Background National Pupil Mobility study (Dobson et al, 2000) Identification, Referral and Tracking (IRT 2002) The case of Victoria Climbie (Laming, 2003) Authority X assumptions re transience/leisure industry so commissioned study on missing children.

International Migration Labour/career cycle Refugees Settlement Students Institutional Movement Exclusions Voluntary transfers Private/State school Special/Mainstream Internal Migration Labour/career cycle Life cycle Housing/ Environment Schooling Travellers Individual Movement Children in care Fragmentation of families PUPIL MOBILITY IN SCHOOLS

Relationship between mobility and missing Not all mobile children are missing Missing meant missing from surveillance (data bases, people who work with children, parents/carers) Child mobility presents problems for surveillance systems – but what sort of problem is child mobility?

Local Context- Authority X High rates of pupil mobility in certain schools (60%) Impact of pupil mobility on pupil populations, school targets and outcomes for children and young people Concern to manage transience defined locally as a problem of movement of foot- loose families/individuals, into and out of Authority X

MCR: Missing In Missing In Children were 1 administrative category but review found 3 groups 1/3 subject of a blanket letter; Children whose parents have found a school through their own resources and the LEA EMS has yet to be notified; Vulnerable children: those who have problems that mitigate against finding a school place.

MCR: Missing Out Movement of children form prompts registration on the Missing Out register. Produces 2 categories Children who are found Children who remain missing

MCR/OSR: A Third Group Children administratively present but who cant engage or be contacted a) Children who exclude themselves b) Children who have been excluded c) Children educated at home d) Appeals

Stories behind mobilities Reasons for mobility – categories or narratives How mobility can be forced or chosen (more frequently forced on children) Meaning of mobility for children Loss (friends, support, pets, possessions, familiarity) Adapting to change (how to cope with newness) Engagement or disengagement (becoming part of the new setting or opting out/creating another)

Phase 2: The sample 36 families Consisting of mothers, fathers (2), grand- parents (1), children and young people Children and young people difficult to access, particularly older teenagers and despite financial incentive- Many children and young people accessed via educational diversity projects-(history of missing)

Methods of data collection Semi-structured interviews- to elicit the perspective of participants In particular to explore the factors that participants connected to a child going missing from school Combination of life course and demographic data.

Demographic profile Lone parents 28/36 State benefits 26/36 Significantly poor housing conditions 33/36 History of domestic violence 25/36 Mental health problems 25/36 A child in the family has emotional/ behavioural problems/disability 33/36 23/36 families have moved into Authority X but less than 1/3 have a history of transience.

Life Course group 1 (14) Chronic and continuous disengagement- missing from school just one small part of a bigger picture of withdrawal Relate stories of negative events back to birth, childhood- (children and adults) Sense of having given up, powerlessness, whats the point?

Mother of 5 children: I moved to X it was alright, I got a job at a hairdressers at the time and started working there and this is when I took the overdose, but the guy came on to me I was working with.. So I shut myself away after that and literally became a recluse with the kids and the kids had trouble getting to school and that…….

Life course group 2 (18) Acute and compounding negative life events but negative events are interspersed with better times Hope Events are temporary; expectations of re-engaging Loss Trauma

Mother: Interviewer: had you been living in town Z quite a long time before you moved here? Mother: I actually had lived in Town Z for what, well you were born up there werent you (to a teenage daughter) Interviewer: what was it like in town Z? Mother: not bad actually, but then we ended up on a pretty rough estate, the last two places we lived Interviewer: did you move around a lot in town Z Mother: no not really, I lived where she was born until, when we first came back from town X and we had been living in that house for over 5 years, we went into buying it, but when me and my ex split up, I couldnt afford to keep it up,

Life course group 3 (4) normally engaged (Burchardt 2002) Problems centre at the locus of school home (e.g. dropping off at yr. 11) Parents experience the childs absence from school as a problem- i.e. interrupts their own engagement with work/social life Alternative plans for education are actively sought

International Migration Labour/career cycle Refugees Settlement Students Institutional Movement Exclusions Voluntary transfers Private/State school Special/Mainstream Internal Migration Labour/career cycle Life cycle Housing/ Environment Schooling Travellers Individual Movement Children in care Fragmentation of families PUPIL MOBILITY IN SCHOOLS

Conclusions Diversity and range of missing children Transience or geographical mobility is only one part of this picture/ families- present diverse mobilities/patterns of dis-engagement with social and physical environment Danger of framing mobility as a social problem through association with problem groups Mobility v engagement