Commenting on plans to share more widely daily school registers and to increase parental fines as part of the Government’s strategy to tackle school absences,Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Schools put in a great many hours tackling absence and reaching out to parents. Registering absences is important for schools and Local Authorities, enabling them to recognise patterns of behaviour that may need addressing. However, there is no obvious reason for a central record to be held by Government.
“Fining parents is not the answer and is certainly not conducive to building relations with schools. Especially in a cost-of-living crisis where some of those families may well be struggling to make ends meet, and this would simply plunge them into debt. There is no evidence that fining parents improves attendance, it simply drives young people out of the system.
“There also needs to be funding and access to mental health services for children and young people with a much quicker rollout of the mental health hubs across the country. CAMHS support has been run down to woefully inadequate levels with children waiting for months if not longer to get any support. This is an unacceptable situation. If Government is serious about addressing the reasons behind absences, they need to ensure schools and parents have the means to get the help required.
“No amount of data collecting will solve school absenteeism. What is needed is the recognition from Government that schools and colleges must have the resources, specialist support and funding to support children alongside well-funded pastoral and SENCO teams. This is to enable students and families to return back into regular attendance, which is surely what we all want to see.”