Poor mental health and long waits for support are “fuelling” the school absence crisis, according to a new report that calls for a reduction in fines for parents.
Levels of school absence have risen along with an increase in mental health problems among young people, research by the Centre for Mental Health and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition has found.
Overall absence rates for last term were higher than for the previous spring term in 2023, according to the latest government figures, which also show that persistent absence increased.
Today’s report warns that “punitive approaches to improving attendance”, such as fining parents, do not work and could risk worsening the situation for families struggling with poverty and unmet mental health needs.
Rise in parent fines for pupil absence
These concerns about parent fines were echoed by Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, who said that the fines were “a blunt and ineffective instrument in tackling non-attendance”.
He urged ministers to invest in support services that can help families, including “funding local authorities to restore key roles like education welfare officers, which have fallen victim to government austerity”.
Last month the Department for Education increased the size of parent fines ahead of the launch of a national framework governing parent fines for unauthorised absence, due later this year.
A rise in the number of parents being fined for their child’s absence is “alarming”, according to today’s report, with fines amounting to a total of £3.7 million in June 2022 alone.
Some 22 of 153 local authorities were responsible for issuing more than half of these fines, which the report suggests could mean that fines are being issued “excessively” in certain areas.
To improve school attendance, the report recommends that the DfE increases the availability of mental health support and reduces the use of “sanctions-based approaches”.
While the report recognises that initiatives such as the attendance mentor programme have had an impact, it warns that “most of the approaches fail to adequately consider or account for the
wider determinants which may drive school absence”.
The children’s commissioner has previously warned about the need for more mental health support teams in schools, urging the government to roll the programme out faster.
Today’s report also highlights that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and pupils affected by the cost-of-living crisis are much more likely to miss school.
In response to the report, Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said that “fixing the special needs system” must be a priority.
“Without the resources to put this support in place, schools face an uphill struggle to tackle the attendance crisis on their own,” she said.
“The government needs to do more to support schools, as tinkering with the level of fines or the number of attendance hubs will not make a tangible difference.”
The DfE expanded its attendance hub programme earlier this year, announcing that 18 more schools are to become hubs, taking the total number to 32.
It also announced a £15 million expansion of its mentor programme for persistently absent pupils and launched a communications campaign aimed at getting parents to send children to school.
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