By Parker Pigzone
According to the UK government, 22.3% of pupils in the UK were recorded as persistently absent (less than 90% attendance) in the last academic year (2022/23). This is almost double the figure from the 2018/19 academic year, where only 10.9% of pupils were recorded as such. Education Committee chair Robin Walker MP has said that there has been a rise in children "citing mental health reasons for being out of school." In fact, some of the most common risk factors for school absenteeism include SEN and/or mental health issues. A lack of support means that returning to full-time education is decreasingly possible. But why isn't support being offered to these students?
In 2022, 18% of children of ages 7-16 were recorded to have a probable mental disorder. This is a significant increase from the 12.1% of children recorded in 2017. Over 1.2 million children were referred to mental health services in 2022 (a 53% increase from 2019), but a third of these referrals were declined support. Even when offered support, children may still have to endure long waiting lists of up to 4 years. Although specific statistics for conditions such as depression and PTSD in children are not widely available, it is seen that these conditions are increasingly common in young people, alongside eating disorders, which 12.5% of 17-19 year olds and 2.6% of 11-16 year olds were identified to struggle with. Without quick treatment, such conditions can alter concentration even for children attending school.
DfE conducted research shows that low attendance has a correlation with worse grades, which can severely hinder future opportunities. If young people do not receive good grades in GCSEs and A-Levels, they can struggle to access higher education such as universities and certain apprenticeships, leading to a higher chance of unemployment. It can be seen from various sources that unemployment leads to a decrease in mental health even for people not previously struggling, so this decrease would be even more significant in those having struggled before, leading to consequences such as suicide or severe self neglect.
Without government support, schools must take their own approaches to tackling mental health related absences. The department of education published guidance for schools, where schools are encouraged to refer pupils to other services, however when these services are unavailable, it only becomes more difficult to facilitate a pupil's return to school. It also encourages that pupils should be offered support from a 'trusted adult' in school, however if severe anxiety is cited as the cause for absence, there may not be any such adults. So what should be done?
Square Peg, an NGO based in England, works with parents of SEN pupils struggling with attendance. Square Peg and Not Fine In School worked together to propose a remedy to mental health related absences.
Their proposal, 3 Asks, fights to end truancy laws and add a mental health code to mark authorised absences. An important struggle for families with absentee children, is the fear of being legally prosecuted for their child's unavoidable absence. Despite schools working with families to get their children back in school, parents are still threatened with legal action by local authorities. This can heighten pressure on the absentee, increasing already high anxiety. Loosening truancy laws could help schools and parents to work together on their own terms, increasing success rates on reintroduction of children into full-time education. Although there is a chance of this being taken advantage of, I believe that with a register of absent children being taken, the reasons could be collected and investigated if the need is felt. Parents already take their children out of school during term times, so it is unlikely that loosened truancy laws would change this significantly. In fact, this could rather allow for vulnerable children to take mental health rest days without worrying about negative consequences on their families, aiding to prevent the development of more severe mental health symptoms.
A new report from the Commons Education Select Committee seems to support this, calling for fines on school absences to be used as a last resort, alongside an introduction of a mental health absence code. This would track how many absences are mental health related. The committee also encouraged the Department of Education (DfE) to create a register of children not in school, so that support could be better targeted towards children who are not able to be in school for mental-health related reasons. With more accommodations, a smooth transition and integrated return to school would be more feasible for such students.
If the DfE were to follow this guidance, it is possible that absences could see a decrease, or at least would be easier and more effectively tackled. Hopefully in the future, child and adolescent mental health issues will be better managed, allowing more streamlined returns to school for the thousands of persistently absent children in the UK.
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