- National standards to be introduced to end the postcode
lottery in councils’ use of school absence fines
- Schools will be required to inform their local authority
about pupils absent for sickness for 15 days or more, to help
make sure the right support is in place
- New laws to facilitate national school attendance data
collection and analysis, to make sure no child falls through the
cracks in the system
Parents of pupils absent from school without good reason will
face fines, thanks to new national standards to tackle the
postcode lottery in how councils issue absence fines and help
improve attendance in schools.
The Government has today (17 June) launched a consultation to look
at the circumstances fines are issued and help ensure consistency
in support for families no matter where in the country they live,
by replacing disparate standards currently set by each local
authority.
The standards set out that a fine must be considered and issued
if a child has any unauthorised term-time holiday, if a child is
found in public during a period of exclusion, or if a child has
more than five days of unauthorised absence in any one term.
This forms part of wider work to improve support provided to
families to drive up attendance.
The consultation also proposes that schools be required to inform
their local authority about pupils absent for sickness for 15
days or more, to help make sure that no matter the reason for
absence, the right support can be put in place. Most schools and
local authorities will already work together in this way.
It asks for views on schools being required to keep electronic,
rather than paper, registers, to make sure that data can be
shared easily and securely with government, local authorities and
academy trusts, and no child falls through the cracks in the
system. It will mean data can be compared at an aggregate level,
allowing any issues to be quickly spotted and rectified, while
protecting pupils’ privacy.
Education Secretary said:
“I know from the Children’s Commissioner’s work on school
attendance that children themselves hugely value being in school
with their teachers and their friends.
“My job is to make sure that every child can get those school
experiences. The plans set out today to reform how absence fines
operate, alongside our Schools Bill currently going through
parliament, will improve consistency across the country and help
tackle persistent absence.”
The standards, open for consultation to make sure they are best
supporting children to return to full-time attendance after
unauthorised absence, are based on the principles that:
- Fines have a clear place in demonstrating to families there
is no excuse for unauthorised term-time absence
- Fines must be one part of a wider, personalised approach to
working with each family to drive up attendance
- Fines should not keep being issued if they aren’t working,
and other options explored, including prosecution
New guidance for
schools, local authorities and academy trusts has already been
published on a non-statutory basis. It provides the framework for
how personalised support should be offered to families, where
necessary to improve attendance, and how any use of fines should
fit within that approach.
The Schools Bill will bring the guidance on to a statutory
footing, requiring all schools to have published attendance
policies, and creating formal duties on local authorities,
schools and trusts to work together on managing attendance,
rather than in silos.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The Schools Bill follows the plans set out in the Schools
White Paper, including a pledge to parents that if their child
falls behind in English or maths they will receive tailored
support to get back on track, and the ambition for 90% of
children to leave primary school at the expected standard in
reading, writing and maths by 2030.
- Good attendance is the cornerstone of giving every child, no
matter where they live, the same opportunities to succeed.
- The bill also includes a new legal requirement for local
authorities to maintain registers of children not in school,
helping make sure no child gets lost from the education system.
- Attendance has been a priority for this government over the
course of the recovery from the pandemic.
- The government and school sector have produced good practice
webinars for schools, MATs and LAs which have been viewed by
school staff over 12,000 times so far this year.
- The Department’s dedicated attendance advisors are supporting
local authorities and academy trusts that need it, and the
attendance action alliance - made up of experts from across the
education sector - is continuing its work to spread best practice
amongst social workers, mental health practitioners and more.
