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1684186

registered interest
date	22/01/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Department for Education's press release entitled Major national drive to improve school attendance, published on 8 January 2024, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of this policy on children with long term conditions.
tabling member constituency	Darlington
tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
uin	10915
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2024 answer text <p>Improving attendance remains a top priority for the department. This is why it has launched a national communications campaign to remind families that “moments matter, attendance counts”.</p><p>The campaign reflects feedback from schools and local authorities and aims to primarily reach those parents whose children are taking preventable odd days of absence, or “avoidable absence”. It builds on NHS guidance and messages from the Chief Medical Officer’s letter to schools to reassure families that children can attend school with a mild cough or cold and that prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending school in the future. The guidance can be found here: <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/" target="_blank">https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/</a>, and the letter can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance/letter-to-school-leaders-on-mild-illness-and-school-attendance</a>.</p><p>The campaign is not aimed at parents of children who face greater barriers to attendance, such as pupils with long term medical conditions. Campaign materials shared with schools and local authorities reminded them that strategies to increase attendance should take a ‘support first’ approach in all instances. The department’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance expects schools to have sensitive conversations with children and families and work with them to put support in place for their individual needs. This guidance is available here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63049617e90e0729e63d3953/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63049617e90e0729e63d3953/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf</a>. Schools must also follow the ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ statutory guidance that outlines the support that pupils with medical conditions must receive at school so they have full access to education and it is available here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ce6a72e40f0b620a103bd53/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf</a>.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 30/01/2024 12:27:35 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1664758

registered interest
date	16/10/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what the school attendance rates are in (1) Leicester, (2) Leicestershire, and (3) nationally, broken down in each case by (a) primary, (b) secondary, and (c) special schools; and how these rates have changed since 2019.
tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of Leicester
uin	HL10556
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2023 answer text <p>The department publishes national statistics on pupil absence from schools in England. Figures covering the full academic year are available up to 2021/22. Figures for Leicester, Leicestershire and England from 2018/19 to 2021/22 are available in attachment table 1.</p><p>Since September 2022 the department has also published attendance statistics based on daily data collected from schools that are signed up to do so. These are not directly comparable with the national statistics but are intended to provide an early indicator. Figures for Leicester, Leicestershire and England for 2022/23 are available in attachment table 2.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL10556 QC 2018 2022 data table 1.xlsx title Data table 1 2 file name HL10556 QC 2022 2023 data table 2.xlsx title Data table 2 question first answered 26/10/2023 10:59:47 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4947 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of Leicester

1654005

registered interest
date	18/07/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated to each priority education investment area to improve school attendance.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	194840
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/07/2023 answer text <p>Funding for the 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) has been agreed and announced. Details have been published and are available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-investment-areas/local-needs-fund" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-investment-areas/local-needs-fund</a>.</p><p>The Local Needs Fund is providing up to £42 million in PEIAs to fund bespoke interventions to improve attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4. Where poor attendance has been identified as a key factor in an area, initiatives will be funded to address this. Because the mix of initiatives funded in each area reflects local need, the funding allocated to attendance projects will vary. Some projects have begun, and the remainder will commence during the rest of the calendar year. The Department will publish further details of the funding allocations for different initiatives once all the necessary grant agreements are in place.</p><p>Alongside area initiatives funded through the Local Needs Fund, PEIAs are also benefitting from the Department’s wider strategy for improving attendance. The Department has published guidance setting out how it expects schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to work together to improve attendance. This is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance</a>.</p><p>The Department has employed expert attendance advisers who are playing an important role, working closely with Local Authorities and some multi academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence to review their current practice and support them to develop plans to improve. Every Local Authority in a PEIA has been prioritised for this support.</p><p>Earlier this academic year, the Department launched a £2.32 million attendance mentoring pilot to deliver intensive one to one support to a group of persistently and severely absent pupils. The pilot will run for three years and will support a total of 1,665 pupils in five PEIAs (Middlesbrough, Knowsley, Doncaster, Stoke-on-Trent and Salford) with significant absence challenges. The findings from this pilot should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent and severe absence more effectively.</p><p>The Department has also established an alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and other relevant services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence. Several PEIAs are piloting similar local alliances to share best practice and address specific area wide challenges.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 26/07/2023 12:37:02 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1650983

