Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the links between child poverty and school absence due to ill health or other circumstances.

We know that disadvantaged pupils face barriers to engagement with education. A recent report from the Child Poverty Action Group found that more than 1 in 4 pupils aged 11 to 18 eligible for free school meals in the UK say they have missed school at least once because they did not have something they needed to attend. Absence data reinforces this with the rate of overall absence for pupils eligible for free school meals continuing to be almost twice that of pupils not eligible.

The government’s landmark decision to remove the two-child limit will lift almost half a million children out of poverty; this comes alongside our actions to tackle the cost of the school day, through expanding free school meals, cutting the cost of uniform and delivering free breakfast clubs in primary schools, which will all remove barriers to school attendance and attainment. Mental health support teams are also providing earlier support in school for young people.

Our real-time attendance data and toolkits for schools enable early identification of pupils at risk of persistent absence and include a self-assessment tool that explicitly asks schools how they track and respond to the absence of pupils entitled to free school meals. Schools can also use Pupil Premium funding to provide attendance support for disadvantaged students.