Unauthorised school absences across Yorkshire and Humber that ‘harm children’s life chances’ hit record high

Department for Education data shows that 2.8 per cent of school sessions in Yorkshire and the Humber were missed without an authorised reason, more than double the rate from 2016 when comparable data was first collected.

This is around 50 per cent higher than London and the East of England.

The overall absence rate, which includes pupils which have been signed off by teachers, has dropped from 2022’s record high, 7.7 per cent, down to 7.1 per cent in autumn 2023.

Although this is still significantly higher than before Covid, and more than a fifth of those pupils are persistently absent and miss at least 10 per cent of their lessons.

Former Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield said this will have a significant impact on these children’s life chances and that the previous government “had stuck its head in the sand about the scale of the problem”.

She told the Yorkshire Post: “We know that Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East are the areas where the pandemic had the biggest impact.

“We know that children were out of school longest for various periods in the pandemic in those regions.

“Linked to that, there are more areas of entrenched disadvantage in Yorkshire and Humber and the North East.“It’s a toxic, vicious circle of entrenched disadvantage, pandemic hitting hard and poorer communities not having the resilience to respond, which we see coming through with kids in terms of their behaviour.

“They need extra support in schools and they are struggling.”

Ilkley-based Ms Longfield, who is now the executive chair of the new Centre For Young Lives, said that a lot of the issues were down to children with special educational needs, who are often yet to be diagnosed.

The latest figures show Sheffield has the highest rate of unauthorised absences in the region, at 3.75 per cent, followed by Bradford, at 3.49 per cent.

Affluent North Yorkshire has the lowest rate at 1.83 per cent.

Across England, the overall absence rate has dropped to 6.7 per cent from 7.5 per cent in autumn 2022.

It comes after a Yorkshire Post investigation into the crisis found that a draconian approach to tackling school attendance is forcing children to often be taught at home, in what could be considered unsuitable environments.

Parents from across the region have said they felt forced to home educate as their children with autism were not given enough support, and ended up lashing out and getting excluded.

One told this paper their son “doesn't fit the system”. She added: “He has been failed in his first years."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “High and rising school standards are at the heart of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. Strong foundations of learning are grounded in attendance in the classroom and these levels of absence are much too high.

“Our 'support-first' approach to attendance encourages schools to work alongside parents to meet their responsibilities to ensure their child attends school.

“We will also tackle the causes of absence including by providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every secondary school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs.”