Pupil absences data: The worst offending regions for children missing school in the last academic year

• This year’s overall school absence rate has fallen a little on last year, but still remains above pre-pandemic levels.
• Nearly one-in-five children missed more than 10% of half-days at school in the last school year.
• Illness is still the number one reason for missing school, but unauthorised absences came in second.
• There is a 1.5 percentage point difference between the English regions with the highest and lowest absence rates.

More school sessions are still being missed by pupils than before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the issue seems to be more marked in some regions than others.

The government last week released new school absence data for the recently-ended 2023/24 school year, specifically, the last autumn and spring terms. Overall, the absence rate - meaning the total percentage of half-days at school missed by pupils for any reason - sat at 6.9%.

This means there has been a lower proportion of classes missed than during the previous school year, where the absence rate sat at 7.3%. However, the figure stubbornly lingers above pre-pandemic levels, which were less than 5%. Notably, absences also rose again from last year’s autumn term through to the 2024 spring term.

The overall ‘persistent absentee’ rate for the last school year was 19.2%, meaning that nearly one in five pupils enrolled in one of England’s state-funded primary or secondary schools has missed more than 10% of their lessons. This figure has fallen a little on the 2022/23 school year too, where 21.2% of pupils were identified as persistent absentees.

These figures take into account all kinds of reasons to miss school, from the justified to unauthorised absences - which can land parents in trouble. Just over half of all absences this year were due to illness, a number that has fallen since last year - but again remained higher than pre-pandemic levels. Unauthorised absences, excluding parents taking their kids on a term-time holiday, were still the second-most common recorded absence, however.

The data also showed some key differences between different demographics. The absence rate for children eligible for free school meals was almost double that of their peers at 10.6% compared to 5.6%. Persistent absence rates were more than doubled, 33% against 13.8%. Pupils needing special educational needs support had an absence rate of 10%, while it was 6.1% for children without any identified special needs.

There were also noticeable differences in absence rates across England’s different regions. Here is how each of them fared in the last school year:

Greater London

The overall absence rate across Greater London was 6.1% - the lowest in the country. Some of the London boroughs with the highest absence rates included Camden and Westminster at 7%, and Croydon, Kensington and Chelsea at 6.6%.

On the other hand, some areas had extremely low rates. These included Brent and Harrow at 5.7%, Richmond at 5.4%, and the City of London at just 4.6% (although to be fair, it has very few students overall).

Before the pandemic, in the 2018/19 school year, absence rates were much lower overall across the capital - well under 5% almost everywhere. The lowest was again the City of London, at a miniscule 2.4%.

East of England

In the East of England, the overall absence rate sat at 6.8%. By local authority, the highest absence rates belonged to Norfolk and Suffolk at 7.5 and 7.4% respectively.

Cambridgeshire’s rate was about average at 6.8% too, similar to Essex, while Peterborough was a little lower at 6.7%. Bedford was a low 6.4%, while Central Bedfordshire rose to 6.7%. Others with lower rates included Luton and Thurrock at just 6.2%.

Just like in London, these latest figures showed a notable rise in absence rates for most of the region - all of which had been at 5% or less prior to the pandemic.

East Midlands

The East Midlands’ absence rate for the spring and autumn terms in the last school year was 6.9%.

The rates for Derby and Derbyshire were both 7%. There was no data available for Northamptonshire, although for North Northamptonshire the absence rate was 7.1%, and for West Northamptonshire it was just 6.6%. In Nottingham the absence rate was 7.4% - the highest in the region - dropping to 6.9% in wider Nottinghamshire.

Lower absence rates also applied to Leicester at 6.8% and Leicestershire at 6.6%, while Rutland sat at just 6.2%.

South East

The South East’s overall absence rate was also 6.9%. Some of the region’s highest rates belonged to East Sussex at 8% (West Sussex was just 6.9%), Brighton and Hove at 7.9%, and Southampton and Portsmouth alike at 7.7%.

Areas with lower rates included Hampshire at 6.7%, Buckinghamshire and Windsor at 6.6%, Milton Keynes at 6.5%, Surrey at 6.4%, Slough at 6.3%, Bracknell Forest at a tiny 6.1%, and Wokingham at an even tinier 5.7%.

Pre-Covid absence rates across the region ranged from 4 to 5.1%, again representing a noticeable increase this year.

West Midlands

The West Midlands too had an absence rate of 6.9% - equal to the East Midlands and the South East. Most council areas sat close to this average, with some of the highest rates belonging to Walsall at 7.4%, and Warwickshire at 7.3%.

In Birmingham the rate was a regionally average 6.9%, rising to 7% in Coventry and 7.2% in Stoke-on-Trent. Local authorities with lower absence rates included Herefordshire at 6.8%, Staffordshire and Wolverhampton at 6.6%, and Telford at just 6.4%.

North West

The North West’s overall absence rate was a little higher, at 7%. By local authority, some of the highest absence rates belonged to Knowsley at 8.4% and Blackpool at 8.1%.

Elsewhere, the absence rate was largely in the 7% rate, such as Liverpool with 7.9%. Areas with the lowest rates included Lancashire, Tameside, and Wigan at 6.9%, Manchester and Westmorland at 6.8%, Stockport at 6.7%, Warrington at 6.3%, and Trafford at just 5.5%.

Again, this represented a big jump in absence rates for much of the region since the pandemic, with some areas having rates of less than 4% in the 2018/19 school year.

Yorkshire and the Humber

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, the overall absence rate was 7.3%. Some of the individual areas with worse absence rates included Bradford at 8.2% and Sheffield at 7.6%.

The rate in other major centres varied. In Leeds and York alike it was 7.2%, while in Doncaster it was 7.1%. In Wakefield it rose to 7.3%, while in Hull it was 7.4%.

Local authority areas with lower rates included Calderdale at 6.8%, East Yorkshire at 6.7%, and Kirklees at 6.5%. The rate was between 4 and 5% for almost all areas prior to the pandemic.

South West

The South West of England’s absence rate was a little higher again at 7.4%. Higher absence rates could be found in a number of local authority areas, including 8.4% in Torbay, 8.1% in Bristol and Plymouth, and 7.9% in Cornwall and Somerset.

Lower rates, meanwhile, were evident in Bath and Northeast Somerset at 6.7%, and the Isles of Scilly at 6.6%. Once again, this was a notable increase in most areas since before the pandemic, although rates had been trending downwards again since the 2021/22 school year - where they peaked in the region at 9.4% in Torbay.

North East

Finally, the North East had the highest overall absence rate in the country at 7.6%. Broken down by local authority, some of the highest absence rates belonged to Sunderland and Middlesbrough, at 8.1% and 8% respectively.

Newcastle also had a higher absence rate at 7.9%, while it was 7.7% for County Durham, 7.6% for South Tyneside and Hartlepool, and 7.5% for both Gateshead and Northumberland.

The area with the lowest absence rate was North Tyneside at 6.9%. All of these figures were notably higher than absence rates pre-Covid, which ranged from about 4 to 5% for almost all local authorities.

How did your area fare, and what do you think is behind more children still missing school than before the pandemic? Have your say and make your voice heard by leaving a comment below.