registered interest
date	06/07/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding from Priority Education Investment Areas has been allocated to attendance initiatives.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	192954
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2023 answer text <p>Funding for the 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) has been agreed and announced. Details have been published and can be found on GOV.UK: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-investment-areas/local-needs-fund" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-investment-areas/local-needs-fund</a>.</p><p>The Local Needs Fund is providing up to £42 million in PEIAs to fund bespoke interventions to improve attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4. Where poor attendance has been identified as a key factor in an area, initiatives will be funded to address this. Because the mix of initiatives funded in each area reflects local need, the funding allocated to attendance projects will vary. Some projects have begun, and the remainder will commence during the rest of the calendar year. The Department will publish further details of the funding allocations for different initiatives once all the necessary grant agreements are in place.</p><p>Alongside area initiatives funded through the Local Needs Fund, PEIAs are also benefitting from the Department’s wider strategy for improving attendance. The Department has published guidance setting out how we expect schools, trusts and Local Authorities to work together to improve attendance: <a href="https://viewyourdata.education.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://viewyourdata.education.gov.uk/</a>.</p><p>The Department has employed expert attendance advisers who are playing an important role working closely with local authorities and some multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence to review their current practice and support them to develop plans to improve. Every local authority in a PEIA has been prioritised for this support.</p><p>Earlier this academic year, the Department launched a £2.32 million attendance mentoring pilot to deliver intensive one-to-one support to a group of persistently and severely absent pupils. The pilot will run for three years and will support a total of 1,665 pupils in five PEIAs (Middlesbrough, Knowsley, Doncaster, Stoke-on-Trent and Salford) with significant absence challenges. The findings from this pilot should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent and severe absence more effectively.</p><p>The Department has also established an Alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and other relevant services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence. Several PEIAs are piloting similar local Alliances to share best practice and address specific area-wide challenges.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 192952 192953 question first answered 11/07/2023 16:45:17 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1650434

registered interest
date	05/07/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve school attendance rates.
tabling member constituency	Portsmouth South
tabling member printed	Stephen Morgan
uin	192633
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/07/2023 answer text <p>The Department has a comprehensive attendance strategy to improve school attendance.  Recent guidance has been published setting out how schools, trusts and Local Authorities are expected to work together to improve attendance, which is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance</a>.</p><p>The guidance is clear that schools should develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance, have a clear school attendance policy and have effective day to day processes in place to follow up absence. The guidance sets out that schools are expected to use attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance, at individual and cohort level, as soon as possible so that all parties can work together to resolve them before they become entrenched.</p><p>The Department has employed expert attendance advisers who are playing an important role working closely with Local Authorities and a number of multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence to review their current practice and support them to develop plans to improve.</p><p>The Department has launched a £2.32 million attendance mentor pilot to deliver intensive one to one support to a group of persistently and severely absent pupils. The pilot will run for three years supporting a total of 1,665 pupils. The findings from this pilot should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent and severe absence more effectively.</p><p>The Secretary of State has also established an Alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and other relevant services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence.</p><p>The Department launched new attendance hubs with the Ofsted Outstanding Northern Education Trust. There are now 10 lead schools sharing their effective practice on attendance with up to 600 partner schools, reaching hundreds of thousands of pupils. This is alongside intensive support to Children in Need through Virtual Schools Heads.</p><p>Schools and Local Authorities can also use a range of measures to provide support for and/or sanctions against parents when their child’s irregular attendance in school becomes a problem. These measures are used to reinforce parents’ responsibilities and to support them in improving their child’s attendance at school.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 14/07/2023 11:01:58 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4653 label Biography information for Stephen Morgan

1647825

registered interest
date	26/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children did not attend (a) primary and (b) secondary school in Worcestershire in (i) 2018-19 and (ii) 2022-23.
tabling member constituency	West Worcestershire
tabling member printed	Harriett Baldwin
uin	191091
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/07/2023 answer text <p>As defined in the Section 436A of the Education Act 1996, children missing education (CME) are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.</p><p>The data shows that 1,310 children were CME, and 1,500 children were electively home educated in Worcestershire at any point in the 2021/22 academic year, the only year for which data is currently available. The data is available at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education</a>, and at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education</a>.</p><p>The Department also started collecting data on the number of school attendance orders (SAOs) in 2022. The number of SAOs issued in Worcestershire in 2021/22 has been suppressed in line with the Department’s publication methodology. This means that the figure is not zero, but rounds to zero. This is the only year for which data is currently available.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 03/07/2023 11:55:06 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin

1647827

registered interest
date	26/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in Worcestershire were subject to a School Attendance Order in (a) June 2023, (b) 2019 and (c) 2018.
tabling member constituency	West Worcestershire
tabling member printed	Harriett Baldwin
uin	191093
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/07/2023 answer text <p>As defined in the Section 436A of the Education Act 1996, children missing education (CME) are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.</p><p>The data shows that 1,310 children were CME, and 1,500 children were electively home educated in Worcestershire at any point in the 2021/22 academic year, the only year for which data is currently available. The data is available at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education(opens in a new tab)</a>, and at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education(opens in a new tab)</a>.</p><p>The Department also started collecting data on the number of school attendance orders (SAOs) in 2022. The number of SAOs issued in Worcestershire in 2021/22 has been suppressed in line with the Department’s publication methodology. This means that the figure is not zero, but rounds to zero. This is the only year for which data is currently available.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 05/07/2023 10:21:27 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin

