Ministers have “no handle” on the identities or whereabouts of thousands of children who have fallen off the radar during the pandemic, Ofsted has warned.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman raised alarm about the “harm” the lockdowns had caused children, warning that the fact that so many had “disappeared from teachers’ line of sight” had resulted in significantly lower levels of referrals to social care and a higher risk of neglect.
Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, warned on Monday that 100,000 “ghost children” are at risk of abuse after failing to return to school following the closure of schools last year.
Launching Ofsted’s annual report on Tuesday, Ms Spielman called for a “proper register” of children who aren’t attending school to “parallel” the information that schools hold on their pupils, “so that we can understand who sits in which category”.
“There’s a whole range of reasons why people are in that category, and I don’t believe that we really know who those children are, where they’re being educated and who’s taking responsibility for it,” she added.
“What’s worrying is that we simply don’t have a handle. We don’t really know who’s in that list of children who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect.”
It comes as an investigation was launched into the failings that led to the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the six-year-old who was tortured and killed by his stepmother and father in June last year.
It emerged in court that Arthur was seen by social workers during the first national lockdown just two months before his death in Solihull, west Midlands, in June last year. But they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns” and closed the file.
These are the kids that have been failed by schools, failed by mental health services and failed by social services.
These are the kids that are baring the brunt of a decade of social, educational and welfare cuts and “reforms” that will ultimately lead to them disengaging from society at best and dying in horrific circumstances at worse.
Shame on those of you who voted for and support this. Granted it’s the government that’s responsible, but you put them there to make these decisions.
Plot twist: their records were invented by Tory-member-run MAT’s to score extra funding and tax wheezes.
This article is really badly written and confusing.
Are their 100k kids who never returned to school after they reopened? Or 100k who’ve missed some days but been in for others? Why not refer them all to social services if there is a welfare concern and they’re not showing up at all?
They will be investigating 10 areas. Is that 10 geographic areas like it sounds? Boroughs? Why only 10? And why don’t they know which ones?
Then the article wonders into mental health provision. Of which there is basically none. But that’s not schools or social workers, that’s funding.
The whole article is a mess of poorly defined claims and configuration of issues….
Presumably it’s all the families who claim they’ve moved and little X isn’t going to Y school any more, but no-one matches them up with other records to confirm X is now at Z school (fine) or fallen off the radar (not fine).
Plus all the children still registered but too anxious or distressed by school to attend or parents are too sick or depressed or can’t afford to get them there. The school may talk to them by phone but there’s no staff to do more. Where are all these new social workers going to come from?
When this new Covid-ravaged reality meets an old system that’s already struggling and inadequate, the outcome is only ever going to be awful.
And now we know how bad the outcome can be.
At the end of a week where we have learned – in disturbing, distressing detail – quite how vulnerable children can be in their own home, it is more clear than ever that we’re not doing enough to protect or support them. The extended family of little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes tried so hard to rescue him, pleading for help from the authorities, yet he was left at the mercy of his putrid father and stepmother.
The pandemic meant it was all too easy for his tormentors to keep him away from the intrusive eyes of teachers, his classmates or other nosy parents. Then the system that was meant to protect him failed disastrously because police and social workers didn’t recognise the signs of abuse, didn’t communicate with one another and didn’t spend time investigating the beasts who were supposed to care for him.
A six-year-old in the most appalling circumstances told them exactly what vile Emma Tustin coached him to say: that he was bruised through play with other children. And his word was good enough. Police officers found the house “immaculate”, as if that meant that no horror could ever happen there.
It only took 18 months to turn Arthur from a smiling, happy child to an emaciated, terrified victim. How long do we await the PM’s “review”
Are we meant to accept some children will always “fall through the net”? Shouldn’t we throw away the damn net and replace it with something utterly impermeable?
No holes, no gaps, nothing that would allow a child to drop into a cesspit of abuse or neglect. MP Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Committee, reports that there are 100,000 “ghost children” who haven’t returned to school following lockdowns and are considered at risk of abuse.
Imagine Wembley Stadium filled to capacity, with thousands still standing on the streets outside. That’s the number of kids we’re talking about.
