The government should create a school absence code specifically for mental health and review the adequacy of health services struggling with soaring waiting lists, MPs have said.
The Parliamentary education committee has also urged the government to make its daily attendance data collection mandatory for schools as soon as possible as part of a raft of recommendations to tackle soaring absence rates (full list below).
Data from last autumn showed 7.5 per cent of possible sessions were missed that term, and that 24.2 per cent of pupils were “persistently” absent, missing 10 per cent or more sessions.
In pre-pandemic 2019, overall absence was 4.9 per cent and persistent absence was 13.1 per cent.
