Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many children in England (1) never attend school, and (2) do not regularly attend school.

The department collects data on children missing education from local authorities on a voluntary basis. This includes compulsory school aged children not registered at school or otherwise receiving suitable education. The latest figures are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education. In autumn 2023/24, there were an estimated 33,000 children missing education, which includes adjustments made for non-response and is based on a figure of 30,400 reported by 94% of local authorities.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will legislate for local authority registers of children not in school. This will include a duty on parents to provide the necessary information for these registers if their child is eligible, which would improve the accuracy of data and ensure that fewer children slip under the radar when they are not in school.

Pupil absence is collected in the school census. The latest figures are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england.

The department publishes figures on the number of pupils who are persistently absent, which means missing 10% or more of possible sessions, and severely absent, which means missing 50% or more of possible sessions. In autumn 2023/24, 19.4% of pupil enrolments were persistently absent (1.4 million pupil enrolments) and 2.0% of pupil enrolments were severely absent (142,000 pupil enrolments).

It should be noted that ‘regular attendance’ is defined as having no absence, apart from absence due to attendance at a dual-registration or approved educational activity. This information is not readily available.

School level information also forms part of the pupil absence publication. Absence rates for all schools in England in autumn 2023/24 is attached. The data requested is available in the attached table.