Recommendations & Conclusions
5 items
2
Recommendation
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Accepted in Part
Effective recovery relies on pupils being at school but absence is higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among disadvantaged pupils. In the autumn and spring terms of 2021/22, the average absence rate for all pupils was 7.4%, compared with 4.5% for the same terms before the pandemic …
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Effective recovery relies on pupils being at school but absence is higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among disadvantaged pupils. In the autumn and spring terms of 2021/22, the average absence rate for all pupils was 7.4%, compared with 4.5% for the same terms before the pandemic in 2018/19. For disadvantaged pupils, the rate was 10.4% in 2021/22, compared with 7.2% in 2018/19. The Department says that attendance rates are improving as levels of illness reduce. It is trying to tackle pupil absence in several ways, with leadership being provided by the Attendance Action Alliance which brings together stakeholders from across the school system. The Department believes it has set strong expectations and made clear that responsibility for attendance is shared between parents, schools and local authorities. It is collecting better data, drawn directly from schools’ own systems, which it can look at in detail in real time. It also provides data back to schools to allow them to benchmark themselves against other schools. Recommendation 2: The Department should develop a better understanding of why disadvantaged pupils have higher rates of absence than others and, in addition to its ongoing work on attendance, take targeted action to reduce absence rates among disadvantaged pupils.
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Government response AI summary
The government accepts the recommendation to develop a better understanding of why disadvantaged pupils have higher absence rates, committing to build on existing analysis by July 2024. However, it disagrees with the need for *new* targeted action, stating that comprehensive measures and existing programmes (like …
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Accepted in Part
The Department recognises that a key element of improving attainment is for children to be in school.19 Rates of pupil absence from school are, however, higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.20 Written evidence we received from Action Tutoring pointed to increases in pupil absence since before the pandemic, …
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The Department recognises that a key element of improving attainment is for children to be in school.19 Rates of pupil absence from school are, however, higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.20 Written evidence we received from Action Tutoring pointed to increases in pupil absence since before the pandemic, and highlighted the stark gap in attendance between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.21 In the autumn and spring terms of 2021/22, the average absence rate for all pupils was 7.4%, compared with 4.5% for the same terms before the pandemic in 2018/19. For disadvantaged pupils, the rate was 10.4% in 2021/22, compared with 7.2% in 2018/19.22
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Government response AI summary
While the committee's item is a conclusion on the high rates of pupil absence, especially among disadvantaged pupils, the government's response commits to developing a better understanding of absence rates among disadvantaged pupils by July 2024. It also states existing comprehensive measures and targeted programmes …
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HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Accepted in Part
The Department told us that illness, rather than unauthorised absence, was the biggest driver of the increase in absence, particularly persistent absence. It noted that this year’s figures were for the autumn term only, when there had been quite a lot of illness. A pupil would only need to have …
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The Department told us that illness, rather than unauthorised absence, was the biggest driver of the increase in absence, particularly persistent absence. It noted that this year’s figures were for the autumn term only, when there had been quite a lot of illness. A pupil would only need to have missed seven days during the term to be classed as persistently absent, and quite a lot of people who got flu would have been off for seven days.23 The Department said that the data showed that attendance was lower on Fridays than on other days of the week, and a little lower on Mondays, but did not indicate why. It also noted that anecdotally this pattern had also existed before the pandemic.24
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Government response AI summary
While the committee's item is a conclusion on the drivers and patterns of pupil absence, the government's response commits to developing a better understanding of absence rates among disadvantaged pupils by July 2024. It also states existing comprehensive measures and targeted programmes are already in …
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HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Accepted in Part
We asked the Department what its plans were to deal with pupil absences. It told us that attendance rates were improving as levels of illness reduced, but there was more to be done.25 The Department said that a lot of its work on attendance started from the principle of providing …
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We asked the Department what its plans were to deal with pupil absences. It told us that attendance rates were improving as levels of illness reduced, but there was more to be done.25 The Department said that a lot of its work on attendance started from the principle of providing support, particularly for children who had other disadvantages such as vulnerable children or children with special educational needs and disabilities.26 It highlighted that attendance for children in care, which had previously been worse than for other children, was now better because of the support they were given by social workers and virtual school heads.27
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Government response AI summary
While the committee's item is a conclusion on the Department's plans for pupil absences, the government's response commits to developing a better understanding of absence rates among disadvantaged pupils by July 2024. It also states existing comprehensive measures and targeted programmes are already in place …
Read full response →
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Fifty-Fifth Report - Education recovery…
Accepted in Part
The Department said it had set a strong expectation that attendance was everyone’s responsibility, including parents, schools and local authorities. It also stressed the importance of leadership and data. It explained that national leadership was being provided by the Attendance Action Alliance which brought together key players from across the …
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The Department said it had set a strong expectation that attendance was everyone’s responsibility, including parents, schools and local authorities. It also stressed the importance of leadership and data. It explained that national leadership was being provided by the Attendance Action Alliance which brought together key players from across the school system who could make a difference, and this approach was increasingly being 18 Qq 31–32 19 Q 49 20 C&AG’s Report, para 3.19 21 ERS0002 Action Tutoring, page 4 22 C&AG’s Report, para 3.19 23 Q 68 24 Qq 52–53 25 Q 49 26 Q 37 27 Q 36 10 Education recovery in schools in England replicated at local level. The Department said the Alliance enabled a better understanding of what worked through the whole system. The range of different approaches included work with individual parents, direct support such as phoning parents up in the morning, and mentoring activities.28
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Government response AI summary
While the committee's item is a conclusion on existing attendance efforts, the government's response commits to developing a better understanding of absence rates among disadvantaged pupils by July 2024. It also states existing comprehensive measures and targeted programmes are already in place for reducing absence.
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HM Treasury