1604427

registered interest
date	15/03/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure attendance levels in school recover to pre-covid-19 pandemic levels.
tabling member constituency	Darlington
tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
uin	166363
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/03/2023 answer text <p>The Department is clear that being in school and ready to study is crucial to pupils’ attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances.</p><p>The Department is focusing on supporting pupils to recover from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic through an ambitious multi year programme and almost £5 billion has been made available for education recovery. This funding for education recovery includes up to £1.5 billion on tutoring and nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so they can deliver evidence based interventions based on pupil needs. It also includes £400 million on teacher training opportunities, and over £800 million for additional hours in 16-19 education.</p><p>In addition, the Department has brought together an Action Alliance of lead professionals from key frontline services that support families. Members from education, health, justice, the third sector and parent organisations have collectively committed to use their roles and organisations to undertake activities to improve attendance.</p><p>The Department has also published new ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance which makes clear the importance of addressing the barriers to attendance through strong multi agency working at school, multi academy trust and Local Authority levels.</p><p>This guidance intends to ensure greater consistency in the attendance support offered to pupils and families, regardless of where they live, and emphasises the importance of providing attendance support in an earlier and more targeted way to respond to pupils’ individual needs.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 23/03/2023 16:36:44 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1604428

registered interest
date	15/03/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to support schools to increase the level of pupil attendance.
tabling member constituency	Darlington
tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
uin	166364
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/03/2023 answer text <p>The Department has a comprehensive attendance strategy to improve school attendance. Guidance has been published setting out how the Department expects schools, trusts and Local Authorities to work together to improve attendance. This can be found here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf</a>.</p><p>The Department’s guidance is clear that schools should develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance, have a clear school attendance policy and have effective day to day processes in place to follow-up absence. The guidance sets out that schools are expected to rigorously use attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance, at individual and cohort level, as soon as possible so that all parties can work together to resolve them before they become entrenched. To help schools to do this, the Department has recently launched new functionality which allows mainstream schools that are sharing daily attendance data to compare attendance with other schools within their Local Authority. This can be seen under the ‘compare your attendance tab’ in view your education data, at: <a href="https://viewyourdata.education.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://viewyourdata.education.gov.uk/</a>. The tool will help schools to identify strengths and priorities and signpost to additional guidance and support.</p><p>The Department has employed expert attendance advisers who are playing an important role working closely with Local Authorities and a number of multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence to review their current practice and support them to develop plans to improve. The Department has also recently launched a £2.32 million attendance mentor pilot to deliver intensive one to one support to a group of persistently and severely absent pupils. The pilot will run for three years supporting a total of 1,665 pupils. The findings from this pilot should enable schools, trusts, and Local Authorities to address persistent and severe absence more effectively.</p><p>My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has established an alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care and other relevant services to work together to raise school attendance and reduce persistent absence.</p><p>Schools and Local Authorities can also use a range of measures to provide support for and/or sanctions against parents when their child’s irregular attendance in school becomes a problem. These measures are used to reinforce parents’ responsibilities and to support them in improving their child’s attendance at school.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 23/03/2023 16:01:26 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1601792

registered interest
date	07/03/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Attendance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of flu on pupils’ attendance over winter 2022-23.
tabling member constituency	Garston and Halewood
tabling member printed	Maria Eagle
uin	160212
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2023 answer text <p>Regular school attendance is important for pupils’ educational progress, their wellbeing, and their wider development.</p><p>As this is the first winter without pandemic restrictions in two years, pupils and adults may be more susceptible to the usual winter bugs and viruses this year. December saw high levels of illness in pupils and young people including flu, scarlet fever, group A streptococcus and COVID-19 that will have contributed to high levels of absence. In previous years, there has been more seasonal spread of these infections. For example, group A streptococcus usually peaks in March. More recently there have been reductions in the incidence of these infections, but it cannot yet be predicted if there will be further resurgences.</p><p>During the week commencing 12 December, the weekly illness absence rate was at its highest level since the start of 2022 autumn term. The illness absence rate was 9.1%, which was up from 7.5% in the previous week and 2.6% at the start of term. In the latest data between 6 to 10 February 2023, the total weekly illness absence rate was 3.9%.</p><p>In the 2022 autumn term, all primary school aged pupils in England were offered a flu vaccination by the NHS school-aged immunisation service to manage the spread of some winter illnesses, such as flu. The Department has also provided over 8,000 air cleaning units to schools that identified poorly ventilated spaces. These devices filter airborne respiratory aerosols from the air. The Department hopes this will have a positive impact on sickness absence going forward.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 15/03/2023 17:10:19 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	483 label Biography information for Maria Eagle