School Penalty Fines and Authorised Absence

Debate between Steve Double and Peter Heaton-Jones

Monday 11th July 2016 Westminster Hall

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

It is a perfectly reasonable question. I tried to answer it in advance by saying that there is always a concern about what Ofsted’s view will be when it considers absences on the school roll across the board. All headteachers are extremely concerned that if they authorise such an absence, it will count against them when their overall absence statistics are considered.

Let me be clear: I have no criticism whatever of the school or the headteacher for the decision that they made. They felt that they had no choice but to do so; that is the point. The issue of choice is fundamental. Parents and headteachers should, in exceptional circumstances, have the freedom and choice to allow absence. That is what they are currently being denied, and in my view that cannot be right.

I raise that case in particular not only because it is in my constituency but because it specifically did not involve giving the children a holiday; that was not the purpose of the absence request. Yet it is absolutely the case that in Devon, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay and many other constituencies, the tourism sector plays a vital role in the local economy, and it is being badly affected by the current situation. By some measures, one in six jobs in my constituency depend either directly or indirectly on the tourism sector. It is a vital driver of the local economy, and many families in my constituency work in it.

Not only does the current situation create the problem that many families are unable to take advantage of cheaper holidays during term time, but for the many hundreds—indeed, probably thousands—of families who work in the tourism sector in my constituency, there is no way that they can go away during the school holidays. That is the time when they run their family businesses, so they are impeded in their ability to take their children away. I am afraid that by not helping them do so, we are not helping the holiday business.

I have read the transcript of a previous discussion in the main Chamber between my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay and the Minister. The point was made that we need the Government to think carefully about changing the regulations, due to their effect on the tourism industry. I hope the Minister will not mind my quoting him. He said:

“I do not believe that we should be returning to the Dickensian world where the needs of industry and commerce take precedence over the education of children.”

No one is suggesting that. No one is suggesting that children should be allowed to be taken away from school to satisfy the wishes of a few small businesses. This is a bigger issue than that. In the same discussion, he also said:

“I doubt that the Cornish tourism industry will be best pleased by his”—

my hon. Friend’s—

“assertion that tourism in Cornwall is dependent on truanting children for its survival.”—[Official Report, 19 May 2016; Vol. 611, c. 139-40.]

The Cornish tourism industry is not, and I am delighted to say that the Devon tourism industry is not. In particular, the north Devon tourism industry is not; that is the best place to spend a holiday.

The point is that we are talking not about truanting children but about the right of parents and teachers to agree, in a few cases, that it is appropriate in the circumstances for children to be taken out of school for a family holiday if they might otherwise miss out on one. That is the point. Families and children are missing out on a family holiday through no fault of their own and face the risk of being dragged before the courts or fined substantial amounts of money. Headteachers feel that they are having taken away from them the right to make individual decisions in individual circumstances.

Perhaps another result of this debate will be that holiday companies, airlines and those that offer package holidays take a long hard look at themselves. They should not be charging such vastly inflated prices during school holidays. I shall cite one example, which I raised the last time we debated this subject. I think you were in the Chair for at least some of that sitting, Mr Hanson; forgive me for outlining this particular circumstance again, but it tells the story rather well. A package holiday to Spain for a family of two adults and two children beginning on 14 July would have cost £1,300. The same holiday, with identical flights and accommodation, beginning just two weeks later when the school holidays had begun, would have cost £2,000. That is a 60% mark-up. It would not be allowed in any other retail business, and we should not put up with it. It is not just the Government who I ask, respectfully, to think again about where we are; the holiday industry needs to take a long, hard look at itself as well.

[Steve Double]

Does my hon. Friend agree that part of the problem with holiday prices is that many tourist resorts, especially in places such as Cornwall, are forced to try to make enough money during the six or seven weeks of the school summer holidays to cover their overheads for the whole year? They have to put up their prices because numbers have dropped so much that they can no longer recover the revenue they used to make during the shoulder months of June and September. All their revenue is focused on such a small time period that they inevitably have to put up prices.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

Absolutely. Many businesses in such resorts find themselves in that position. That feeds back into the point I made earlier: because the season is now so focused, families who run tourism businesses in my constituency and that of my hon. Friend have no choice. There is no way they can possibly go on holiday during the school holidays, so they have to request to take their children out of school, otherwise they will not be able to enjoy a holiday.

It is absolutely right that the Government have a duty to ensure that children have full academic attendance and a full school record. I am not arguing with that, but there must be some carrot and some stick. 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.

Let me go off script for a moment. I am a bit of an old-fashioned Tory sort of boy, and I like less government. I like smaller government. I like government that does not just sit in Westminster bringing a clunking fist down rather hard on parents, families and working people who are just trying to do the right thing. I have an uneasy sense that the current regulation and policy are on the wrong side of that. I passionately believe that, as a Conservative Government, we should be helping hard-working people who occasionally have no choice but to take their children out of school. As in the case of my constituents, Mr and Mrs Short, they might do so not for a holiday but for a perfectly reasonable sporting endeavour. I am not sure how we have reached the point where, as a Government, we are saying, “We, centrally, know better than you.”

Term-time Leave

Debate between Steve Double and Peter Heaton-Jones

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.