Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they intend to take to identify the number of children who miss school each year; and what assessment they have made of the social and economic costs of that issue.

The total number of absences from school is collected termly via the school census and published regularly via the ‘Pupil absence in Schools in England’ National Statistics series.

Figures for the 2016/17 academic year can be found in the attached “Pupil absence in schools in England: 2016 to 2017” National Statistics release. The overall absence rate for state-funded primary, secondary and special schools was 4.7% in 2016/17, an increase from 4.6% in the previous academic year, but has followed a generally downward trend since 2006/07 when it was 6.5%.

Information on the link between absence and attainment at key stages 2 (KS2) and 4 (KS4) was published in March 2016 in the attached “Absence and attainment at key stages 2 and 4: 2013 to 2014” research report. The analysis showed that when taking prior attainment and pupil characteristics into account, for each KS2 and KS4 measure, overall absence had a statistically significant negative link to attainment. For instance, every extra day missed was associated with a lower attainment outcome.

The attached table shows overall absence rates since 2010.