Currently schools do not have to collect data on children’s absences in nursery class and reception, and according to the Department for Education many schools do not take action to improve pupils’ attendance until children reach statutory school age at five.
Headteachers would be able to increase fines for parents whose children truant and the money for unpaid fines should be deducted automatically from parents’ child benefit.
Parents who do not receive child benefit and fail to pay the fines would have the money recovered through the county courts.
In his independent review Improving attendance at School, published today, Charlie Taylor is calling for the Government to publish data on attendance in Reception, along with local and national averages and for this to be taken into account during Ofsted inspections.
He also said that primary schools should analyse data and pick up on children who are missing school regularly and support parents in nursery and reception who are having problems getting their children to school.
Other recommendations include allowing schools to increase the fines they issue to parents of children who continually miss school without a valid reason to £60 (an increase of £10), doubling to £120 if they fail to pay within 28 days.
More than 32,000 penalty notices for school absences were issued to parents last year, but around half were unpaid or were withdrawn.
Currently, after 42 days the penalty notice has to be withdrawn and the last recourse is for local authorities to prosecute parents for the offence.
In 2010 out of 9,147 parents found guilty by the courts, 6,591 were fined or faced more severe penalties.
Latest figures from the Department for Education show that almost 400,000 pupils miss 15 per cent of schooling a year – the equivalent of having a month off school.
Ministers say that evidence shows that if parents allow their children to miss lots of time in primary school, they are more likely to truant as teenagers. Much of the work these children miss when they are off school is never made up, leaving them at a great disadvantage for the remainder of their time at school.
Most parents who are taken to court for their children’s poor attendance are in Years 10 and 11, but this is usually too late to do anything about the problem.
Term-time holidays are also a major reason for absence. The Governemnt also said that while there should be no outright ban on parents taking children on holiday during term-time the rules should be tougher.
The Pupil Registration Regulations will be amended to make it clear that schools should only give permission for term-time holdiays in 'exceptional circumstances'.
Charlie Taylor, the adviser who carried out the review on improving school attendance, said, ‘We know that some parents simply allow their children to miss lessons and then refuse to pay the fine. It means the penalty has no effect, and children continue to lose vital days of education they can never recover.
‘Recouping the fines through child benefit, along with other changes to the overall system, will strengthen and simplify the system. It would give head teachers the backing they need in getting parents to play their part.’
Education secretary Michael Gove, who commissioned the review in the wake of last summer’s riots, said, ‘We must do everything to improve school attendance so that all children benefit from good teaching. Successive governments have focussed overwhelmingly on tackling truancy amongst older children. We now need a fundamental change in approach.
‘Improving the attendance of younger children at primary school will reduce the number who develop truancy problems when they are older.’
He added, ‘We must also equip schools to tackle the minority of parents who do not heed that message. Sanctions are most likely to work if their effect is immediate and if they are simple to administer.
‘I agree that the current penalty notice scheme should be simplified. I will work with my colleagues in the Government to explore ways to make the payment of penalty notices swift and certain.’
'Fines too simplistic'
Alison Ryan, education policy adviser at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said she agreed that schools should intervene early to tackle pupil absentteeism, but that raising fines was too 'simplistic' to solve the complex range of issues which lead pupils to truant – from bullying, struggling at school, failure to see the value of education, to chaotic home lives with families affected by drink or drug abuse or housing problems.
She added, ''Putting up fines is likely to hit the most vulnerable families and risks alienating them and their children even further from education.
'Vulnerable families often need a range of solutions to support them such as parent support workers, Sure Start Centres to help parents who struggle with parenting, and mental health and social services to help tackle problems in chaotic home lives.
'But Government cuts to local authority budgets are hitting many of these support services with Sure Start Centres closing and cuts to education psychologists and behaviour management staff.'
