Centre for Social Justice Statement in response to the House of Commons Education Committee Report on persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warmly welcomes this timely and thorough report from the House of Commons Education Committee. We are facing a crisis in the number of children missing school. Absence figures have sky-rocketed since the pandemic, with 1.7 million children persistently absent during Autumn 2022. 125,000 so-called ‘ghost children’ were absent from school more than they were present.
Attendance is critical to academic attainment and future life chances. Just one day of school missed can have an impact on a child’s GCSE attainment and young people with a track record of severe absence are vastly over-represented in the cohort of those not in employment, education or training (NEET). Analysis by the CSJ has also found that persistently absent pupils are around three times more likely than their peers to go on to commit a crime within two years of leaving school.
Commenting on the report, Jess Prestidge, CSJ Deputy Policy Director, said:
“This important report from the Education Select Committee makes plain the crisis of school absence and its negative impact on children’s life chances, an issue we first brought to light in 2021.
The Government has recognised the importance of attendance and taken several very welcome steps to tackle school absences. However, the actions taken so far do not go far enough, quickly enough, and these crisis levels of absence risk becoming entrenched.
We welcome the Committee’s support for:
- The CSJ’s call to accelerate the national rollout of attendance mentors with urgency to ensure families can access the right support and put guidance on a statutory footing. The government’s current pilot scheme is set to reach just 1 per cent of severely absent children, less than 1,700 in all.
- The CSJ’s call for an enrichment guarantee and extended school day for pupils in school including the use of sport, music, drama and art, looking to the youth sector for best practice, with KPIs focusing on improving school attendance.
- And the Committee’s support for the Government to deliver on its commitment to introduce a register of children not in school to be fully operational for the 2024/25 academic year.
We continue to track termly school absence figures and will work alongside the Education Select Committee and others to deliver a comprehensive response that matches the scale and urgency of the challenge at hand. Failure to act now will result in a whole generation left behind.”
Help keep news FREE for our readers
Supporting your local community newspaper/online news outlet is crucial now more than ever. If you believe in independent journalism, then consider making a valuable contribution by making a one-time or monthly donation. We operate in rural areas where providing unbiased news can be challenging. Read More About Supporting The West Wales Chronicle