Responding to today's new school attendance figures, which show, a slight improvement in the overall absence rate from 6.8% during autumn term 2023/24, to 6.5% over a similar period in 2024/25, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said:

“It is encouraging that attendance figures across the autumn term moved in the right direction compared with the similar period the previous year - despite a spike in absence again appearing towards the end of term, driven largely by illness.

“However, there is still a long way to go, and schools are continuing to work incredibly hard to increase attendance, including by tackling unauthorised absence.

“Many of the causes of absence lie beyond the school gates, though, and have their roots in social challenges facing families, poverty, and issues like physical and mental health, which fines for parents do nothing to address.

“Measures announced in the new Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, such as free breakfast clubs and a register of children not in school, will help - but we also need the government to reinvest in crucial services which support families and schools and have faced huge cuts under previous administrations.

“Fresh investment in services like social care, mental health and special education needs, and roles like education welfare officers, allied with tangible action to address the causes of poverty, would help make a real difference to children’s attendance at school."