Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is set to unveil a new roadmap aimed at bolstering pupil attendance across schools, amid ongoing struggles to restore pre-pandemic attendance levels. The government plans to introduce individual minimum attendance improvement targets for every school, tailored using artificial intelligence to reflect each school’s unique circumstances such as location, pupil needs, and levels of deprivation. These targets form part of the attendance baseline improvement expectation (ABIE) initiative, designed to ensure that children return to classrooms ready to learn.
Significantly, these attendance targets will not be used as part of formal school accountability measures. Ofsted will not have access to the targets, and they will not be publicly published. Instead, performance data will guide targeted support interventions through Regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams and the launch of 36 new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs, which aim to provide personalised one-on-one support to pupils struggling with attendance.
Ms Phillipson emphasised the crucial link between attendance and opportunity, stating, “We can only deliver opportunity for children in our country if they’re in school, achieving and thriving.” She highlighted the need to tackle attendance variation head-on by collaborating with schools to set bespoke targets, particularly as a third of schools have yet to improve their attendance statistics.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall school absence rate stood at 4.7%, but it surged to 7.6% in the 2021/22 academic year, with persistent absence , defined as missing more than 10% of school days , nearly doubling. Despite progress under the current Labour government, including 5.3 million additional school days attended and 140,000 fewer persistently absent pupils in the last year, the government remains committed to restoring attendance to pre-pandemic levels.
However, these new plans have met criticism from teaching unions. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, argued that schools are already exerting extraordinary efforts to improve attendance and that adding new targets could be counterproductive. Instead, he called for more practical resources and investment in community services that support families facing challenges affecting attendance.
Similarly, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, urged the government to recognise the complexities schools face rather than imposing further directives from Whitehall. He noted that many causes of absence are beyond schools’ direct control, and new attendance targets risk increasing pressure on already stretched staff without addressing root problems. Di’Iasio suggested that dedicated school attendance officers working directly with families would be a more effective measure, alongside better funding and support.
Official government data confirms the persistent challenges schools face with attendance, corroborating much of the criticism. Attendance remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels across state-funded primary, secondary, and special schools, with disparities particularly pronounced among disadvantaged groups. The Children's Commissioner’s office and further independent reports describe the issue as a national crisis, drawing attention to the long-term impact of COVID-19 disruptions on pupils’ learning and wellbeing.
The debate around these new attendance targets reflects broader concerns about balancing accountability with the practical realities schools encounter. While the government asserts that targeted support through ABIE and RISE will help improve attendance in a focused manner, school leaders and unions warn that without sufficient resources and understanding of external factors, such strategies could risk adding strain rather than delivering meaningful progress.
As the new policies roll out, the success of this approach will likely depend on how well the government couples data-driven targets with enhanced frontline support and community investment to address the complex reasons behind pupil absence.
📌 Reference Map:
- [1] (Mirror) - Paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
- [2] (UK Government) - Paragraph 8
- [3] (Children’s Commissioner) - Paragraph 8
- [5] (TES) - Paragraph 8
- [6] (FE News) - Paragraph 8
Source: Noah Wire Services