Pupils: Attendance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has undertaken an assessment of the potential impact of parental requests for term-time leave on school attendance rates; and whether she plans to review the system of fixed penalty notices.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
Absence is a key barrier to opportunity. For children to achieve and thrive, they need to be in school. The department’s statutory ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance sets clear expectations for schools and local authorities on attendance support and the proportionate use of enforcement, including when penalty notices may be considered. The guidance emphasises a support first approach and makes clear that legal intervention should only be used where support has been exhausted, not engaged with, or not appropriate, including in most cases of unauthorised term-time holidays
In 2024/25, term-time holidays accounted for 93% of penalty cases. Missing 10 days a year, alongside an average number of days off for sickness/medical appointments, amounts to around a full year of lost education by year 11.
A new national framework for penalty notices came into effect from August 2024 designed to embed our support-first approach and improve consistency and fairness across the country. The department will continue to keep the attendance enforcement system under review.
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