Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of children with SEND who are (i) persistently absent and (ii) severely absent from school in Wellingborough constituency.

Information on pupil absence, including breakdowns by pupil characteristics, is published in the ‘Pupil absence in schools in England’ national statistic. The latest release, covering the autumn and spring terms of the 2022/23 academic year is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england. Data from the latest full academic year, 2021/22, is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2021-22.

A pupil is classified as persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of their possible sessions. A pupil is classified as severely absent if they miss 50% or more of their possible sessions.

The table below shows the numbers and rates of persistently absent and severely absent pupils in Wellingborough parliamentary constituency by special educational need status for the latest full academic year available, 2021/22.

Source: School Census.

¹ Special Educational Need

² Education, Health and Care Plan.

This table excludes a small number of pupils with unclassified SEN status.