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Pupils: Absenteeism

Answer

The Department receives a number of complaints from parents on a variety of school attendance related matters. These are usually considered under section 496/7 of the Education Act 1996. The decision whether or not to authorise individual pupil absences rests with the person who has responsibility for the school register (normally the head teacher) and the governing body of the school which has overall responsibility for the register. Where a governing body has followed the relevant attendance regulations it is unlikely that there will be grounds for the Secretary of State to intervene.The Secretary of State has power to intervene under section 496/7 of the Education Act 1996 if he considers that the governing body of a maintained school or a local authority has acted unreasonably in the exercise of their powers or duties (section 496) or that they have failed to carry out a duty (section 497). Every matter that is referred to the Secretary of State under section 496 /497 will be considered on the individual merits of the case.Where attendance becomes problematic schools should address the matter informally with parents in the first instance. They may also want to back this up with voluntary parenting contracts that provide support to parents to enable them to manage their child's school attendance.Where parents are unwilling or refuse to co-operate then decisions will have to be taken at a local level in relation to more rigorous sanctions—such as sanctions under the school attendance order framework, including school attendance orders, prosecutions, penalty notices, parenting orders. Ultimately these decisions are made by local authorities and by the courts. We do expect prosecutions to be used as a last resort where other strategies to address poor attendance have failed.Local authorities receive information on pupil attendance from the schools in their area. They are under a duty to use the school attendance order statutory framework where they identify that a child may not be receiving suitable education because of a failure to attend school regularly, Parents can be prosecuted for failure to comply with a school attendance order. There is provision within the school attendance order framework for parents to complain to the Secretary of State if they feel that the local authority has acted unreasonably in continuing to enforce a school attendance order. The Secretary of State can in these circumstances make whatever direction he thinks fit. Again, each case would be considered on its merits.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

33173; 522 c966-7W

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Truancy

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk