Andy Cook: Time to end the school absence crisis wrecking children’s futures

Andy Cook is Chief Executive at the Centre for Social Justice. 

Britain cannot hope to grow its economy if hundreds of thousands of young people are vanishing from classrooms. Persistent school absence is a disaster for individual prospects but it is also an economic time bomb. A new report by the Centre for Social Justice, Absent Ambition, lays bare both the scale and root causes of this crisis.

Despite some progress since the pandemic, persistent absence – defined as pupils missing over one in every ten schooldays – remains 40 per cent higher than before Covid. That puts around 180,000 young people at risk of drifting into long-term worklessness this parliament, we estimate.

Polling commissioned for the report reveals an alarming shift in attitudes.

Almost half of parents now think it is “reasonable” for a child to be persistently absent. Even more worryingly, two in five parents of secondary pupils believe that what is taught in schools is unlikely to help their child later in life. This collapse in confidence about the purpose of education risks entrenching a culture of truancy.

But it is important to remember how we got here.

The Covid lockdowns poured petrol on social problems already aflame in our poorest communities. Not so bad for those moving to ‘school from home’ in affluent suburbs, perhaps, but the impact on young people locked away from classrooms in high-rise flats, or with single parents out to work, was devastating.

Sadly, the scale of this challenge was not immediately grasped (England was in the bottom fifth for reversing the truancy crisis witnessed globally), and this failure is now coming home to roost.

Consider the data. A child with good attendance is three times as likely to secure good GCSEs in English and maths compared to those whose attendance dips below 90 per cent. Pupils skipping school are far more likely to tread a path into crime or unemployment. Over a working life the average persistently absent pupil will take home £10,000 a year less in earnings by their late twenties.

Staggeringly, higher levels of truancy across England today could translate into an estimated £28 billion lost in lifetime income.

So more urgent action is needed. Last week the Education Secretary acknowledged this, saying “we all need to do more, and when it comes to getting kids in and behaving – this includes mums, dads and carers too”. Specifically, this means attacking softening attitudes about the importance of school attendance.

To this end the CSJ proposes new attendance awareness courses, modelled on the “speed awareness” courses for motorists. Parents of children taking unauthorised absences would be required to attend and learn first-hand about the profoundly harmful impact of missed school on their child’s life chances. Those who refuse would face increased fines of up to £200.

The approach is designed to tackle the issue at its root. Rather than leaping straight to punishment, it gives families the chance to reset their understanding and rebuild routines. Yet it also makes clear that education is a legal duty, not an optional extra. Modelling suggests that at full rollout it could see over one million fewer days lost to absence over the parliament. And so it is hugely encouraging to see both Laura Trott, shadow education secretary, and ministers in the Department for Education welcoming the CSJ’s proposals.

Of course, stronger enforcement alone will not solve the problem. Many readers will know a parent trying their level best to return a child back to school – and there is more to be done to provide better support to these families within existing budgets. The report proposes a national network of attendance mentors, trained to work with parents of severely absent pupils, including those with special educational needs. I’ve seen how these mentors can break the cycle of absence for good.

The challenge now for schools is to inspire as well as to educate, building on the huge success of reforms to standards over the last fifteen years. For example, we’ve found that absence can be tackled by more closely linking lessons to future jobs and work placements; and by widening the extracurricular activities that teach discipline and broaden horizons, such as sport (something we rightly see given great emphasis in the independent school sector).

As the children settle back into school this Autumn, this could be a turning point for this crisis.

We can either shrug our shoulders as absence becomes normalised, or we can insist – as previous generations did – that school is the route to opportunity. Britain’s children deserve nothing less.

The cost of failure will be counted not only in lost earnings, but in wasted lives.