Fines to return in Wales for parents of children who repeatedly miss school

Fines for parents of children who repeatedly miss school will once again be issued, Wales’ education minister has confirmed.

It comes amid growing concern about the number of pupil absences since the return to school after the pandemic.

Over the last two years while covid measures were in place the Welsh Government advised against the use of fixed-penalty notices by local authorities.

However speaking in the Senedd yesterday (Tuesday 3 May) Education Minister Jeremy Miles said Wales was “now at a stage where we can revert back to the previous policy, where they can be used as a last resort.”

He added that fines will only be used in the most “extreme cases” after efforts to engage with the family have been tried.

Currently persistent absence from school is classed as more than 20 per cent, however this will be reviewed to cover a lower threshold.

Mr Miles said: “The last two years have been incredibly difficult for many families, and it’s understandable why this has caused so many of them a degree of anxiety.

“We have remained mindful of these anxieties, but the balance of harms is now clear.

“Young people need to be attending school. They need to be seeing their friends and they need to be learning in the classroom. This is vital for their well-being and for their education.

“We will therefore be increasing communication with parents and carers to address any concerns that they still have, and emphasise the importance of going to school.

“Our emphasis on community focused schools will play a key role in responding to this challenge.

“Family engagement officers are vital in ensuring that positive partnerships are created and that bespoke support is offered.

“We’ve recently provided £3.84 million for family engagement officers, who will establish positive relationships with parents and provide clear guidance and information on good attendance.

“We remain clear that fines are to be used in only the most extreme cases, as part of a range of options and when all efforts to engage with the family have been tried and failed, and where it is evident that there are no underlying reasons that are impacting upon attendance at school.

“Effective immediately, therefore, all local authorities should revert to guidance on the use of fixed-penalty notices contained within the 2013 guidance on penalty notices for regular non-attendance at school.”

Conservative MS Laura Anne Jones called for a “multi-pronged” approach in tackling school absences by “strengthening fixed-penalty notices or ensuring the educational offering is up to a certain standard and enticing for the learner, and that that support—mainly that support—is in place.”

She said: “How are you going to better closely monitor long-term absences, and will you change the related trigger points for interventions to ensure absences aren’t missed?

“It’s also known from the attendance review that deteriorating absence can be a precursor to and predictor of a range of behavioural and emotional problems for learners that, if not addressed, may lead to the exclusion of these learners from school.

“It is clear that this is now a good chance to tackle truancy and our chance to make sure that students are in the classroom.

“So, will you undertake further research into the use of fixed-penalty notices and their impact on learner attendance patterns, improving learner experiences, now that fines are returning, to see if they are actually working or not.”

However there was scepticism over the effectiveness of fining parents, with Plaid Cymru MS Heledd Fychan saying it can be “pointless and damaging”.

She added that a ‘Prosecuting Parents’ report found that many children who refused to go to school did so “because of behavioural, neurological or, as has been referred to, mental health problems, and that they had had problems in getting CAMHS appointments.”

Ms Fychan said: “I do think that it’s extremely important that we do get this right as you encourage local authorities to give fixed-penalty notices once again.

“We can’t be punishing parents and carers in this situation when there is grave need for more services to support these children and young people.

“We also know that the cost-of-living crisis is having a grave impact in terms of school attendance at times.

“We have to therefore ensure that any strategy and any communication is handled sensitively in terms of those where there are good reasons for lack of attendance, and where attendance of any kind, for example, a child with a number of medical appointments, is something to be celebrated.”

The education minister said the Welsh Government would not be encouraging the use of fines, but that the opportunity was now available for local authorities to use them when all other methods had been tried.

Mr Miles added: “It is, of course, important that we tailor the way that we respond to these challenges according to the circumstances of individual pupils and the situations of the different families, and she gave many examples and there are several other valid examples that describe the complex relationship, perhaps, in various contexts between presence and absence and the different factors that she talked about.

“We have taken several steps to support those families who have greatest difficulty in affording some of those main cost elements with regard to the school day, and we have also provided further guidance in collaboration with the third sector to ensure that schools do have specific guidance in terms of how to decrease the important risk that she talked about, and that that happens.

“Every part of the education system, I believe, has a role to play in this, and as she said in her questions, Estyn has an important role to play in ensuring that the relationship with schools is there to understand what the patterns are, to understand what the data are, but also to understand why this happens—that is part of the analysis and the response.”