Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Deferred
Paragraph: 56
Require legal intervention as last resort, introducing a national framework for consistent attendance fines.
Recommendation
We recommend the Department instruct schools and local authorities to explore methods of support for pupils and families before the use of fines or prosecution, ensuring that legal intervention is a last resort only. The Department should be more explicit about this in its revisions to the guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’. These revisions should include a national framework for fines and prosecution, to ensure consistency between local authority use. We reiterate, the Department should legislate for this guidance to be made statutory.
Government response summary AI-generated
The Government states its guidance already promotes a 'support first' approach but will use the inquiry's evidence to inform future regulatory or legislative changes for a national framework on fines, and remains committed to legislating for statutory guidance when parliamentary time allows.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
56
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
30. The ‘Working together to improve attendance’ guidance is clear that in most cases, local agencies collaborating to provide ‘support first’ is the right approach to tackle attendance problems. The core focus of the guidance is on prevention and early intervention, particularly for absence with complex causes. The guidance is also clear that there are some situations in which support to improve attendance is not appropriate Government response 7 such as an unauthorised holiday in term time. In these cases, and in circumstances where support is not successful, or is not engaged with, it is right that the law protects a pupil’s right to an education. Here, there is a clear role for the use of legal intervention to secure a pupil’s regular attendance. This includes fixed penalty notices which the guidance says explicitly ‘are intended to prevent the need for court action and should only be used where likely to change parental behaviour’.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