We sympathise with parents who, for a variety of reasons, face barriers to securing their children’s school attendance. This government is taking a new approach to tackling absence based on responsibility, partnership and belonging. This involves working with schools and local authorities to tackle barriers to school attendance and ensuring schools are able to deliver an excellent education, meeting children’s needs and creating a welcoming, engaging and inclusive environment for children. The government takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that schools are equipped to meet children’s needs and help them succeed, but that is matched by parents’ legal responsibility to send their children to school every day that they can.

Absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and young people, and has soared post-pandemic. It is one of the greatest barriers to opportunity and supporting children to achieve. The most recent DfE data shows that any increase in absence is associated with dramatic reductions in attainment – children who attend school every day are twice as likely to achieve good GCSEs compared to those who miss two weeks of school a year. It is not just those who are absent who are impacted. A steady churn of absences disrupts the learning of every child disrupting teachers’ ability to plan and sequence learning. It also has a significant detrimental impact on the hard work of school staff to cultivate a sense of community and belonging.

We know that some pupils face more complex barriers to attendance, including some pupils who have long term physical or mental health conditions or who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Separately, we know that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds face a wide range of barriers to engagement with education, including insecure housing, uniform costs, travel costs and food. However, all of these children have the same need and right to a full-time education as any other pupil.

This is why this Government is determined to break down the barriers to opportunity, by ensuring school is the best place to be for every child. We will deliver free breakfast clubs in primary schools so that every child is on time and ready to learn, better mental health support through access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. This government is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to children and young people with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. We have already announced over £1 billion of additional high needs funding for this year to help meet the needs of children with SEND and £740 million to create additional specialist places, including in mainstream schools.

All of this sits alongside our statutory ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which recognises that the reasons for absence are varied and dependent on individual circumstances. It sets out that schools, trusts and local authorities should always work together with other local partners to understand and remove the barriers to attendance, including by having sensitive conversations with the pupil and their family. The guidance also reminds schools to consider their obligations under equality law when developing their attendance policies, and has an updated section on additional support for pupils with physical or mental ill health or SEND, including making formal reasonable adjustments where the pupil has a disability.

However, where necessary, it is right that the law protects the child’s right to a full-time education. It is up to local authorities and schools to decide on the best course of action based on the circumstances of the individual case and what is most likely to improve attendance. It is important to emphasise that legal intervention cannot be used for absence that is recorded as authorised by the school (e.g. for illness or where a leave of absence has been granted). In addition, our new National Framework embeds our wider approach by including an expectation, for cases other than holiday, that support will have already been provided before a penalty notice is issued. Schools and local authorities are also expected to consider any obligations under the Equality Act 2010 when deciding whether to issue a penalty notice.

On holidays in particular, we understand that some parents wish to avoid peak periods. However, the school year is structured in such a way as to provide plenty of time throughout the year for holidays outside of term-time, and schools also have considerable flexibility to plan term dates themselves, and hold inset days and other occasional days at less busy times of the year.

Department for Education