Almost 250 children have been reported missing from Bradford Council schools since September alone.

According to information obtained through a Freedom of Information Request, Education Bradford has received 240 referrals from schools regarding pupils whose whereabouts are unknown.

Referrals are made only after steps have been taken to establish the child’s whereabouts including, where possible, visiting a last-known address and attempting to contact the family using all known contact numbers.

The children disappeared steadily throughout the term, with 90 reported missing in September, 86 in October and 58 in November. Six referrals were made between December 1 and 15.

The large minority – almost a third – were white British, 15 per cent were from other white backgrounds, ten per cent were Pakistani and nine per cent were of Roma ethnicity.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council’s education spokesman, said the children would have disappeared for a variety of reasons.

He said: “Some people are very thoughtless in just upping sticks and moving and not following things through. It leads to a waste of resources and anxiety in the minds of teachers. We have also got issues with family break down and divorce. A significant number of these cases will involve domestic violence.

“People will have to move suddenly and it will mean information cannot be shared because of risk to the victims. Proposals for cuts to housing benefits could see this figure rise massively if people can’t afford to stay in their homes.

“These figures are down to a whole variety of difficult and challenging family situations. Wherever there’s any existing concerns regarding a child that will result in a strategy being developed.”

Councillor Riaz Ahmed, deputy leader of the Council’s Liberal Democrat group, said: “If that is the case we have got to have checks and balances in place to find out where these children are.

“If children are moving around the country, obviously the new authority should have some sort of communication where they can let the previous authority know where they are.”

Councillor Malcolm Sykes, the Council’s Conservative group spokesman for children’s services, said: “I’m stunned and amazed that we don’t know where children are.”

Each missing child case is referred to the police to see if anything is known about the family’s whereabouts.