A Tory frontbencher is urging the government to “focus” on pupil absence after a report found as many as 300,000 children were missing from education in England last year.

Figures from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) – which compare GP registrations with school enrolment data – mark a 40% increase in unaccounted absences since 2017.

More than 50,000 students were also found to have left the state education system by Year 11, with no clear records explaining their exits.

Reacting to this, shadow education secretary Laura Trott has urged the government to shift its focus to pupil absence.

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She told Sky News: “Pupil absence is the most important thing for the Department for Education (DfE) to focus on at the moment – not cancelling new schools, diluting the academic curriculum and spending acres of civil service time on a VAT rise that will add pressure to state schools.

“We must get children back to the classroom.”

The DfE pointed to plans to “introduce children not in school registers”.

These will be introduced alongside “new protections for children being home educated when they are subject to a children’s social care investigation, and a single child identifier so children can get the right support from education, health and care services”.

A source also questioned the 300,000 estimate given by the EPI, claiming it is “not adjusted for the known limitations in data quality”.

They said there is a known discrepancy between the “estimated size of the England population and the number of people registered at GP practices”.

Data published by the DfE suggests that 117,000 children were missing education at any time in the 2023 to 2024 academic year. This ran from September 2023 to July 2024.

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A DfE spokesperson said: “Our mission is to break down the barriers to opportunity that are holding young people back, making sure they have the support and education they deserve, and to tackle the pattern of children falling through the cracks.”

Associate director at EPI Whitney Crenna-Jennings said: “Many thousands of children are missing or go missing from education in England – this is a critical issue that demands our attention.”

The data shows that dropouts peak in Year 10, just before students take their GCSEs, making up about a fifth of all exits.

The report also states that vulnerable groups, particularly teenagers, are disproportionately affected.

The EPI says schools should document reasons for de-registering students to improve oversight and prevent illegal exclusions.

It also recommends that there is a mandatory register by integrating data from education, health and other administrative data sources.