Parents in England face higher fines from Monday if their children are taken out of school without permission, as new guidance kicks in.

The Department of Education (DfE) revealed plans in February to consider fines for unauthorised absence for parents whose children miss five days of school.

School absence fines have increased from £60 to £80, which will now rise to £160 if unpaid within 21 days, rather than £120.

If the same parent is fined again within a three-year period, the fine stands at £160 from the start.

A third penalty notice cannot be given in this time – instead, “alternative action” should be considered, which would likely include prosecution.

Nearly 400,000 penalty notices were issued in England in 2022-23 for unauthorised school absences, which was much higher than pre-pandemic levels.

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Almost nine in 10 (89.3%) of the fines were for unauthorised holidays as families looked to book cheaper vacations outside school term times, according to DfE figures released in December.

Schools and local authorities must take a “support-first” approach to help pupils and their families to tackle barriers to attendance, according to the guidance.

A “formal attendance contract” should be agreed, or a family court order pursued if deemed necessary – escalating to a fine if all other routes fail.

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Fines are ‘blunt tool’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said in February when the plans were first announced: “A consistent national framework for fines makes sense.

“Currently there is significant variation between how and when local authorities issue fines to parents.

“However, parents will likely be surprised that at a time when schools are struggling to find enough teachers to teach classes, when buildings are crumbling, and when we are in the middle of a crisis in special needs provision, that the government is choosing to focus on increasing fines for parents.

“Good attendance is obviously critically important, but fines have long proven to be too blunt a tool and largely ineffective at improving persistent absence.”

Read more:
Number of children vanishing from school rises by quarter
National register of ‘ghost children’ missing from education

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Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said at the time these fines “predominately relate to pupils who are taken out of school for term-time holidays”.

“While nobody wants to be in a position of fining parents there simply has to be a marker that this is not acceptable,” he said.

“Not only does it affect the child’s education but it means teachers then have to spend time helping children to catch up with lost learning. If everybody did this it would be chaos.”

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