Penalties rise by £20 after numbers of pupils taken out of lessons for holidays increases
Parents in England who take their children out of class without permission will face
higher fines as part of a drive to boost school attendance following the pandemic.
The Department for Education says a fine must be considered if a pupil misses five days of
school in an unauthorised absence.
Until now, fines have started at £60, rising to £120 if they are not paid within 21 days, but the
department says they will now start at £80, rising to £160.
It is understood the higher fines will take effect from September.
Nearly 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in England in 2022-23 for unauthorised
pupil absences – much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Nearly nine in ten (89.3 per cent) of the fines were for unauthorised holidays as families booked
cheaper breaks during term times, according to government figures.
Under the new measures – part of efforts to try to cut numbers of children regularly missing
classes – every state school in England will have to share their daily attendance registers with the
Department for Education, councils and academy trusts.
A national framework will be designed to help tackle inconsistencies in the use of fines.
Officials hope this will help schools to spot and support children at risk of persistent absence, or
in danger of going missing from education.
In 2021, “attendance hubs” were launched, encouraging schools with strong attendance records
to share their approaches with leaders in similar schools to help them to improve.
Rob Tarn, chief executive of the Northern Education Trust and founder of England’s first
attendance hub, has now been appointed the country’s new national attendance ambassador.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Good attendance is
obviously critically important, but fines have long proven to be too blunt a tool and largely
ineffective at improving persistent absence.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was not
unreasonable to increase fines given that they had been fixed for several years.
“However, it is important to understand that these fines predominantly relate to pupils who are
taken out of school for term-time holidays. While nobody wants to be in a position of fining
parents, there simply has to be a marker that this is not acceptable,” he said.
“Not only does it affect the child’s education, but it means teachers then have to spend time
helping children to catch-up with lost learning. If everybody did this, it would be chaos.”
Source` https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-absence-fine-
parents-pupil-b2504292.html
Parents in England who take their children out of class without permission will face
higher fines as part of a drive to boost school attendance following the pandemic.
The Department for Education says a fine must be considered if a pupil misses five days of
school in an unauthorised absence.
Until now, fines have started at £60, rising to £120 if they are not paid within 21 days, but the
department says they will now start at £80, rising to £160.
It is understood the higher fines will take effect from September.
Nearly 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in England in 2022-23 for unauthorised
pupil absences – much higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Nearly nine in ten (89.3 per cent) of the fines were for unauthorised holidays as families booked
cheaper breaks during term times, according to government figures.
Under the new measures – part of efforts to try to cut numbers of children regularly missing
classes – every state school in England will have to share their daily attendance registers with the
Department for Education, councils and academy trusts.
A national framework will be designed to help tackle inconsistencies in the use of fines.
Officials hope this will help schools to spot and support children at risk of persistent absence, or
in danger of going missing from education.
In 2021, “attendance hubs” were launched, encouraging schools with strong attendance records
to share their approaches with leaders in similar schools to help them to improve.
Rob Tarn, chief executive of the Northern Education Trust and founder of England’s first
attendance hub, has now been appointed the country’s new national attendance ambassador.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Good attendance is
obviously critically important, but fines have long proven to be too blunt a tool and largely
ineffective at improving persistent absence.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was not
unreasonable to increase fines given that they had been fixed for several years.
“However, it is important to understand that these fines predominantly relate to pupils who are
taken out of school for term-time holidays. While nobody wants to be in a position of fining
parents, there simply has to be a marker that this is not acceptable,” he said.
“Not only does it affect the child’s education, but it means teachers then have to spend time
helping children to catch-up with lost learning. If everybody did this, it would be chaos.”
Source` https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/school-absence-fine-
parents-pupil-b2504292.html