Unsettling Scottish child neglect case shows grim reality behind falling attendance rates

When the UK locked down in March 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the full impact of the decision could not have been known.

Indeed, the ramifications from the coronavirus crisis are still emerging, and are likely to for many years to come.

But even in those uncertain times of 2020, there was an unsettling acceptance that some of the most vulnerable in society were likely to suffer unimaginably as a result of the lockdowns, including children at risk of neglect or abuse, who were being forced behind closed doors for several months.

One of those we now know about was a youngster in South Ayrshire, known as “Child B” to protect their identity. There were many others.

This pupil appears to be one of a generation of “ghost children” who fell off the radar during the pandemic, with important information relating to a history of vulnerability seemingly lost as normal processes were disrupted due to social distancing and high absence rates.

Education staff, social workers and police were all involved in the protection of the youngster, but a review found “missed opportunities” to intervene and properly check on the child’s welfare.

Despite their school attendance plummeting from 97 per cent to 13 per cent in a few years, insufficient action was taken to ascertain the reasons.

In the end, Child B was found, by chance, to be living in conditions that were so bad, they could not even be seen in the home, despite being present, because of the piles of rubbish and clutter.

The neglect appears to have been suffered for an extended period, despite social workers having previously found the youngster to be living in “unsafe and unhygienic” conditions, some five years earlier.

The alarming case shows the grim reality behind statistics showing a fall in school attendance rates in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact on cohorts who were at important transition stages when the nation went into lockdown.

It should offer a reminder to all agencies involved in child protection to be alive to the risks associated with high school absences, and the need to maintain contact with vulnerable children and their families, even in an era of never-ending budget cuts.