By Alasdair Macdonald
The reason why there are so many children in England out of school is because local authorities now have very little to do with the management of schools. Academy trusts now run a high proportion of schools and many of such trusts have a rather cavalier attitude towards exclusion from school, particularly of children from materially poor backgrounds and those with social and behavioural difficulties.
In Scotland, where schools are still run by Councils (c96%), the names of pupils excluded from school or missing from school are reported to Social Work via Councils and alternative provision can be made – in most cases by transfer to another school – and, via CoSLA, children missing from school can usually be traced to other authorities. So, almost all children can be accounted for.
One of the consequences of the slack approach in England is the recruitment of some excludees by drugs gangs to act as couriers and some of these are members of Country Lines gangs, ferrying drugs to Scotland. Much of the stabbings in England are carried out by such youngsters and this violence is deployed in smaller towns and villages in Scotland by County Lines gangs.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Out of school is not same as home educated.
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‘Academy trusts’, sounds like the US style of Charter schools, which are not really schools, they are simply population control institutions, the poor children there are not important, profits are.
Crikey England sounds like it’s really in deep trouble and it will result in serious societal breakdown, if not already happening. Still, all perfect for the grifters at councils and in their government etc.
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In general the public in the rest of the UK appear to be less concerned about education than in Scotland and free education is a cornerstone of society in Scotland.
Maybe as the father of three graduates I am biased, although now in my mid eighties and still paying a few pounds a year in income tax towards free education for others, I just don’t understand how people in England/Wales/Northern Ireland accept that it is better to burden future generations with near working lifetime mortgages to buy their education than have everyone pay a few pounds a year instead.
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