Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of school absence fines on (a) neurodiverse children and (b) their families.

The statutory guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ promotes a 'support first' approach, which sets clear expectations about how schools, local authorities and wider services should work together with families to address attendance barriers. This includes where a pupil's attendance is affected by their neurodiversity.

The guidance is clear that schools should work in partnership with families, establish strategies to remove any in-school barriers these pupils face, and consider support or reasonable adjustments.

The department has also introduced a national framework for issuing fixed penalty notices which strengthens protections for parents with an expectation that attendance support will have been provided before a penalty notice can be used.