Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) analysis of the latest school absence data from the Department for Education has uncovered that:

• Severe absence has hit new record levels for an Autumn term, with 147,605 severely absent pupils in Autumn 2024 – up 3.6 per cent on the previous Autumn term.
• Persistent absence has fallen (by 8.8 per cent on the previous Autumn term), but progress is slow with still 1,284,005 children persistently absent in Autumn 2024 – almost 40 per cent higher than Autumn 2019.
• Children on FSM are nearly four times more likely to be severely absent than their peers, while those with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan are seven times more likel

The think tank found that rising school absence is contributing to the nation’s economic woes by putting thousands of pupils on a path to worklessness and welfare dependency.

CSJ analysis suggests that, without urgent action, almost 180,000 pupils will leave school to become NEETs (not in education, employment or training) due to persistent absence over the course of this Parliament. This is almost twice as many as if absence had returned to its pre-pandemic level, leaving an estimated lifetime cost to the taxpayer of £14 billion.