Parents face prosecution if they fail to pay fines for taking children out of school, minister says
The government is increasing fines for parents who take their children out of school as part of an "attendance drive".
Thursday 29 February 2024 09:18, UK
Parents face prosecution if they fail to pay fines for taking their children out of school, a minister has said.
Education minister Damian Hinds said there had to be a "deterrent" for taking children out of school unnecessarily during term time.
It comes as the government announced overnight that fines for parents whose children miss school will rise by at least £20 as part of an "attendance drive".
The Department for Education (DfE) said a national framework would be introduced from the start of the 2024/25 school year "to help tackle inconsistencies" in how much institutions charge for unauthorised absences, and all parents must be considered for the penalty if a child misses five days.
The cost of a fine will rise from £60 to £80 if paid within 21 days, and from £120 to £160 if paid within 28 days, the DfE said.
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Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Hinds said parents who fail to pay the penalty "face legal proceedings" as with any other fine, but that the government's aim was to ensure no action is taken in the first place.
"There has to be a deterrent for taking children out of school unnecessarily during term times, because every day at school really, really matters, and that's where fixed penalty notices come in," he said.
Asked what will happen if parents don't pay the fines, Mr Hinds said it was "a legal requirement to have a suitable education for your child".
"As with fines in general... there is a system that you go through if you don't pay within 21 days, the amount goes up," he said.
"Ultimately, of course, non-payment of fines results can result in proceedings that account for other fines - but that's not where we want to be.
"We don't want people paying these fines at all. We want the children to be in school."
The general secretary of the National Education Union, Daniel Kebede, said fining parents more was "not the answer", especially during a cost of living crisis, claiming the move would "simply plunge them into debt".
"There is no evidence that fining parents improves attendance," he said. "It simply drives young people out of the system."
Other measures will see every state school in England share their registers across the sector, including with the DfE, councils and trusts, to create a database to help spot trends.
And a new national attendance ambassador has been appointed - the chief executive of the Northern Education Trust, Rob Tarn - to support the sector to improve attendance.
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But Labour's shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, accused the government of "only just waking up to the damage of persistent absence that has reached historic levels on their watch", and said the measures only "address the symptoms of absence, not the causes".
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She said: "Persistent absence was rising long before the pandemic - the result of growing unaddressed mental ill health and the impact of years of economic decline hitting family finances and a breakdown of trust between schools and families."
Ms Phillipson urged the government to follow her party's plan to introduce a register of children not attending and to provide mental health support in every school.