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Absence thresholds: New £80 fines will hit disadvantaged students hardest

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Students in years 9 and 10, disadvantaged young people, and those with SEN are among the groups most likely to receive the new £80 fines for persistent absence.
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A new analysis shows that if new government thresholds had been implemented in 2022/23, one in five students would have received parental fines.

A national framework for parental fines is being introduced from September with fines of £80 for any student who misses 10 or more half-days within any 10-week period.

An analysis published this week (Bibby & Thomson, 2024) and based on attendance data from almost 10,000 schools considered the number of students who would have broken this new threshold in 2022/23.

The results vary. While 15% of primary pupils broke the threshold in years 3 to 6, the proportion steadily increases from year 7 until it peaks in years 9 and 10 at around 23%.

And many students broke the threshold more than once with year 9 (13%) and year 10 (14%) once again having the worst figures.

But it is when you factor in SEN and disadvantage that the picture of just who will be getting fined becomes stark.

When it comes to students on free school meals, more than 40% of disadvantaged year 10 pupils would have been fined in 2022/23 compared to 16% of their non-disadvantaged peers. The figures are similar for year 9.

The same story is told for students with SEN: around 34% of year 10 students would have been fined compared to just over 20% of their non-SEN peers.

Unfair fines? The analysis from FFT Education Datalab shows that both SEND students and those on free school meals will be among the hardest hit by the new £80 fines and absence thresholds (source: Bibby & Thomson, 2024)

 

The analysts warn that their figures are likely to be an underestimate as the data is for 2022/23 alone and doesn’t consider any 10-week periods that overlap with previous or subsequent academic years.

The DfE said that its new national framework will “tackle inconsistencies” in the use of fines across the country.

The framework will be introduced from September when the Working together to improve school attendance guidance will become statutory.

The new rules still give schools and local authorities discretion, although while this means fines might not be issued in every case, it also means fines can be issued even before the new threshold is met.

The guidance requires that schools take “a support-first approach to help pupils and their families to tackle barriers to attendance”. Expectations include regular meetings between schools and local authorities to agree plans for the most at-risk absent children.

The DfE adds: “It particularly emphasises the importance of support for pupils with SEND and mental ill-health who often need more individual consideration due to wider barriers. It asks schools, local authorities and wider services to work together to support these pupils, encouraging early intervention and close working with families to address their individual needs.”

Also under the new guidance, all state schools in England will be required to share their daily attendance registers. The DfE wants this information to form a “new world-leading attendance dataset” which it says will help schools and others to identify absence trends.

Schools, trusts and councils will be able to access this data via an “interactive secure data dashboard” which is to be maintained by the DfE. However, it should be said that most schools already share their attendance data.

Commenting this week, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that parental fines “predominately relate to pupils who are taken out of school for term-time holidays” but warned of a wider issue related to mental health and disengagement from education.

He explained: “There is a wider issue about absence relating to the growing number of children who suffer from anxiety and other mental health issues, families who are struggling to cope, and disengagement with education, which schools are endeavouring to address by working with families and pupils to improve their attendance rather than using fines.

“Schools need more help from the government in this work both in terms of the funding they receive and investment in local social care, attendance and mental health services. Education has become an unofficial fourth emergency service picking up the pieces for a decade-long erosion of support services. This cannot go on."