Teachers need more help to deal with persistent pupil absence surge - NASUWT

Parental disengagement with the education system is driving a significant increase in unauthorised absence among pupils, with teachers saying dealing with pupil absences is having a significant adverse impact on their workload.

A survey of over 1,000 teachers across the UK by NASUWT – The Teachers' Union has found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said that unauthorised absences have increased significantly among the pupils they teach since 2020.

Teachers said that on average 15 pupils they teach are persistently absent.

When asked what they think is driving persistent absence, the most cited reason was parental disengagement with the education system. This was followed by the increased willingness of parents to keep their children off school when ill, an increase in parents taking their children out of school for holidays or family events and mental health problems among children and young people.

The survey revealed the extent to which dealing with persistent absence is driving up teachers' workloads and taking their time away from supporting pupils in the classroom.

More than nine in ten respondents said that dealing with persistent absence has increased their workload over the last two years. 43% of these said the impact on their workload had been significant.

Over two-thirds (67%) said they have to make adaptions to lessons to accommodate pupils who have been absent, two-thirds say they are required to prepare work to be sent home to absent pupils and 58% say they are required to contact parents regarding pupils being absent.

The survey also found that:

• The increase in rates of persistent absence are much higher in the North East of England than any other region - 89% of teachers said absences have increased in the last two years, compared to 53% in Greater London;
• The increase in absences is noticeably higher in secondary schools (68%) than in primary (54%)
• Teachers reported that pupils from lower income families and those with mental health issues were much more likely to be persistently absent from school;
• The unwillingness of parents to engage with schools over attendance was cited as the biggest barrier to tackling the problem, followed by a lack of time for teachers to work with persistently absent pupils and their families and long waiting lists for mental health treatment for young people.

The release of the survey follows the announcement last month by the DfE of a planned expansion of the attendance mentor programme. Latest official data shows a rise in the number of pupils in England classed as severely absent.

Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of NASUWT, said:

“High levels of persistent absence are one of the biggest challenges facing teachers and one of the biggest threats to the quality of education and children's future life chances.

“Teachers cannot deal with the problem of persistent absence alone. The evidence confirms that tackling the problem requires a nationally coordinated plan that will deliver the extra resources schools need, as well as better support for children, young people and families.

“The significant amount of time that teachers are spending on liaising with parents of absent pupils is not only increasing already excessive workloads, but also diverting teachers' time from meeting the needs of those pupils who are in class.

“Whilst we welcome the Government's commitment to expand the attendance mentor programme and to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every secondary school, we also need to see extra investment in services beyond the school gates to deliver the support that some families need.

“There is a need for a national mission to tackle absence from school and to make regular school attendance the norm, not the exception, for all children and young people.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The survey was carried out during October 2024 and received responses from 1,079 members. A copy of the full survey is attached.

As part of the survey, teachers were asked for comments on their experiences of persistent pupil absence. Here is a small selection:

“Children are anxious about coming to school or have undiagnosed needs. Those that have diagnosed needs are not always being supported in the way that they should be, thus increasing anxiety. Some children also have holidays during term time because of the cost or for family visits abroad. It is also found they often go to appointments with family members to act as interpreters. In addition, parents are keeping children off school longer than needed due to illness or inability to get a doctor's appointment.”

“With parents working from home it's less of an issue keeping children at home. Some parents don't see the importance of being in school and take children away for long weekends.”

“There just seems to be a general acceptance for students to take time off if they are feeling anxious about school in any way. Resilience to feeling 'tired and under the weather' seems to have reduced. Often young people are exposed to so much social media that they are going to bed very late and cannot get up in the mornings.”

“If pupils miss lessons they generally do not catch up (I still have to put all my lessons online for them but they don't look at it). So when they come back into my classroom they cannot do the work as they have missed large chunks and therefore I cannot progress the class and they can become disruptive and defiant.”

“Providing catch up for persistently absent pupils is unmanageable. We not only need to do it but we have to prove we are doing it with evidence in books, online journals etc too. We are not trusted to do our jobs, absolutely everything has to be documented and then evidenced.”

“Management expect teachers to chase up absence. It's too time consuming on top of everything else. There isn't enough time and the expectation is that we do these tasks in imaginary work time that doesn't exist. I'm fed up of using my own time at home to complete everything expected of us. When the work hours that we put in are added up, we are working well below the minimum wage. Life and time is taken up. Sucked dry. Our work place doesn't even have an attendance officer. Dump it on teachers instead.”

“Like so many other educational issues the solution is far higher funding for schools to employ more staff, reduce class sizes, offer a broader curriculum and treat staff better so there is less staff absence and turnover which impacts students.”