Expert Crackdown on Truancy to Boost School Attendance
The Education Secretary is going all out to make school attendance the top priority. New expert attendance advisers, packed with decades of frontline experience, are being deployed to slash pupil absence rates.
Targeted Support for Schools and Local Authorities
These advisers will team up with local authorities and multi-academy trusts flagged as needing a boost. Their mission: to re-engage pupils who’ve been persistently absent and turn attendance around.
The Department for Education has also spotlighted schools that achieved the biggest drop in absence over five years before the pandemic—and kept up their stellar attendance. These schools will be sharing their winning tactics with others in the weeks ahead, aiming to tackle high absence rates nationwide.
Schools Minister Visits Top Attenders
Schools Minister Robin Walker visited London Academy, a school with above-average attendance, on 25 November. He praised their approach and urged everyone involved with children—teachers, social workers, youth workers, and parents—to break down barriers keeping pupils from the classroom.
“Every lesson we prevent a child from missing builds their life chances, development, and wellbeing,” said Walker. “My department is focused on helping schools, local authorities, and trusts boost attendance. COVID-19 still causes unavoidable absences, but we must tackle every other reason children miss school.”
Big Plans to Tackle Truancy
- Advisers will draw on experience as ex-headteachers and local leaders to tailor attendance strategies.
- They’ll help improve data use and join forces across agencies—from social workers to housing officers—to tackle attendance barriers.
- The government highlights pupils’ own voices—kids say they “like school” and that screen time can’t replace real teachers.
Funding and Programmes Backing Attendance
- Pupil Premium and recovery funds can be used flexibly by school leaders to boost attendance and tackle behaviour and wellbeing.
- A £45 million investment launches SAFE and alternative provision taskforces targeting serious violence hotspots, keeping at-risk children in education.
- Virtual School Heads’ roles expand to champion children with social workers, offering more tailored support.
- Supporting Families programme targets early help for attendance issues before social care gets involved.
- £17 million pumped into mental health and wellbeing support, including training senior mental health leads in a third of schools and colleges.
- Additional £79 million funds more mental health support teams in schools and colleges.
With these moves, the government aims to get every child in the classroom and learning alongside inspiring teachers—because missing school shouldn’t be an option.
