Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of current rates of absences in (1) severely absent, and (2) persistently absent, school pupils; and how this compares to pre-pandemic absences; what steps they are taking to reduce absence rates; and what assessment they have made of the correlation between both categories and future criminal convictions.

Improving attendance is a priority for the government. The department is implementing a comprehensive attendance strategy to tackle unacceptably high rates of persistent and severe absence and return to pre-pandemic levels or better as soon as possible.

Census data from the 2018/19 academic year show that, pre-pandemic, 10.9% of school aged children were persistently absent and 0.8% were severely absent, compared with 22.5% for persistent absence and 1.7% for severe absence in 2021/22. The data from 2021/22 also show that illness was the major driver of overall absence, at 4.4% across the academic year.

To address the issue, the department has published guidance encouraging all schools and local authorities to adopt the practices of the most effective. Schools are now expected to publish an attendance policy and appoint an attendance champion. Local authorities are expected to meet termly with schools to agree individual plans for at-risk children.

The department’s attendance hubs now support 800 schools benefiting over 400,000 pupils. 86% of schools subscribe to the department’s data tool to spot at-risk pupils. Recent data show that the department is making progress, with around 380,000 fewer children persistently not in school in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22.

On links to crime, Ministry of Justice and Department for Education data show that while a high percentage of children cautioned or sentenced for a serious violence offence had ever been persistently absent, only a small percentage of children who had ever been persistently absent were children who were cautioned or sentenced for these offences. Analysis shows that persistent absence for unauthorised reasons and severe absence were not strong predictors of being cautioned or sentenced for a serious violence offence, when holding other factors constant.

The department is investing over £50 million in serious violence hotspots to fund specialist support in both mainstream and Alternative Provision (AP) schools through its AP Specialist Taskforces and ‘Support, Attain, Fulfil, Exceed’ programmes.

The department also works closely with Chief Constable Catherine Roper, who holds the National Police Chiefs’ Council Children and Young People portfolio, through the Attendance Action Alliance. Further information on the alliance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/attendance-alliance-group.