Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the rate of absenteeism in primary schools in Knowsley constituency.

This government is determined to tackle the generational challenge of school absence, which is a fundamental barrier to learning and life chances. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. There is evidence that more students are attending school this year compared to last, thanks to the sector’s efforts, although around 1.6 million children remain persistently absent and miss 10% or more of lessons. In Knowsley, 27% of all pupils were persistently absent in the 2022/2023 academic year. At primary level, the rate of persistent absence is 21.6%, which is an improvement from 21.8% last year. At secondary level the rate of persistent absence is 36.3%, which represents an improvement from 40.9% last year.

The department has set out clear expectations of local authorities and schools in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which was made statutory on 19 August 2024. This guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf.

The guidance promotes a 'support first' approach and sets out clear expectations on how schools, trusts, local authorities and wider services should work together and with families to address attendance barriers and provide the right support, including where a pupil is not attending due to special educational needs.

It is now mandatory for every state school in England to share their daily attendance data with the department. Schools, local authorities and trusts can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard which is maintained by the department, providing a seamless flow of data and allowing schools to target attendance interventions more effectively. Over 99% of state schools in England are sharing their daily data with the department.

The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities within the sector to share existing best practice on how to improve attendance. This is why we set up a network of 31 attendance hubs, which are supporting 13 schools in Knowsley. These hubs have offered support to 2000 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools in total, and shared their strategies and resources for improving attendance.

In addition to this work, the department also aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. Knowsley is one of the areas where mentors have been providing support. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.

We are also strengthening our tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching the new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams. Supported by over £20 million, these teams will offer both mandatory targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools. The RISE teams are now beginning work with the first group of schools eligible for the targeted, bespoke service, with additional schools to begin in April.

School attendance is also supported by broader investments, such as funded breakfast clubs across all primary schools, to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department is working across government on plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. The department is also committed to introducing new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance and off-rolling.

Schools can also allocate pupil premium funding, which has now increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs to attend school regularly.