Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what sanctions are available to local authorities to encourage parents to ensure that children begin school on time each day.

A pupil who arrives for a morning or afternoon session after registration has closed is marked absent for that session. For pupils of compulsory school age (5 to 16 years), local authorities can address such absences if a parent has failed to secure their child’s regular school attendance through use of the sanctions of penalty notices or prosecution leading to a fine. Before prosecuting parents, a local authority should consider whether it would be appropriate to apply for an education supervision order to ensure that the child is properly educated.

Other legal measures available to local authorities and schools to tackle irregular attendance are parenting contracts and parenting orders. A parenting contract is an agreement between a parent and either the local authority or the governing body of a school for the parent to comply for a given period with whatever requirements are set out in the contract to improve their child’s attendance at school. A parenting order may be imposed by a court requiring a parent to comply with requirements specified in the order to improve their child’s school attendance.

Information about these sanctions and measures is included in the Department for Education’s statutory guidance “Parental responsibility measures for school attendance and behaviour”. This is published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/parental-responsibility-measures-for-behaviour-and-attendance