Warrington parents prosecuted for school absences triples

Parents can face legal action over their child's unauthorised school absences.

In the wake of the pandemic, school attendance is being promoted in order to fill any educational gaps that the pandemic may have created.

The last week of term had 19% of pupils off school sick!! (25% in secondary!) - this is for all reasons, but v likely that recent peak driven by Covid.

Note that sickness absence still much higher than pre pandemic avg. 4/8 pic.twitter.com/ugLAkG52Oz

— Prof. Christina Pagel 🇺🇦 (@chrischirp) July 29, 2022

The new data, taken from a Freedom of Information request, shows that a number of parents in Warrington are facing prosecution through the Magistrates' Court over school absences.

In 2020/21, only eight Warrington parents were prosecuted through the Magistrates' Court.

As of July 11 this year, 36 parents in the town have been prosecuted through the courts - marking an increase of 350 per cent in just one year.

This means that prosecutions for parents have more than tripled in less than 12 months.

However, the data also shows that no penalty notices (fines) were given to parents in 2020/21, and no penalties have yet been issued this year, either.

An unauthorised absence is when a child is not in school, and the school is not satisfied by the reasons given for non-attendance

Responding to the data request, Warrington Borough Council confirmed that 'a number of cases are still pending.'

A Council spokesperson said: "Where voluntary support has not been successful or engaged with, it may be necessary to consider legal action. We operate a ‘fast track’ prosecution process to ensure better management of poor school attendance.

"This process involves the school, parents and our school attendance team setting time-limited targets to improve attendance. If agreed targets are not met within nine weeks, we may then take legal action through the Magistrates' Court.

"Those found guilty of this offence can be fined up to £1,000.”