Child safety concerns are being raised because no record is being kept on tens of thousands of home-educated pupils following ministers’ failure to deliver the national register they promised.
The Department for Education (DfE) had told i it would introduce the long-delayed register of children outside school “in the new year,” but this week said it had “no update”.
Ofsted, England’s Children’s Commissioner and local authorities have all called for the register to be introduced. Former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield has accused ministers of a “dereliction of duty” over its delay, warning they would not know if thousands of children were safe.
The news came as i found evidence that some children could be being exposed to damaging misinformation at home after being taken out of mainstream school during the pandemic.
