Britain’s schools attendance crisis: MPs call for tougher measures to stop children missing lessons as report finds mental health problems and cost-of-living pressures are behind rise in truancies since the pandemic
- A report by a committee of MPs called for a more consistent approach to fines
MPs are calling for tougher measures to stop children missing lessons as Britain battles a school attendance crisis – with absence rates twice what they were before Covid.
A committee of MPs has said a more consistent approach to fines for parents whose children are absent from school is needed, as well as better support for pupils with mental health difficulties and those with special education needs.
Meanwhile, education bosses say poverty is a key factor in why children are not getting to school, as well as a lack of outside support – which they say has been eroded by austerity and funding cuts.
School absence rates which worsened during the pandemic have seen ‘no significant improvement’ and are ‘of great concern’, the Education Committee said.
The cross-party group of MPs, which launched an inquiry into persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils in January, said more than a fifth (22.5 per cent) of pupils were persistently absent – around double the pre-pandemic rate.
MPs are calling for tougher measures to stop children missing lessons as Britain battles a school attendance crisis – with absence rates twice what they were before Covid (file photo)
School absence rates which worsened during the pandemic have seen ‘no significant improvement’ and are ‘of great concern’, the Education Committee said (stock photo)
Some 1.7 per cent of all pupils were severely absent compared to less than 1 per cent pre-pandemic, while the overall absence rate has risen to 7.6 per cent, up from around 4 to 5 per cent before the pandemic. A pupil is classified as a persistent absentee if they miss 10 per cent or more of their schooling and as a severely persistent absentee if they miss 50 per cent or more.
It comes after the Children’s Rights Organisations alliance said social distancing and the closure of schools and playgrounds wreaked ‘long-lasting and era-defining’ effects on young people’s mental health.
In the Education Committee’s report published on Wednesday, it said: ‘It is of great concern that absence rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and there has been no significant improvement in the speed and scale of rate reduction which is needed to prevent long-term harm to pupils.’
Among a series of recommendations to the Government, MPs called for a national framework for fines and prosecution, as they had heard evidence that fines are used ‘inconsistently due to local authority discretion’.
The committee warned that fines do not address barriers that low-income families face and can be counterproductive by adding to difficult financial circumstances, especially amid the cost-of-living crisis.
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This sentiment was echoed by education chief Seamus Murphy, CEO at Turner Schools Trust, who said poverty is the ‘key factor’.
He told BBC Radio 4: ‘Children who are in families who are experiencing deep poverty are more likely to struggle to get to school, for all sorts of various obvious reasons.’
MPs have said financial pressures on families as a result of the cost of living crisis makes it harder for parents to afford transport and school uniforms.
Regarding the effectiveness of fines, Mr Murphy said: ‘I think fines, in our context, are not effective in bringing children back into schools. Either parents who are financially able do a cost benefit analysis and argue that the holiday or whatever they are doing is cheaper, but for those families who are genuinely in crisis, fining them just drives them away from the services that we want to provide to help get kids back into school.’
In the report, MPs said they were ‘disappointed by the lack of urgency and action’ from the Department of Education (DfE) to implement change as a result of its 2022 consultation on the use of legal interventions to tackle absence, and said that the DfE ‘should instruct schools and local authorities to explore methods of support for pupils and families before the use of fines or prosecution, ensuring legal intervention is a last resort only’.
Former DfE director General for Schools Sir Jon Coles, who now heads up the country’s largest academy trust United Learning, said he feels fines are a ‘very authoritarian method’ and pointed to the need for better support for children and parents.
He said: ‘I think fines are a very authoritarian method but I think you could justify a system of fines when there was also a really strong system of support and engagement which went ahead of fines and that relied, in the past, on a huge number of services outside schools.
‘And most importantly on local authority services which overwhelmingly across the country have been decimated in recent years by austerity and funding cuts. I think before we get to fines, and start thinking about national systems of fines, I think we just need to think much more deeply about what’s the support for children and families.’
Some 1.7 per cent of all pupils were severely absent compared to less than 1 per cent pre-pandemic, while the overall absence rate has risen to 7.6 per cent, up from around 4 to 5 per cent before the pandemic (file photo)
And while Sir Coles also felt poverty was a key reason in why children are missing school, he pointed to a change in attitudes among parents since the pandemic.
He said: ‘I do think we have seen a shift in attitudes right across the social spectrum post Covid and that story, which I think is important, that every day in school matters, is just disbelieved by parents now and many feel ‘well they were at home with me for weeks and weeks and nothing terrible happened and they’ll catch up’.’
The education boss said focus should not be on fining, but that the government has a ‘huge’ job in ‘getting better messages to parents’ and improving engagement with them.
The committee said the DfE should review its framework for supporting low-income families in meeting the costs of school attendance, such as uniform and transport costs, and ensure support for low-income families is well signposted.
It also repeated its call for a register of children not in school, to identify and support children who are not receiving a formal education.
MPs said this should be ‘fully operational for the 2024/25 academic year’ and they therefore expect the Government ‘to include a suitable legislative vehicle in the next King’s Speech’.
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The committee also noted ‘overwhelming evidence indicating a radical increase in mental health difficulties amongst school pupils since’ the pandemic, and described the current capacity of mental health services as ‘grossly inadequate’.
The DfE must do more to improve help for pupils dealing with mental health issues, MPs also said, calling for a review of current support available both within and outside schools to be completed by summer 2024.
The committee said the DfE should introduce a mental health absence code ‘and set clear thresholds for its use’ and called for a public information campaign to guide parents on when children who are unwell should attend school – including highlighting that coughs and colds should not generally see children take time off.
Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) must be improved, the committee said, while acknowledging that this group will have higher absences ‘for legitimate and unavoidable reasons’ and therefore should not be directly compared with other cohorts of children.
MPs called on the DfE to ‘prioritise resource for inclusion and assessment in mainstream schools, to ensure they are adequately set up to support Send pupils and address the current level of unmet need, and therefore improve their attendance rate’.
Education Committee chairman Robin Walker said: ‘Many in the sector are greatly concerned, even dismayed, that things aren’t returning to a greater degree of normality, and in the meantime children are missing out.
‘What happened during the pandemic is a crucial part of the story of how we got here, and recent research suggests some worrying changes in parental attitudes as a result.’
MPs have said financial pressures on families as a result of the cost of living crisis makes it harder for parents to afford transport and school uniforms (file photo)
He also flagged ‘sky-high waiting lists for children’s mental health services’, and some children with Send ‘not getting the right support quickly enough’ as factors putting ‘incredible pressure on families and schools’.
He added: ‘We also need a consistent policy of issuing fines across the country, not a postcode lottery. The use of fines feels justified to discourage families from taking term-time holidays or where parents refuse to cooperate with reasonable requests, but offering support should nearly always come first.’
A DfE spokesperson said the Government remains ‘focused on ensuring no child falls through the cracks’.
They added: ‘We recently announced an expansion to our attendance hubs and mentors programme and we are also working closely with schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities to identify pupils in need of additional support.
‘A key part of this includes ensuring children get the right support with Send and mental health including through our Send and AP (alternative provision) Improvement Plan and by increasing number of Mental Health Support Teams.’
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