Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson recently announced plans to create a register for all home-educated children. She also expressed the need for a more coordinated system to monitor children’s attendance at nurseries and schools, along with their interaction with health visitors. Ms. Phillipson made these statements during her speech at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
She mentioned that whilst lockdowns had a negative impact on children, she believes the government’s decision to close schools was necessary given the uncertain nature of the disease and its potential consequences for child health. She pointed out gaps that had been created when schools shut down, further straining already fragile social bonds stemming from previous neglect.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) reported that nearly a third of parents don’t consider it crucial for their children to attend school every day. Despite these findings, Ms. Phillipson does not blame lockdowns for the increased rates of persistent absenteeism in children. She instead appointed the breakdown of social bonds as a root cause of this issue.
The latest data revealed that absence rates have doubled since the lockdowns, which has affected children’s regular school attendance and social interaction with their peers. To address this, Ms. Phillipson pledged that if Labour forms the next government, they will employ AI to identify patterns of absence and reform school inspections to enhance attendance and mental health services.
In your discussion of making even ground with school-attending children, she mentioned a new initiative to register all home-educated children. These home educators expressed concerns about being stigmatized and wrongly linked with absentee children. Education Otherwise, a charity run by Wendy Charles-Warner, addressed these misconceptions and emphasized the legality and equal status of home education.
However, Wendy Charles-Warner criticized the Labour policy of conflation and its potential impact on home-educating parents. She noted that many parents opt for home education because they believe it offers a better learning experience compared to traditional schooling, especially for children with special needs. An increase in the number of homeschooling children was witnessed following the lockdowns, rising from 55,100 to 86,200 recorded in 2023.
The government has also implemented efforts to collect school attendance data from registers in order to address the issue of persistent absenteeism. They have pledged to respect the privacy of children through data protection rules. Along with these measures, the Department for Education announced the creation of 18 “attendance hubs” and a national communications campaign to stress the importance of school attendance.