The number of children that are out-of-school in Lancashire, a county in England, has doubled within the last 10 years, according to a report released to the education council in the area.

In the report, the number of kids in the county classed as “children missing compulsory education (CME)” witnessed “sustained growth,” with the figure increasing from 1,856 in 2017 to 3,805 in 2026.

This figure did not include children whose parents had chosen to home school them, which the report found to have jumped by 300 per cent, amounting to 3,600 now getting their education at home within the same period.

“Across the country, local authorities were seeing a rapid rise in home education requests from families,” the council said. “The pressures of Covid, mental health waiting lists, parents working from home, greater access to home learning resources, and access to SEND places have all had an impact nationally.”

Despite an increase across the country, the report showed that the number of children “electively home schooled (EHE)” in Lancashire was above the national average.

The area with the highest population of children who are missing out on full-time education was in Preston with 179 kids registered as CME. It was followed by Hyndburn (101) and Burnley (99) and Pendle (86), the report noted. 

“This is often due to the complexity of need of the child, the support parents might require accessing education or a lack of provision in those areas. Sometimes parents do not wish for their child to attend a school that might be some distance from their home,” the report added.