Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce absenteeism in secondary schools.

Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission is to break down barriers to opportunity. If children aren’t in school, it doesn’t matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Thanks to the hard work of parents and teachers, there has been progress, but levels of absenteeism remain higher than they were prior to the pandemic.

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.

The department has also established 31 attendance hubs that have offered their support to around 2000 other schools, including secondaries. Hubs are established and led by senior leaders in schools with strong attendance practice. The meetings led by hubs are intended to give senior leaders in other schools a forum to discuss and share effective attendance practice.

Last year, the department published an attendance toolkit, bringing together effective practice from across the hubs. The toolkit gives schools practical advice on how to diagnose and target their attendance problem and how to effectively implement great practice.

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, including support for attendance as necessary. Improving school attendance is a national priority for RISE teams.

This term, alongside hub lead schools and RISE advisers, the department is also delivering a programme of regional attendance conferences across England, giving secondary school leaders and senior attendance champions the chance to hear directly from hubs and other practitioners on improving attendance.

Every state school in England is now required to share their attendance data with the department. Schools can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.

We are also improving support for children, 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 recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand the work of secondary focused attendance mentors into ten new areas over the next three years. This expansion will see at least 10,800 secondary school pupils in Blackpool, Hartlepool, Hastings, West Somerset, Norwich, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Nottingham, Rochdale and Walsall supported to improve their attendance.

This pilot will also be externally evaluated to improve the existing evidence base on effective one-to-one attendance interventions. The information from this pilot will be published to help inform secondary school practice nationally.