Fines on parents not helping school absence rates in North, says expert

Threatening parents with “punitive” fines when their child misses school is not reducing absences and should instead be "consigned to the past", the former Children’s Commissioner for England has said.

Instead developing a "more inclusive" school environment could help tackle the attendance crisis rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach, Anne Longfield said.

Headteachers said measures used to reduce pupil absence before the pandemic are no longer as effective as they were, according to the report from the Centre for Young Lives think tank and the Child of the North initiative.

The threat of fines can be “a trigger for a breakdown” in relationships between schools and parents, it added.

Ms Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said: “The reasons why children miss school are often complex and there is no silver bullet.

"However, the one-size-fits-all and often punitive approach that previous Governments have taken to tackle absence needs to be consigned to the past.

"Simply, threatening parents with fines is not working for many families and not reducing severe absence rates."

School absence fines have increased from £60 to £80 under recent Government changes to boost attendance since the Covid-19 pandemic.

A parent who receives a second fine for the same child within a three-year period will automatically receive a £160 fine, while other actions including prosecution will be considered if a parent exceeds two fines per child in that period - leading to potential fines of up to £2,500.

The report calls on the government to focus its school absence strategy on earlier identification and intervention with children most at risk of absence.

It suggested that rates of unauthorised absence were 34% higher in the North of England than in the South.

Ms Longfield said: “The crucial message this report puts forward is the need to intervene early and to build a sense of belonging and inclusion in schools.

"Investing early in supporting children at risk of disengagement from education is the best way of preventing problems further down the line and no child should ever think that school isn’t for them."

Camilla Kingdon, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “I find the data presented in this report terrifying.

"I am struck not just by the simple enormity of how many children are not in school, but the clear evidence of how unfair this is.

"Why should a child who lives in the North of England be at significantly higher risk of disengaging with the education system?“

The paper highlights alternative programmes for tackling attendance issues, including a telepresence robot which sits in an absent child’s seat in class and allows them to access a lesson live at home.

This has been trialled at schools on the Wirral, Merseyside, and early data suggests it helped boost attendance and increase the number of hours that pupils engaged with learning.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “To break down the barriers to opportunity across the country we must tackle the national epidemic of school absence, which remains stubbornly high after years of soaring rates of persistent absence.

"Successfully treating the root causes of absence requires schools and local partners to work collaboratively in partnership with families.

"To support this drive, we are introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, an attendance mentoring programme, and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs.”

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