Information showing the rates of overall and unauthorised absence in pupil referral units, by local authority, has been placed in the House Libraries.

Children who are of compulsory school-age and registered at a school or pupil referral unit are expected to attend on a full-time basis.

The Government wants all schools, including pupil referral units to improve the attendance of their pupils and minimise absence. This is because there is clear evidence that the level of attainment of pupils decreases as absence increases.

Penalty notices (fines) for non-school attendance are issued in England by local authorities and schools to parents if their school registered child is regularly absent without the school's permission. The Department collects and publishes data on how many fines are issued by local authorities in each academic year. The information collected is not broken down to identify the gender of parents. The latest data for the academic school year 2011/12 is available on the Department's website at:

http://tinyurl.com/dxemd4l

Information on unauthorised absence from 2008/09 to 2010/11 is shown in the following table.

The latest data on absence, for the school year, is published as Statistical First Release 04/2012 'Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2010/11' at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00206150/pupil-absence-schools-2010-2011

'Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2011/12' was published on 19 March 2013 at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/a00221993/pupil-absence-eng-charact

Copies of these reports will be placed in the House Libraries.

The Government agreed Charlie Taylor's recommendation to tackle truancy by improving pupils' overall attendance, and by focusing in primary schools to tackle poor attendance early.

And we have uprated the penalty fines for parents who shirk their responsibility to ensure their children attend school.

[holding answer 3 December 2012]: In 2011, the then Government expert adviser on behaviour, Charlie Taylor, conducted a review into improving school attendance, and the effectiveness of sanctions to address poor attendance. The report was published on 16 April 2012. The Government accepted the majority of Charlie Taylor's recommendations in full, and is in the process of implementing them. The Government agreed with Charlie Taylor that the penalty notice regime needed reforming to be swift and certain, and is considering his recommendation to recoup unpaid fines from child benefit. The report can be found at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/behaviour

In 2010/11, there were 677 state-funded primary schools with more than 10% of pupils classified as persistent absentees.

22 of the 677 schools had more than 20% of pupils classified as persistent absentees;

three schools had more than 30% of pupils classified as persistent absentees;

two schools had more than 40% of pupils classified as persistent absentees.

In 2010/11, there were 977 state-funded secondary schools with more than 10% of pupils classified as persistent absentees.

35 of the 977 schools had more than 20% of pupils classified as persistent absentees;

one school had more than 30% of pupils classified as persistent absentees;

No schools had more than 40% of pupils classified as persistent absentees.

Lists of these schools and their local authority area have been placed in the House Libraries.

Persistent absence is best measured on the basis of a school year. The information provided relates to school year 2010/11, the latest school year of data available.

The latest data on absence, for the school year, is published as Statistical First Release 04/2012 ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2010/11' at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001060/index.shtml

This includes school level information.

The most recent absence data, for the first two terms of 2011/12, is published as Statistical First Release 22/2012 'Pupil Absence in schools in England: Autumn Term 2011 and Spring Term 2012' at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001090/index.shtml

This includes school level information. Persistent absence figures are included in the release but these two term figures can be affected by changes in term length. For this reason, end of year data provide the best measure of persistent absence.

In the 2010/11 school year, there were 322 schools with more than 4% of half days missed due to unauthorised absence.

39 of the 322 schools were state-funded primary schools;

126 were state-funded secondary schools;

157 were special schools.

A list of these schools and their local authority area have been placed in the House Libraries.

The latest data on absence, for the school year, is published as Statistical First Release 04/2012 'Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2010/11' at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001060/index.shtml

This includes school level information.

Information for the first two terms of 2011/12 is published as Statistical First Release 22/2012 'Pupil Absence in schools in England: Autumn Term 2011 and Spring Term 2012' at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001090/index.shtml

This includes school level information but does not cover special schools.

The closest measure we have to assess truancy rates is the unauthorised absence rate. This includes family holidays taken during term time but not agreed by the head teacher, late arrival at school, and any absence that is not authorised.

Information on unauthorised absence in the autumn term 2011 and spring term 2012 is shown in the following table.

This information is published in the ‘Pupil Absence in schools in England: Autumn Term 2011 and Spring Term 2012’ Statistical First Release at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001090/index.shtml

The latest data for the full school year are published as Statistical First Release 04/2012 ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2010/11; at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001060/index.shtml

The ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2011/12’ Statistical First Release will be published in March 2013.

