Labour is proposing measures to improve school attendance in England, including free breakfast clubs for primary schools and increased funding for early speech and language interventions. The plans also involve creating a national register for home-schooled pupils, using Ofsted to review attendance data, and employing AI to identify trends in absence. The funding for these measures would come from ending tax breaks for private schools. The move is in response to data showing over 20% of children in England are persistently absent from school, double the pre-Covid proportion. The plans are supported by Sir Kevan Collins, the former school catch-up tsar, who resigned in 2021 citing insufficient funding for education recovery. The government has recently pledged £15 million over three years to address school attendance issues, including the extension of attendance hubs to support more schools. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has declared attendance issues a top priority.
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It would be interesting to see how effective this could be.
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