mental health and wellbeing are vital for school attendance. We will ensure that there is mental health support available in every school and that children and young people can visit an open-access mental health hub in every community, no matter where they live.

Absence rates are highest for children with special educational needs and disabilities and we recognise that that is often because the needs of children with SEND are not being properly met. Labour will work with parents and schools to make mainstream schools inclusive, and to make inclusivity part of the Ofsted inspection framework. We will ensure that teachers have the skills and training they need to support children with complex needs and we will introduce a new annual continuing professional development entitlement for teachers, to boost their expertise.

We will reform the school curriculum and, as part of our reforms to Ofsted, we will move away from the outdated and unhelpful one-word judgment. We will empower Ofsted to look at absence as part of the annual safeguarding spot checks.

Labour is committed to ensuring that every child receives a first-class education, but children need to be in school to access that education. We will break down the barriers to opportunity that are keeping so many children and young people out of education and, as the previous Labour Government did, we will put children first, prioritising their education and their wellbeing.