Data held centrally on the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database do not include the offender's education and employment history. In some instances, this detailed information may be held on individual case files which, due to their size and complexity, are not reported to Justice Statistics Analytical Services.

The Offender Management Community Cohort Study (OMCCS) includes information on whether offenders on Community Orders had been in care, and whether they had been unemployed. The results from this study are planned for publication during 2013.

[holding answer 28 June 2012]: The closest measure we have to assess truancy rates is the unauthorised

absence rate. This includes family holidays taken during term time but not agreed by the head teacher, late arrival at school, and any absence that is not authorised.

Information on unauthorised absence from 2006/07 to 2010/11 is shown in the table.

The latest data on absence, for the school year, is published as Statistical First Release 04/2012 'Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2010/11' at

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001060/index.shtml

I thank the Minister for his response. Given the positive impact that parents’ involvement can have on their child’s education and attendance at school, what steps is he taking in addition to those that he has just mentioned to ensure that parents are encouraged and supported to become involved in that way?

In view of your earlier ruling, Mr Speaker, I shall limit my answer so that it focuses narrowly on Nuneaton’s truancy problems. The Government agreed with Charlie Taylor’s recent recommendation to focus on improving the attendance of vulnerable pupils in primary schools, to prevent patterns of poor attendance from developing. In response, we are reforming absence data collection to publish information on the attendance of four-year-olds. We are also tightening regulations on term-time holidays, so that they are authorised only in exceptional circumstances, and we have uprated the penalty fine levels for parents who shirk their responsibility to ensure that their children attend school.

This needs to involve a combination of rewards and penalties. New guidance will come into force next year, which will give head teachers the power to issue penalties, including penalty notices. In 2010, local authorities were responsible for bringing 11,757 attendance prosecutions when parents failed to ensure that their children attended school. Surely, however, the best incentive for parents is the knowledge that the very best start in life they can give their children is to ensure that they go to school on a regular basis.

The effect that poor attendance at school can have on a child's education can be permanent and damaging.

Pupil absence is categorised as either authorised or unauthorised. Authorised absence is absence with permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes instances of absences for which a satisfactory explanation has been provided (for example, illness). Unauthorised absence is absence without permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified

absences. Arriving late for school, after the register has closed, is recorded as unauthorised absence.

A pupil is classified as a persistent absentee if they miss at least 15% of school sessions due to any combination of authorised and unauthorised absence.

In 2009/10, pupils who had never been classified as persistent absentees during key stage 2, were twice as likely to achieve level 4 or above in English and maths as pupils who were persistently absent for each of the four key stage 2 years (78.3% compared with 38.6%). Similarly, pupils who had not been persistently absent in both of their key stage 4 years, were almost four times more likely to achieve five or more A*-C grades at GCSE (including English and maths) as pupils who were persistent absentees in both key stage 4 years (60% compared with 16.3%).

Analysis of 2009/10 absence data shows the number, length and reason for absences were associated with lower pupil attainment. However this analysis did not take account of the characteristics of the absent pupils—their lower attainment could be explained by other characteristics (such as low prior attainment) rather than the reason for the absence itself.

At key stage 2¹, pupils with absences due to exclusion had the lowest attainment, followed by traveller absence, unauthorised family holidays, absences where no reason has been given and lateness (both are classified as unauthorised) followed by pupils who have been absent due to illness and medical or dental appointments. Then lastly absences due to religious observance, study leave and authorised family holidays had similar patterns of attainment.

At key stage 4², pupils with absences due to exclusion had the lowest attainment, followed by traveller absence, lateness, absences where no reason has been given and unauthorised family holidays, then authorised family holidays, followed by absences due to illness and medical or dental appointments. Pupils with small amounts of absence due to study leave have above average levels of attainment.

These findings were included in the publication 'A profile of pupil absence in England':

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR171.pdf¹ See charts 4.4 and 4.5 in ‘A profile of pupil absence in England’ at the above link.² See Charts 4.11 and 4.12 in ‘A profile of pupil absence in England’ at the above link.

Written Answers to Questions

Tuesday 12 June 2012