Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what communication her Department has had with academy trusts in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency on attendance improvement plans.

The department engages regularly with academy trusts on attendance improvement through a range of channels.

In the last academic year, we hosted 12 regional conferences for secondary school and trust leaders focusing solely on the attendance challenge through our regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) programme. The conferences covered data analysis and shared practical strategies. Feedback from school and trust leaders was strong, and was supported by increased engagement with our data tool.

The department also provides targeted communications through webinars, newsletters and direct correspondence to school and trust leaders. This includes updates on new resources such as the Attendance Improvement Toolkit and support available through our RISE Attendance and Behaviour Hubs.