Ministers want to cut pupil absence levels to below 5 per cent by persuading parents that children should go to school if they have mild illnesses or anxiety.
In an interview with Tes, schools minister Damian Hinds said the government aimed to “calibrate” parents’ threshold for keeping children off school back to where it was before Covid.
He was speaking during a tour of North Shore Academy, in Stockton-on-Tees, today to mark the Department for Education’s announcement that the number of attendance hubs is being expanded.
In total, 18 more school attendance hubs are to be established, taking the total number to 32.
In addition, the DfE has today announced a £15-million expansion of its mentor programme for persistently absent pupils, as well as a communications campaign aimed at parents.
North Shore Academy, run by Northern Education Trust, started the country’s first attendance hub - a network of schools with similar pupil cohorts that share resources and approaches to improving attendance.
During his visit, Mr Hinds told Tes that the government wanted to get overall absence levels below 5 per cent by changing the post-pandemic decision making of parents.
He said: “Historically we have had a norm of 5 per cent absence, and then after Covid it jumped up. Thankfully it’s coming down. Last year it was 6.6 per cent…it is moving in the right direction but we still need to come down below that 5 per cent line.”
He added that “no criticism” of parents was intended, but that hitting the government’s goal would involve “a change in people’s threshold” for deciding when their children should stay off school “because of a cold or something”.
Mr Hinds stressed that current attitudes were understandable as a result of the pandemic, but said: “If we are going to get back to 5 per cent absence, we need to calibrate that at the level it was before we had Covid.”
The schools minister also highlighted concerns about parental attitudes towards children with anxiety.
He suggested parents now think “it’s appropriate for the child not to be in school” as a result of anxiety.
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty last year wrote to schools to reassure parents that anxiety can be a normal part of growing up and that being in lessons can help pupils’ mental health.
Mr Hinds echoed this message today, saying: “Of course with anxiety, as with other conditions, there is a whole range. But with mild anxiety...if you don’t go into school there’s a danger that may worsen.”
The importance of attending school with mild illness is also being emphasised via the government’s communications campaign, launched today, which has been criticised by some on social media as “too simplistic”:
Mr Hinds was shown around North Shore today by Northern Education Trust’s chief executive Rob Tarn, accompanied by Labour’s Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, who said he backed the government’s expansion of attendance hubs.
He said: “The recipe they have here [at North Shore] works and I am pleased the government is prepared to learn from outstanding schools like the one we have here.”
Tes revealed last year that multi-academy trusts were being lined up to establish the first wave of attendance hubs after education secretary Gillian Keegan urged sector leaders to get involved.
