Children could be left without welfare checks due to homeschooling, the government has been warned, as new figures show a surge in the numbers being educated at home.
England’s children’s commissioner and education unions have raised concerns over the safeguarding of home-educated pupils and warned some could drop off the radar of authorities without increased protections.
Numbers of home-educated students have jumped by 40 per cent since 2018, Freedom of Information requests reveal. In the 171 local authorities that provided data, there were 81,250 children learning at home in 2022 compared to 57,531 four years ago, before the pandemic.
But the true numbers could be higher as there is currently no official register that tracks exactly how many pupils are being educated outside of school and it is not compulsory for parents to inform local authorities.
