Labour refuse to get rid of fines for parents taking children out of school in term time
Parents who rack up more than 10 days of absences each school year will still face fines despite a petition to scrap the penalties
Labour have refused to stop fining parents for taking their children out of school during term time despite sky-high prices for holidays during half term.
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The Government said it will not allow pupils to miss 10 days of school without good reason, a Department for Education (DfE) minister has said in response to a petition calling for the removal of fines for 10-day absences.
On Monday afternoon, MPs debated a petition - which received 181,597 signatures - calling for parents to be allowed to take children out of school for up to 10 days without a fine.
Conservative MP Robbie Moore, who introduced the petition, said the price jumps in travel mean many families cannot afford holidays during the school breaks.
"One parent from Keighley in my constituency told me that she was quoted over £1,000 per person for a February half term holiday compared to the following week, meaning an identical family holiday would cost thousands of pounds more simply for taking it during school holidays," he said.
Mr Moore also said a family holiday is one of the key opportunities for families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) to de-stress as they face a system in crisis, but for many Send children "the busy holiday period is too much for them to handle".
Read More: 'Time to think about school holidays': Ofsted's Chief Inspector supports extending term times
Responding, minister for school standards Georgia Gould said we are still facing an "absence epidemic" in the UK.
"We're committed to tackling this problem because as we heard from many, absence is one of the biggest barriers to opportunity, damaging learning, health and wellbeing, future earnings and employment and each day of lost learning can do serious harm," she said.
"And that is why we won't allow pupils to miss 10 days of school without good reason."
During the debate, the chairwoman of the Education Select Committee, Helen Hayes, called on the Government "to do more to work with the travel industry to stop the exploitation of families with school-aged children with unfair price hikes".
She suggested a potential solution could be introducing a new family friendly charter mark for companies that even out their holiday pricing throughout the year.
Ms Hayes agreed the current fines system is a "very flawed area of policy", but said she does not agree 10 days of permitted absence a year is the right way to address concerns, citing the importance of attendance for attainment and concerns about changing policy around authorising absence on the most vulnerable pupils.
The latest figures from the DfE last week showed a slight improvement in overall attendance, but an increase in children classed as severely absent.
"Introducing an entitlement to authorised absence would send entirely the wrong message to families at a time when the whole system should be pulling together to restore trust and confidence and to support children who are struggling to be in school to thrive," Ms Hayes said.
Ms Gould said she hoped travel companies were watching the debate and "listening to the strength of feeling" on the price of going away in the school holidays.
The former Conservative government announced plans to increase fines for parents who take their children out of class without permission in February last year, as part of a drive to boost attendance since the pandemic.
School absence fines in England rose from £60 to £80 in 2024, and a parent who receives a second fine for the same child within a three-year period receives a £160 fine.
The minister was also asked during the debate whether she would be concerned about the leader of Derbyshire County Council's remarks on Send.
The BBC reported in August that the Reform majority council's leader Alan Graves agreed with Nigel Farage that children are being overdiagnosed with Send.
"I am very concerned by that," said Ms Gould. "I think that I welcome the fact that so many more young people are being diagnosed and getting their needs met who in previous generations might never have received that support.
"So I'm very concerned about that language."