The relationship between schools and families is being strained by school-level attendance systems that feel “increasingly draconian to families”, a new report has found.
The study, published today by Public First, also states that there has been a “profound breakdown in parental attitudes” to the idea of full-time school attendance in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report follows growing concerns about the steep rise in absence since the pandemic, with the level of persistent absence - pupils missing 10 per cent or more of school sessions - in 2022-23 being double that seen in the year before the lockdowns began, according to government figures.
Public First was commissioned by a coalition of educational charities earlier this year to carry out an investigation into the root causes of the crisis in attendance in England’s schools.
The core research was undertaken through a series of independently recruited focus groups with parents of school-aged children.
Public First also undertook eight independently recruited online focus groups with parents of school-aged (five to 19) pupils, in eight different locations across England in June and July of this year, alongside the educational charities Impetus, Khulisa and School-Home Support.
Here are some key findings from the report:
1. School-level attendance systems ‘increasingly draconian to families’
Public First’s research shows that families of pupils are finding school-level attendance systems “increasingly draconian” and that parents are concerned that those same systems are “not sufficiently robust or accurate”, which in turn undermines the relationship between schools and families.
The public policy research agency recommends a review of how schools and the wider education system communicate with parents and says the accuracy of school-level attendance monitoring systems needs to be improved.
It also warns that inaccuracies in attendance data would have significant implications for data collection across the wider system and could “distort the national picture and undermine the policy solutions based upon it”.
2. Pandemic caused ‘seismic shift in parental attitudes’
The report finds that the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns caused a “seismic shift in parental attitudes to school attendance that is going to take a monumental, multi-service effort to change”.
Public First refers to this as a Pandora’s Box that has been opened and will be difficult to close again.
The report also finds evidence of a breakdown of relationships between schools and families across the socio-economic spectrum.
It points to “a profound breakdown” in parental attitudes to the idea of full-time school attendance in the years since the Coronavirus pandemic.
3. Fixing attendance will require ‘colossal society-wide drive’
The public policy firm also warns that there is “no quick fix” to the attendance crisis and the solutions to worsening attendance require a “colossal society-wide drive”.
This reflects the words of the children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza earlier this month, who told Tes that school leaders must not be left to deal with the pupil attendance crisis “on their own”.
The report recommends that the government invest “significant additional funding” for the sector, claiming that this would boost attendance.
4. Invest in SEND and Camhs to improve attendance
The report recommends that investment is needed in special educational needs and disabilities and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs), two areas it describes as “chronically underfunded”.
Parents also told researchers that they felt the “state had a wider role to play”, and that a crisis in Camhs was creating a devastating ripple effect on education. Public First claims that such an investment would significantly improve attendance.
One parent included in the study claimed that government had “left the schools and headteachers to deal with” falling attendance.
Public First says that a more joined-up approach within other areas of the system to address the wider challenges that impact attendance would enable schools to focus on providing the educational support they have expertise in.
5. Fines should potentially be abolished
Public First also recommends that the effectiveness of fines for low attendance should be reviewed and the punishments potentially abolished.
The report recommends that national statutory guidance to standardise practices would drive a shared, national understanding of attendance challenges.
One parent involved in the study told researchers that it was “wrong” for schools to threaten to fine parents who were struggling financially and “who probably live miles and miles from the particular school that the kid goes to”.
Researchers also found that the concept of “authorised” and “unauthorised” absences was contentious among some parents, who took issue with what they saw as policing of their parenting.
6. Term-time holidays are now socially acceptable
Public First has found that the idea of taking pupils on term-time holidays is now entirely socially acceptable across all socio-economic groups.
Its research found that there has been a radical shift in the way term-time holidays are viewed, and the scale at which they are being taken.
It said: “The taking of term-time holidays was almost universal. A huge proportion of parents across all social groups talked openly about taking their children on holiday during term time, and those that did not were very sympathetic to it, with several suggesting that they would do the same if the circumstances were right for them.”
Many parents argued that the cost differential made the option impossible to ignore. This was universal across social groups.
7. The cost-of-living crisis is a driver of lower attendance
The cost-of-living crisis is driving more families into poverty, and this is an underlying driver of poor attendance in families from lower and no-income groups.
Public First said that in its discussions, “the cost-of-living crisis was touched on by many parents, across all social groups. For those in poorer social groups, particularly in D and E, poverty underpinned much of the discussion.”
8. Home working ‘not driving the attendance crisis’
The report said that despite popular political and media perception, the increase in parents working from home is not driving the attendance crisis.
Public First said that parents it spoke to “emphatically did not feel that working from home allowed them to facilitate having their children off school”.
Some parents, particularly those from wealthier social groups, said they did work from home more post-Covid, but all agreed that this would not make them more likely to keep their children off school.
