PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(21 May 2026)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current school attendance enforcement policies in relation to parents with shared custody arrangements; and what plans her Department has to update guidance to local authorities to ensure that penalty notices are issued proportionately where one parent did not have care or control of the child during the period of absence.

Asked by:
Connor Naismith (Labour)

The department’s guidance sets out that schools and local authorities should take a support first approach when working with families to ensure that their children regularly attend, and that they must consider whether a penalty notice for absence is appropriate in each individual case where one of their pupils reaches the national threshold for considering a penalty notice.

Schools and local authorities should decide on a case-by-case basis which parent(s) to involve in attendance legal intervention, but this should usually be the parent or parents who have allowed the absence, regardless of which parent has applied for a leave of absence.

The meaning of 'parent' in relation to a child includes any person has parental responsibility for the child or who has care of the child, as set out in section 576 of the Education Act 1996. A penalty notice can be issued to each parent liable for the offence or offences under section 444 of the Education Act 1996. The department’s guidance makes clear that penalty notices should usually only be issued to the parent(s) who have allowed the absence.

Answered by:
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