Introduction

Since the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children in England haven't returned to school.

They’re known as “ghost children,” and in the first term of this year, more than 125,000 children were out of school more than in school, a figure that’s doubled since the pandemic.

On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by Nick Martin, Sky’s People and Politics Correspondent who has been investigating what is stopping students from returning to class, and Conservative MP Flick Drummond to discuss how to stop children from falling through the cracks.

Producers: Sydney Pead and Soila Apparicio
Editor: Paul Stanworth