Over the next few days, millions of children in England will be returning to school after the summer holidays. But we also know that thousands of children will be missing from school, some of them for weeks and months on end. Nearly 100,000 children in England were severely absent during the autumn term last year, and of those missing, many are the most vulnerable children. And as the energy bill crisis hits schools this autumn, the funds needed to provide the support these young people need to return to school are likely to become harder to find.
Since our launch last year, the Commission on Young Lives has been highlighting some of the ways in which vulnerable children can fall through gaps in the care, education, and health systems, and become victims of criminal and/or sexual exploitation, serious violence, and involved in the criminal justice system. Life chances are being diminished, and in the worst cases, lives are being lost.