The vast majority will survive whatever they are going through when they should be in the safety of school. But for those suffering behind closed doors, the psychological impact of everything they endure is immeasurable.
And when innocent, damaged children grow into difficult, damaged adults, no one is quite so sympathetic.
Psychiatrists say that the majority of adult mental health problems begin in childhood; around half are established by the age of 14 and three quarters by the age of 24. Yet the latest Scottish figures for CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – show just 0.61 per cent of NHS spend goes on the service, which amounts to a measly 7.16 per cent of the total mental health budget.
Nearly 2000 kids have been waiting more than a year for help. One in four referrals are turned away. One teenager I know was denied an urgent face-to-face appointment with CAMHS because he “wasn’t suicidal”.
Now clearly all adult mental health problems are not the result of abuse suffered as a child.
But we are drastically short of support and protection services which are properly funded and ready to step in and help kids – regardless of the background to the referral. That’s before we even factor in the isolating, stressful, troubling effects of the pandemic on young minds.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) last week called for greatly increased investment, expressing grave concern about “a potential lost generation of vulnerable children and young people, whose mental health is being impacted even further by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The welfare of vulnerable children has been undervalued for too long.
Fundamental change is required at every single public agency. Enough talking about mental health issues without putting the money and the training and the focus where it matters.
Replace the whole damn “net” with a robust new system, unyielding layers of protection woven so closely together that no kids fall through
Heartfelt Christmas wishes have been offered by Republican congressman Thomas Massie and his rootin’-tootin’ brood.
Nothing says peace and goodwill to all men than a family brandishing semi-automatic rifles around the tree.
This is not a spoof. The man really is an elected representative who thinks guns are for life, not just for Christmas.
Massie’s tweet was posted four days after a teenage shooter killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan.
When the snowman brings the snow, could he please dump the lot on Thomas Massie and his despicable bunch?
I’m a sucker for the old “turning on the waterworks” trick.
Crying demands compassion. Cuddles too, if Covid restrictions allow.
But I didn’t feel it for Allegra Stratton, Bojo’s former press secretary, who bubbled through a public resignation statement while those meanie photographers took pictures.
It’s hard to feel empathy when you’re blinded by fury
There have been many tears cried over this pandemic and there will be many more before it’s over.
But Stratton’s tears were for herself, upset to be thrown under a bus while the PM tried to save his own skin. Cry us a river.
Downing Street partied while the rest of us followed the rules. They laughed at our sacrifice; joked they couldn’t think of an acceptable answer should anyone ask what had gone on. Surely even Tories can tolerate this affront no longer? https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cant-another-child-fall-cesspit-25675080
* Mr Zahawi’s comments may cause alarm to some parents after last academic year’s debacle when schools closed a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had no doubt they were safe.
At least three schools have seen Omicron outbreaks.
Phoenix Collegiate School in West Bromwich sent kids home after a person linked to the secondary tested positive while Calverton Primary in Newham, east London, will be shut for the rest of term due to a number of confirmed cases. Public health chiefs have urged all parents of kids at Manor Community Primary in Swanscombe, Kent, to get them tested before returning to classes.
The Mirror reports that all year five students have been advised to stay home and get tested while a year four class has also been encouraged to get tested in case the new variant has spread. Mr Zahawi also failed to rule out extending the vaccine rollout to primary school children after reports health officials are preparing to offer jabs to younger children.
He said: “There is no plan at the moment to vaccinate primary school children for the reason that the Joint Committee on Vaccination [and Immunisation, JCVI] is still looking at the evidence as to what level of protection it would offer.”
According to the Sunday Times, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is expected to announce that jabs are safe for children while the JCVI is examining whether to recommend vaccines for kids.
Mr Zahawi said he fears cases would explode to the point where millions could be affected within weeks. Speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips, he said: “What we know, hence the concern, is that a third of infections in London are Omicron.
6 comments
Ministers have “no handle” on the identities or whereabouts of thousands of children who have fallen off the radar during the pandemic, Ofsted has warned.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman raised alarm about the “harm” the lockdowns had caused children, warning that the fact that so many had “disappeared from teachers’ line of sight” had resulted in significantly lower levels of referrals to social care and a higher risk of neglect.
Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, warned on Monday that 100,000 “ghost children” are at risk of abuse after failing to return to school following the closure of schools last year.
Launching Ofsted’s annual report on Tuesday, Ms Spielman called for a “proper register” of children who aren’t attending school to “parallel” the information that schools hold on their pupils, “so that we can understand who sits in which category”.
“There’s a whole range of reasons why people are in that category, and I don’t believe that we really know who those children are, where they’re being educated and who’s taking responsibility for it,” she added.
“What’s worrying is that we simply don’t have a handle. We don’t really know who’s in that list of children who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect.”
It comes as an investigation was launched into the failings that led to the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the six-year-old who was tortured and killed by his stepmother and father in June last year.
It emerged in court that Arthur was seen by social workers during the first national lockdown just two months before his death in Solihull, west Midlands, in June last year. But they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns” and closed the file.
The Ofsted report warns that nearly all children in England have fallen behind in their education and suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and emphasises the importance of school attendance both for educational and welfare purposes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ofsted-children-missing-pandemic-lockdown-schools-uk-b1971259.html
These are the kids that have been failed by schools, failed by mental health services and failed by social services.
These are the kids that are baring the brunt of a decade of social, educational and welfare cuts and “reforms” that will ultimately lead to them disengaging from society at best and dying in horrific circumstances at worse.
Shame on those of you who voted for and support this. Granted it’s the government that’s responsible, but you put them there to make these decisions.
Plot twist: their records were invented by Tory-member-run MAT’s to score extra funding and tax wheezes.
This article is really badly written and confusing.
Are their 100k kids who never returned to school after they reopened? Or 100k who’ve missed some days but been in for others? Why not refer them all to social services if there is a welfare concern and they’re not showing up at all?
They will be investigating 10 areas. Is that 10 geographic areas like it sounds? Boroughs? Why only 10? And why don’t they know which ones?
Then the article wonders into mental health provision. Of which there is basically none. But that’s not schools or social workers, that’s funding.
The whole article is a mess of poorly defined claims and configuration of issues….
Presumably it’s all the families who claim they’ve moved and little X isn’t going to Y school any more, but no-one matches them up with other records to confirm X is now at Z school (fine) or fallen off the radar (not fine).
Plus all the children still registered but too anxious or distressed by school to attend or parents are too sick or depressed or can’t afford to get them there. The school may talk to them by phone but there’s no staff to do more. Where are all these new social workers going to come from?
When this new Covid-ravaged reality meets an old system that’s already struggling and inadequate, the outcome is only ever going to be awful.
And now we know how bad the outcome can be.
At the end of a week where we have learned – in disturbing, distressing detail – quite how vulnerable children can be in their own home, it is more clear than ever that we’re not doing enough to protect or support them. The extended family of little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes tried so hard to rescue him, pleading for help from the authorities, yet he was left at the mercy of his putrid father and stepmother.
The pandemic meant it was all too easy for his tormentors to keep him away from the intrusive eyes of teachers, his classmates or other nosy parents. Then the system that was meant to protect him failed disastrously because police and social workers didn’t recognise the signs of abuse, didn’t communicate with one another and didn’t spend time investigating the beasts who were supposed to care for him.
A six-year-old in the most appalling circumstances told them exactly what vile Emma Tustin coached him to say: that he was bruised through play with other children. And his word was good enough. Police officers found the house “immaculate”, as if that meant that no horror could ever happen there.
It only took 18 months to turn Arthur from a smiling, happy child to an emaciated, terrified victim. How long do we await the PM’s “review”
Are we meant to accept some children will always “fall through the net”? Shouldn’t we throw away the damn net and replace it with something utterly impermeable?
No holes, no gaps, nothing that would allow a child to drop into a cesspit of abuse or neglect. MP Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Committee, reports that there are 100,000 “ghost children” who haven’t returned to school following lockdowns and are considered at risk of abuse.
Imagine Wembley Stadium filled to capacity, with thousands still standing on the streets outside. That’s the number of kids we’re talking about.
