Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of persistent absence in schools in South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset.

Absence is a key barrier to opportunity. For children to achieve and thrive they need to be in school. The department is committed to improving the attendance of all pupils. Thanks to the efforts of the sector, we saw record improvements in 2024/25 with around 150,000 fewer children persistently absent nationally.

The department publishes figures from the school census on pupil absence in England. The latest data covers the 2024/25 academic year and is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2024-25.

Published data for the percentage of pupils classified as persistent absentees (defined as missing 10% or more of possible sessions) in schools in South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset since the 2018/19 academic year is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/87184f2c-0671-4abc-c9f4-08dee0eeb30d.

Full year absence statistics for 2019/20 were not published due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.