Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for poorer pupils having missed more school days in autumn 2020 compared with their better off counterparts; and what plans his Department has to tackle that discrepancy.

Regular attendance is vital for children’s education, mental health and long-term development.

The national statistics release on pupil absence in schools in England during the autumn term includes information on absence by free school meals (FSM) and is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england-autumn-term. For pupils eligible for FSM, the overall absence rate was 7.8% and for pupils not eligible, the overall absence rate was 3.8%.

From the autumn term 2020 data, for pupils eligible for FSM, the three biggest reasons by percentage of sessions missed were illness (43.4%), unauthorised absence for no specified reason (34.9%) and authorised absence for no specified reason (10.4%).

Ensuring that the most disadvantaged children and young people regularly attend school to be able to catch-up on any lost education is a top priority for the department. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has established an alliance of national leaders from education, children’s, and allied services to work together to raise school attendance. The Attendance Action Alliance, which includes amongst others Dame Rachel De Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, Isabelle Trowler, the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families and Amanda Spielman, Ofsted Chief Inspector, have pledged to take a range of actions to remove barriers preventing children attending school. This also includes work by Rob Tarn, CEO of the Northern Education Trust, a multi academy trust serving areas with high levels of disadvantage, who will work with other trust leaders to identify and disseminate best practice across schools. A webinar on the Northern Education Trust’s approach to attendance took take place on 14 December and has been recorded for all schools to view.

The department recognises that the COVID-19 outbreak has affected all students, but especially disadvantaged students. That is why we are investing nearly £5 billion in education recovery, which will be targeted at those that need help most. This includes an additional £1.8 billion of funding announced in the recent Spending Review to support young people to catch up on lost education. This is on top of a strong core funding settlement, which will see funding rise by £4.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year compared to existing plans.

The department continues to make clear that schools can and should use their additional recovery and pupil premium funding to support strong improved attendance for disadvantaged children where this is identified as an issue.

The Government’s Supporting Families programme continues to work closely with families where absence is an issue, to support better attendance. More information on this programme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/supporting-families.