The vast majority will survive whatever they are going through when they should be in the safety of school. But for those suffering behind closed doors, the psychological impact of everything they endure is immeasurable.
And when innocent, damaged children grow into difficult, damaged adults, no one is quite so sympathetic.
Psychiatrists say that the majority of adult mental health problems begin in childhood; around half are established by the age of 14 and three quarters by the age of 24. Yet the latest Scottish figures for CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – show just 0.61 per cent of NHS spend goes on the service, which amounts to a measly 7.16 per cent of the total mental health budget.
Nearly 2000 kids have been waiting more than a year for help. One in four referrals are turned away. One teenager I know was denied an urgent face-to-face appointment with CAMHS because he “wasn’t suicidal”.
Now clearly all adult mental health problems are not the result of abuse suffered as a child.
But we are drastically short of support and protection services which are properly funded and ready to step in and help kids – regardless of the background to the referral. That’s before we even factor in the isolating, stressful, troubling effects of the pandemic on young minds.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC) last week called for greatly increased investment, expressing grave concern about “a potential lost generation of vulnerable children and young people, whose mental health is being impacted even further by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The welfare of vulnerable children has been undervalued for too long.
Fundamental change is required at every single public agency. Enough talking about mental health issues without putting the money and the training and the focus where it matters.
Replace the whole damn “net” with a robust new system, unyielding layers of protection woven so closely together that no kids fall through
Heartfelt Christmas wishes have been offered by Republican congressman Thomas Massie and his rootin’-tootin’ brood.
Nothing says peace and goodwill to all men than a family brandishing semi-automatic rifles around the tree.
This is not a spoof. The man really is an elected representative who thinks guns are for life, not just for Christmas.
Massie’s tweet was posted four days after a teenage shooter killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan.
When the snowman brings the snow, could he please dump the lot on Thomas Massie and his despicable bunch?
I’m a sucker for the old “turning on the waterworks” trick.
Crying demands compassion. Cuddles too, if Covid restrictions allow.
But I didn’t feel it for Allegra Stratton, Bojo’s former press secretary, who bubbled through a public resignation statement while those meanie photographers took pictures.
It’s hard to feel empathy when you’re blinded by fury
There have been many tears cried over this pandemic and there will be many more before it’s over.
But Stratton’s tears were for herself, upset to be thrown under a bus while the PM tried to save his own skin. Cry us a river.
Downing Street partied while the rest of us followed the rules. They laughed at our sacrifice; joked they couldn’t think of an acceptable answer should anyone ask what had gone on. Surely even Tories can tolerate this affront no longer?
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cant-another-child-fall-cesspit-25675080
* Mr Zahawi’s comments may cause alarm to some parents after last academic year’s debacle when schools closed a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had no doubt they were safe.
At least three schools have seen Omicron outbreaks.
Phoenix Collegiate School in West Bromwich sent kids home after a person linked to the secondary tested positive while Calverton Primary in Newham, east London, will be shut for the rest of term due to a number of confirmed cases. Public health chiefs have urged all parents of kids at Manor Community Primary in Swanscombe, Kent, to get them tested before returning to classes.
The Mirror reports that all year five students have been advised to stay home and get tested while a year four class has also been encouraged to get tested in case the new variant has spread. Mr Zahawi also failed to rule out extending the vaccine rollout to primary school children after reports health officials are preparing to offer jabs to younger children.
He said: “There is no plan at the moment to vaccinate primary school children for the reason that the Joint Committee on Vaccination [and Immunisation, JCVI] is still looking at the evidence as to what level of protection it would offer.”
According to the Sunday Times, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is expected to announce that jabs are safe for children while the JCVI is examining whether to recommend vaccines for kids.
Mr Zahawi said he fears cases would explode to the point where millions could be affected within weeks. Speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips, he said: “What we know, hence the concern, is that a third of infections in London are Omicron.
“Reported tests are indicating about 1,600 cases, but the number of infections in the community will be multiple that – up to 10 times.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1535137/UK-school-closures-news-lockdown-covid19-omicron