Labour has vowed to reset the “broken relationship between schools and families” by tackling the crisis in pupil absences and child mental health, ahead of rival policy announcements from the party and the government this week.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, is to set out the “generational challenges” facing England’s schools and pupils in a keynote speech on Tuesday. It will come a day after the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, announces the government’s latest efforts to repair school attendance rates since the Covid pandemic.
Phillipson told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “The challenge that we’re seeing at the moment around persistent absenteeism means that one in five children are regularly out of school. That figure is set to rise to one in four.
“That is a staggering number of children. It’s damaging their life chances and it’s damaging the life chances of all of the children within the school community too.”
In her speech, Phillipson will state: “The Conservatives have nothing to say about the broken relationship between schools and families that has provoked the crisis we’re seeing in attendance – these measures are only tinkering around the edges of a generational challenge.
“Persistent absence has reached historic levels under the Conservatives, beginning even before the pandemic, and they cannot be trusted to fix a problem that they have caused.”
Labour’s plans include more mental health counsellors for secondary schools, and universal free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil. The plans will only apply to England, with education policy devolved to national governments.
Phillipson said parents would be expected to play their part, telling the BBC: “Those parents that choose to take their children out of school, for holidays or for trips or where it’s not necessary, should reflect seriously because that damages children’s life chances. They only get one chance at school. They only get one childhood.”
The Centre for Social Justice thinktank released a survey that found 28% of UK parents agreed that “the pandemic has shown it is not essential for children to attend school every day”, while 58% disagreed. But in response to a further question, 88% of parents agreed “it is vital children attend school as much as possible”, with only 8% disagreeing.
On Monday, the Department for Education (DfE) is to announce its own measures, which expand existing efforts to improve attendance. Last week the Guardian revealed that the centrepiece of Keegan’s announcement included £15m funding for “attendance mentors” in 10 of the worst-hit areas, providing one-to-one support for about 3,600 persistently absent children a year.
A pilot of the attendance mentor scheme, run by the children’s charity Barnardo’s, is already running in five areas. Barnardo’s said that in Middlesbrough the mentors had improved the attendance of more than 80% of the children involved.
The DfE’s most recent figures show unauthorised absences in secondary schools, as well as absences involving illness, are still well above levels seen before the pandemic in 2020.
The DfE will this week also begin a national campaign on the importance of attendance, using the strapline “moments matter, attendance counts”. The DfE did not disclose how much it would spend on the campaign.
Keegan said: “Tackling attendance is my number one priority.”
