Children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza has warned the government that absence problems have not “gone away”, despite attendance improving this term.
The latest official estimates put attendance rates nationally at 94.6 per cent in the week from September 12, based on data now submitted automatically by two thirds of schools.
The DfE has launched a range of attendance initiatives in the past year and called it a “positive start”.
It marks an uptick on the 91.9 per cent rate of mid-September last year when Covid infection rates were several times higher.
Attendance has also improved significantly on the 86.9 per cent in July, shortly before the summer holidays and amid then-rising Covid rates.
But a newly published online dashboard shows significant regional variation, with attendance as low as 89.9 per cent in secondaries in Middlesbrough.
Like-for-like data is not available for mid-September attendance pre-Covid, but average autumn term attendance is published annually.
The latest 94.6 per cent is lower than the 95.1 per cent of autumn 2019, and every other autumn for which figures are available back to 2016.
‘Not happy’ with 94% attendance
De Souza told a fringe event at the Conservative party annual conference this week in Birmingham: “I think the civil servants are happy with 94 [per cent]. I’m not.”
She suggested schools would normally “be looking at 98” at the start of term, which her office said was based on her own experience as a teacher and head. “The issue hasn’t gone away.”
The DfE’s dashboard is designed to give schools, councils and officials real-time data and comparison tools, and de Souza said it meant “the right actions can be taken”.
But Robert Halfon, the Conservative chair of the education select committee, warned in an op-ed for The House magazine this week that recorded absences “represent only those children known to authorities”.
The pair have welcomed planned registers of children not in school, but the schools bill it forms part of has been delayed. Halfon said it “cannot be implemented quickly enough”, and urged “proactive action” on persistent absence, noting one council reported attendance staff having 3,000 cases each.
“The cohort of ghost pupils must be placed at the top of the new education secretary’s in-tray.”
Councils may have to ‘divert funding’
Meanwhile Tony Bell, who leads the education arm of the union Prospect, said councils would be forced to “divert funding” to pay for new attendance duties introduced this term.
They include “rigorously” tracking data, and providing free support to all schools with communication, advice, termly support meetings, multi-disciplinary support and legal intervention.
The Local Government Association said it supported the principles, but warned DfE analysis “does not adequately capture the additional workload” and costs.
The government has predicted reforms will save councils a combined £274,743 a year, assuming they copy the approach of several authorities said to be meeting new standards already.
But it refused to name its favoured councils after a Schools Week freedom of information request, despite acknowledging it may “aid” others. It said it involved confidential and commercially sensitive information, and risked limiting future information-sharing.
Bell called it “disappointing” and “surprising, as the DfE said it wanted “to share good practice.”
Responding to attendance figures, Kit Malthouse, the education secretary, said this week “every day counts”, and the dashboard marked a “significant step” in tackling absence.
A government spokesperson also highlighted a one-to-one attendance pilot launched this term in Middlesbrough.
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