Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations contained in the Place2Be report School for all: solutions for school attendance, published in September.

The government is grateful to Place2Be for their work and findings in ‘School for All: Solutions for School Attendance’. Several of the recommendations that are made in the report are already being implemented by the department.

The government understands how vital mental health support is for enabling pupils to attend school and it is committed to supporting schools to embed this through a whole school and college approach. The department has provided grants for all schools and colleges to train a senior mental health lead, which over 70% of schools have now accessed. Additionally, the department is committed to delivering access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, which includes access to mental health support workers, and it will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

The department agrees that there should be a whole family approach to attendance from schools to build strong relationships and collaboration. The ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance, which became statutory in August 2024, encompasses a ‘support first’ approach, setting clear expectations that schools and local authorities should work with families to address barriers to attendance in a sensitive way. Moreover, the department recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand mentoring into 10 new areas over the next three years, providing further support for persistently absent pupils and their families on a one-to-one basis to help identify and address their barriers to education.

From September 2024, it also became mandatory for all schools in England to share their daily attendance data with the department. Schools, trusts and local authorities can access a data tool to identify and intervene where pupils may be at risk of becoming persistently absent. Although the department recognises the intent behind having a specific mental health absence code, there are concerns that creating an additional code is unhelpful in practice and could place a burden on schools. Recent changes to the school register codes, however, have introduced other codes that will be beneficial to children with special educational needs and disabilities or facing mental health challenges.

Additionally, tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. This government’s new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring next year and will help to tackle a key driver of severe absence.