No holidays during term time, Plymouth parents warned

As families prepare for the new school year, Plymouth City Council is taking the opportunity to warn parents about a change to regulations that will end their right to remove children from school during term-time for family holidays.

The new Government rules come into effect from 1 September 2013 and make it clear to Headteachers that they may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’. These are classed as unavoidable causes, such as illness or exclusions.

The old regulations allowed Headteachers to grant leave for a family holiday during term time in ‘special circumstances’ of up to ten school days per year. Headteachers could also grant extended leave for more than ten school days in exceptional circumstances.

The amendments to the 2006 regulations remove references to family holidays and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. It also increases the amounts payable if parents are fined to a maximum of £120 per child – £60 per parent per child. So if a family with two children go on holiday during term time, the likely fine will be £240.

Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “This is quite a major change for parents and schools, so we want to give people fair warning. We don’t want to have to fine parents, so please don’t take your children on holiday during term time.

“The measure of discretion previously afforded Headteachers is no more and any term time holiday requests must be refused, plus any suspicion of term time holidays will be investigated and unauthorised absences will be referred to our Education Welfare Service.

"Parents found to be taking holidays in term time will be fined. We naturally want to avoid fining parents and so we are telling them about the changes now.”

Fines for persistent absence have been around since 2006 when the regulations were first introduced. Since then the Council has issued 443 penalty fines for unauthorised absences from school.

These do not relate specifically to holidays, as fines are issued for many reasons: the most common in Plymouth being parents’ failure to work with the Education Welfare Service to stop persistent absence. But fines can be issued for persistent lateness, young people being allowed out in public places when they are excluded from school and parents’ failure to explain the reasons for persistent absences.

If fines are not paid, the Council must take parents to court for failing to ensure their child regularly goes to school (not for failure to pay the fine) and this can increase fines up to £2,500 or result in three months imprisonment.

The new regulations from this September have come about following the Taylor Report which stressed the importance of regular attendance at school. These extra measures are in addition the Government’s previous reduction in the national persistent absence target from 20 to 15 per cent.

Councillor Williams continued: “Education is vitally important to setting a child on the right path in life. We have always worked hard with schools to ensure that reducing persistent absence is a top priority and continue to do so with the full support of teachers.

"As you would expect, it's proven that educational achievement is directly linked to attendance - pupils attending less than 85 per cent of the time are much more likely to achieve lower grades. In fact one study showed that pupils missing just 10 days at school were likely to drop one full grade at GCSE.

"A combination of these tougher regulations imposed by Government and the reduction in the unauthorised absence target means we are likely to see an increase in the number of Penalty Notices and prosecutions over the coming months and years.

“One of our biggest challenges in Plymouth is to reduce parentally condoned absence – this is classified as any time a child stays at home from school for any other reason than genuine illness or extenuating circumstances with their parent's knowledge. This sets an incredibly bad example for young people, as it teaches them that school doesn’t matter.

“All of these actions are designed to ensure that children and their parents understand the importance of a child regularly attending school to get the best education so they can reach their full potential.”

For more information about the new regulations or absence from school, contact the Council’s Education Welfare Service on 01752 307404/05.