The first two stages of the study involved desk top research to review policies and practices in tracking missing children within the authority and interviews with children and their carers. The findings from Phases 1& 2 of the project have highlighted both the vulnerability and levels of exclusion evident in the lives of the majority of children included in the research sample (see interim report). The key research question for phase 3 of this project was therefore h ow to develop a model of the extended school that engages children missing wholly or partially from education?

Focusing on children's and parents perspectives, this research project had the following aims:

To understand the reasons why children go/are missing from the education system in Blackpool;

Establish good practice in identifying and working with 'missing' children with a view to later dissemination;

Inform the development of preventative services to avoid children going missing;

Understand obstacles preventing more work being done both to find and to work with such children.

The first two stages of the study involved desk top research to review policies and practices in tracking missing children within the authority and interviews with children and their carers. The findings from Phases 1 & 2 of the project have highlighted both the vulnerability and levels of exclusion evident in the lives of the majority of children included in the research sample (see interim report). The key research question for phase 3 of this project was therefore h ow to develop a model of the extended school that engages children missing wholly or partially from education?

Publications/Outputs:

Interim Report Phase 1 &; 2: Who are the 'missing children'? The interim report summarises a data review conducted in the LEA during November and December, 2002 during phases 1 & 2, reporting on the tracking system set up by the authority and the findings from interviews with children and their carers.

Broadhurst, K, Paton, H.. and May-Chahal, C., 2005, Children missing from school systems: exploring divergent patterns of disengagement in the narrative accounts of parents, carers, children and young people, British Journal of Sociology of Education , Vol. 26, 1, pp 105-119

Final Report including the findings from phase 3. A is available.