Introduce an independent appeals panel for school absences

As it stands, the decision whether a school absence is authorised or not lies solely with the headteacher or designated attendance officer. If this person deems the absence as not "exceptional" enough, or marks an illness absence as unauthorised, there is no formal right of appeal for parents.

I'm proposing that the Government sets up an independent national appeals panel to allow parents to appeal a heads decision. This will prevent bias, ensure transparency, and put a stop to blanket policies within schools. Often, the nature of the absence means it should either be marked as authorised under code 'I', or authorised under code 'C' which is leave for exceptional circumstances. If a FPN is issued, parents are forced to risk court and a criminal conviction or accept liability by paying the FPN.

The Government has no plans to introduce an independent national appeals panel for school absences. When determining the most appropriate attendance or absence code, teachers and headteachers should use their professional judgement of each pupil’s individual circumstances, context and educational needs, alongside the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance and information provided by the parent or guardian. Existing processes including informal conversations, use of the school’s complaints procedure, local authority complaints procedures, Ofsted inspections and escalation routes to DfE and to the Local Government Ombudsman provide appropriate channels for oversight and raising concerns, negating the need for a separate appeals structure.

Parents have a legal duty under the Education Act 1996 to ensure that their child of compulsory school age (5-16) receives a full‑time education, either by attending school or otherwise. Where a child is registered at a school, parents must ensure they attend regularly. Parents can be penalised if their child is absent from school without authorisation.

We recognise there are situations in which a pupil is unable to attend school for a legally recognised reason. The Education Act 1996 sets out these situations in which an absent pupil will not be taken to have failed to attend school regularly. These include illness or other unavoidable circumstances, religious observance, where the school has given prior permission for absence, or where the local authority has not fulfilled any duty it has to help the child attend.