Term-time Leave

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe. I congratulate my right hon. Friend—[Interruption.] I was pre-empting the obvious result of what is happening today. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) on securing the debate. I agree with a vast amount of what he said, and I suspect that the only thing we will disagree on is my view that North Devon is clearly the best place to spend a holiday.

There is a serious issue prompting me to speak in the debate, and it concerns the importance of the tourism sector in my constituency. On some measures, one in six of all jobs in my constituency depend directly or indirectly on the tourism sector. It is a vital driver of the local economy, and many families work in it. It is out of the question for them to take their family vacation in the school holidays. It is their busiest time; they have to be at work. The introduction of the new guidance in 2013 meant that many of my constituents faced a double whammy—not only their business but their family life is suffering.

That is not just my point of view. I have received, as many colleagues have, a number of emails and letters from constituents who share those concerns. I shall quote a small sample, because they say better than I could what the unintended consequences of the 2013 guidance notes are. One constituent writes:

“I operate a small bed and breakfast business in Woolacombe”—

which is a great place to spend a holiday. He says:

“To date, this year is proving a disaster (with the exception of the school holidays); our family rooms are being left unoccupied …Something needs to be done! Please air the views of the thousands of small operators, in the forthcoming…debate.”

Another correspondent writes:

“We feel strongly the negative effect this legislation has had on our seasonal business in Mortehoe”—

another fantastic place in North Devon in which to spend a holiday. They say:

“Our season is shorter and therefore harder to earn enough for the winter months. Also as parents we are penalised in high costs of…holiday charging by travel companies”

during school holidays. Another constituent writes that

“as a seasonal business”,

the regulations have had

“a negative impact on us; overall we have not been as busy whilst at the same time our peak busy periods have been more frantic, due to many more…bookings, making it harder to staff, manage and run a seasonal business…This has meant a reduction in profits and a reduction in staffing.”

Put bluntly, the guidelines are harming employment in North Devon’s vital tourism sector.

I want to quote a few sentences from a final, longer email, from a gentleman who says that he is writing because he runs

“an outdoor pursuits company which relies on the tourism industry”

and because he is the

“father of a 7 year old, who would like to spend more quality time with her Dad.”

He says that the situation has had

“a major effect on myself, my colleagues and lots of my friends that work in the emergency services…we are really struggling to spend time with our children”,

and the guidance only makes things worse. That is a small sample of the emails and letters I have received, and I am sure that colleagues will have had much the same.

I am sure that, as others have said, the intent of the 2013 guidance was good. Of course we should encourage parents to ensure that their children attend school, but I question some of the assumptions that led to the issuing of the guidelines. To delve further, I have dug out the 2013 explanatory memorandum. Much is made of the guidance and advice received by a respected adviser, Charlie Taylor. He was then the Government adviser on school behaviour, and he issued guidance in 2012. The explanatory memorandum to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 and the Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 said:

“Charlie Taylor noted that if children are taken away for a two-week holiday every year and have an average number of days off for sickness and appointments, then by the time they leave school at sixteen”—

across their whole academic career—

“they will have missed a year of school.”

It is never the intention of any parent who takes their child away to do the same thing year after year for all 13 years of their child’s academic career. That advice is unfairly burdening parents with a view that they simply do not take. If the Government made their 2013 decision on the basis of it, I ask them to look at it again. I do not think any parent intends to take their child away for that length of time every year.

The word “flexibility” has been mentioned, and there has also been mention of interpretation. That is what it all comes down to. Schools and parents have been misguided in interpreting the arrangements to mean that there is no flexibility. Clearly, there is an intention of flexibility in the guidelines. I am sure the Minister will confirm that it was not intended that schools, teachers, headteachers and local education authorities should be told there was no flexibility at all. We need to get the message across to them and to governing bodies; I was a school governor myself. They need to understand that they have flexibility, which is built into the system but which they do not take advantage of at the moment.

[Steve Double]

Would my hon. Friend add Ofsted to that list? I believe that part of the problem is that at times Ofsted takes a much more legalistic view of the guidance than headteachers do.

--- Later in debate ---

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

My hon. Friend makes his point powerfully, and I am sure the Minister will have taken note.

I hope that one other result of airing the issue today will be that holiday companies will be shamed into not charging such vastly inflated prices during school holidays. I have done a little work and will cite just one example of what has been widely reported in the media. A package holiday to Spain for a family of two adults and two children cost £1,300 if it began on 14 July; but if the same holiday—with identical flights and accommodation— began just two weeks later, when the school holidays had begun, it was a shade under £2,000. That is a 60% mark-up. That would not be allowed in any other retail business, and up with that we should not put.

There is one other reason why I am very pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay secured the debate, and it has been mentioned before: in my view, the best people to decide what is best for children are not the Government, politicians or MPs. They are the parents. If the parents decide that it will do their child good to take them out of school for a few days to go on a family holiday, they should be given the right to do so without being penalised.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr David Hanson in the Chair]

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

Mr Hanson, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the remainder of the debate. That was a quick reshuffle.

Before the Division bell rang, I was talking about the belief that the best people to decide what is best for children are not politicians, Ministers or Members of Parliament, but parents. I fundamentally agree with that, but there must be a compact—a deal—between parents and teachers. Teachers also have an extraordinarily important part to play in this equation. Many headteachers get the point that I and many hon. Members on both sides of the debate have been making, which is that some flexibility is already built into the system, but for some reason, many people do not realise that they are able to make flexible decisions, or they just need the certainty of an assurance.

I was very pleased to welcome to Westminster, 10 days ago, a group of children from a primary school in my constituency. I had this discussion with the headteacher, and she absolutely got it; she said to me that she uses the flexibility that she has, which is built into the system, to allow children to have authorised absences from school for a few days at a time for a good, worthwhile and valuable family holiday. She is one headteacher who does that, and I would be very pleased to work with the Minister, in whatever way would be appropriate, to make sure that all headteachers of all schools understand the situation. Through no fault of their own, there is unfortunately a gulf in some headteachers’ understanding of what they are allowed to do at the moment.

I want to work to ensure that all teachers understand the true position, because teachers in North Devon, and indeed throughout our country, do absolutely fantastic work. I do not want to do anything to make their life any more difficult than it already is, and I understand the arguments about lesson planning and teaching having to be changed as a result of some children taking time off, so we need to work together on this one. However, let us ensure—I am sure that the Minister will address this point—that headteachers know that they have the flexibility.

It is absolutely right, of course, that the Government have a duty to encourage parents to ensure that their children have full academic attendance and a full school record, but it is a matter of how that is enforced. There must be some carrot and some stick, and my fear is that with the 2013 guidelines, the balance has shifted rather too much towards the stick approach, which I do not think is valuable or helpful.

I conclude by saying that I am sure the regulations were well intended. My fear is that there are unintended consequences that perhaps could not have been foreseen at the time—although we could argue that maybe they should have been—and they are having a serious impact on families in North Devon, whose only crime is to want to take a holiday when they can, at a reasonable price, because they believe it will be good for their children in the long run and because they want to have quality time with their children. It is a well intended piece of guidance, but I fear that in its interpretation, and in the lack of flexibility that is being applied to its interpretation in some quarters, it is having unintended consequences. I hope I can work on that with the Minister to try to put it right.