Absence in youngest children increased last year

The Department for Education recently published its latest absence statistics, and, in response, the Education Policy Institute has published its findings on absences in England following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key findings included that overall absence rates, as well as persistent absence rates, are falling, unauthorised absences are starting to fall, absence gaps for disadvantaged pupils are narrowing but are widening for those with SEND, and that absence rates are increasing amongst the youngest children.

Overall absence rates continued to fall in the autumn term of 2024-25 to 6.4 per cent (from 6.7 per cent in autumn 2023-24), with the biggest gains in secondary schools that were marked with the biggest post-pandemic absence challenges. Absence remains lowest in London (5.8 per cent) and the highest in the North East (6.9 per cent), though all regions have seen improvement.

Based on average number of days of absence, this fell slightly more rapidly among disadvantaged pupils (by 0.20 days to 6.6 days of absence) than non-disadvantaged pupils (by 0.18 days to 3.4 days), but absence disparities with children with SEND have widened further. While absence fell among pupils on SEN support, its as markedly worse among those with no identified SEN.

Absence also continued to rise among those with EHCPs, from 8.4 days of absence in autumn 2023-24 to 8.7 days in autumn 2024-25.

The latest data also revealed that the only school year group to experience an increase in absence in autumn 2024-25 was Year One, which is concerning as absence normally increases as children get older.