No one knows how many children in England, says children’s commissioner

Rachel de Souza: ‘There are hundreds of children that have never interacted with the education system that we know nothing about.’ Photograph: Si Barber/The Guardian

The children’s commissioner for England has backed mandatory tracking of youngsters by local authorities, saying no one knows how many children there are in the country.

The recommendation came in a report initiated by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, which surveyed all 151 English local authorities and found many did not have figures for the number of children being home-schooled or attending independent schools in their region.