Northern children with special educational needs more likely to miss school

Vulnerable children and those from disadvantaged areas of the UK are at higher risk of not being in school, the latest Child of the North report reveals.

The report calls on the new Government to focus its school absence strategy on earlier identification and intervention with children most at risk of persistent absence.

"An evidence-based plan for improving school attendance ", is the tenth in a monthly series of twelve Child of the North/Centre for Young Lives reports being published during 2024 to support the Government's ambitious Opportunity Mission vision for children. Each of the reports show how putting the interests and life chances of children at the heart of policy making and delivery is crucial to Britain's future success.

We urgently need to create an education system that identifies and supports children at risk of disengagement before they fall behind, so every child has the chance to succeed, no matter their background.

This latest report comes a few days after the most recent Department for Education data showed around 150,000 children in England are missing half or more of their time at school. This severe absence crisis is continuing to grow, even as the number of children persistently absent falls.

School absence is associated with a range of negative secondary impacts on children's physical health, mental wellbeing, workforce involvement, and interaction with the criminal justice system. In 2018-19 only 36% of persistently absent children achieved expected grades in English and Maths, compared to 78% of children rarely absent from school. Persistently absent children have a nearly 4 times increased risk of becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).

Professor Mark Mon Williams, Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Leeds and editor of the Child of The North report series, said: "The crisis in school attendance goes beyond numbers - it represents the life chances of thousands of children. When children are not in school, they are not just missing lessons; they are at risk of potential danger, and they are losing opportunities for healthy development.

"We urgently need to create an education system that identifies and supports children at risk of disengagement before they fall behind, so every child has the chance to succeed, no matter their background.

"The UK's future depends on everyone supporting schools to be inclusive places where all children and young people feel they belong."

School absence can also be a safeguarding issue, and children who are missing school can be at greater risk of criminal or sexual exploitation and/or serious violence.

Reasons for absence are complex

The report warns that the current national approach to tackling school absence is far too punitive and uniform. Many headteachers say that strategies used prior to the pandemic to tackle school absence are no longer as effective as they were before 2020.

Between 2015-16 and 2023-24, the overall school absence rate rose in England by 57%. The report highlights how school absence in primary school is linked to greater school absence in a child's later years. It also reveals how there are higher levels of school absence in disadvantaged areas, including how:

• Rates of unauthorised absence were 34% higher in the North of England than the South of England.
• The highest rates of unauthorised persistent absence are in the North of England, where on average 1 in 10 children were considered persistently absent for unauthorised reasons.
• The overall persistent absence rate is highest in the South West (22.2%) and Yorkshire and The Humber (22.1%), while Outer London recorded the lowest overall persistent absence rate of 18.7%.
• Children in the North of England experienced longer COVID-19 lockdowns and continue to experience higher levels of poverty and reduced educational funding and the North has more local authorities with higher rates of both school absence and higher deprivation.

The report argues that the reasons for children being absent from school are complex and there are often a multitude of risk factors leading to absence, including larger issues of inequality and deprivation, marginalisation, Special Educational Needs, mental health challenges, tooth decay, and family and parental factors. Even within local areas there can be variable school attendance rates. For example, through analysis of the Connected Bradford population linked research database, the report reveals large discrepancies in school attendance across the Bradford District. One Bradford locality showed an unauthorised absence rate over 22 times greater than the locality with the lowest rate. In some areas, 80% of the total unauthorised absences were attributable to about 12% of pupils.

Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said: "The reasons why children miss school are often complex and there is no silver bullet. However, the one-size-fits-all and often punitive approach that previous Governments have taken to tackle absence needs to be consigned to the past. Simply, threatening parents with fines is not working for many families and not reducing severe absence rates."

The report also shows how vulnerable children are at increased risk of school absence:

• For the 2023-24 academic year, persistent non-attendance rates were 20.7% overall, increasing to 37% for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and 35.7% for those receiving free school meals.
• The persistent absence rate for pupils with an Education Health Care Plan was 37.6% - substantially higher than for those without special needs (18.6%).
• Attendance was only 77% for girls in Key Stage 4 who have special educational needs and were eligible for pupil premium (additional school level funding to support disadvantaged pupils) in 2024.
• Autistic pupils experience high rates of persistent absence, with a rate of 31% in 2020-21.
• 39% of pupils identified as young carers were persistently absent from school.
• Children with short-term social worker involvement experienced higher rates of absence/persistent absence and exclusion.

The report makes a series of policy recommendations to tackle the school absence crisis, including:

Enhancing early intervention for children at risk of absence

Central and local government should support schools to implement early identification of students at risk of persistent absence, focusing on those from disadvantaged backgrounds, children with special educational needs (SEN), and those living in high-deprivation areas. Interventions should include targeted support plans, regular attendance monitoring, and collaboration between schools, social services, and health providers to address underlying issues such as mental health and family stress.

Schools should establish early screening methods to identify at-risk pupils before attendance issues escalate. In some cases, mentoring programmes, where trained mentors provide both academic and emotional support, should be offered. Mentors can build positive relationships and offer guidance, helping pupils stay engaged with their education.

Schools must be supported to engage with parents in creating realistic, individual support plans that address both academic and personal challenges.

Fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity in schools

Government - via frameworks such as Ofsted - should reward schools that promote inclusive environments that emphasise relational approaches, helping pupils feel valued and safe. Schools should focus on creating a supportive culture through peer support systems, extracurricular activities, and a focus on mental health.

Ensuring that children feel connected to their school community can improve attendance rates and reduce disengagement. This should include supporting schools to provide extracurricular activities, enrichment programmes, peer support systems, and volunteer opportunities to help children feel engaged and develop a sense of identity within the school.

Developing cross-service collaboration for holistic support

National and local government should encourage closer collaboration between education, healthcare, and social services to provide integrated support for students facing complex challenges. Schools should serve as hubs for receiving multi-agency assistance, ensuring that health and social issues are addressed within the school setting, reducing barriers to attendance, and improving overall wellbeing.

There needs to be coordinated support of multiple agencies, and building of multi-agency partnerships, involving local authorities, community organisations, and healthcare services. These partnerships can help identify the root causes of absenteeism-whether due to mental health, family circumstances, or other factors-and the networks can then work collaboratively to provide targeted, individualised support. Local Authorities should play a central role in facilitating this approach.

Dr Camilla Kingdon, Former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "Each of these groups represents part of our future and we cannot let them down in the ways described in this report. The solutions are complex but time is of the essence and I commend the policy recommendations laid out in this 10th report from Centre for Young Lives/Child of the North."

Further information

For more information, please contact the University of Leeds press office on [email protected].

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