Labour's Helena Dollimore unveils new plan to tackle soaring school absence in Hastings and Rye

Labour unveils plans to tackle “generation challenge” of persistent absence in schools as nearly 50% of students at the Hastings Academy missed 10% or more of schooling in 2022. At St. Leonard's Academy, the persistent absence rate stood at 44.8% and Hollington Primary Academy reported a persistent absence rate of 36.8%. A child is deemed persistently absent if they miss 10 per cent of lessons or more, and severely absent if they miss 50 per cent of lessons or more.

Over the course of a year missing ten per cent of lessons would equate to four weeks’ worth of schooling, while missing half is the equivalent of missing four months of school. Across the whole of East Sussex, 2330 children are set to miss half their lessons by 2026.

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has unveiled a new long-term plan to tackle the “generational challenge” of persistent absence of children from school, after new data from the party exposed the scale of the problem in East Sussex.

Helena Dollimore, Labour MP candidate for Hastings and Rye said: “Every child in Hastings and Rye deserves the best start in life and being in school is key to that. That’s why tackling severe absence in our local schools would be mission critical for Labour in government.”

"The Conservatives have allowed the school absence crisis to spiral out of control and have no plan to get children back to school. Many teachers are working hard to get children back to the classroom but they need a government that backs them in this.

“Labour’s long term plan will tackle the reasons children are out of class, with mental health counselling, breakfast clubs and a register of home-schooled children, funded by ending tax breaks for private schools.”

After a decade of Conservative-driven decline, Labour will put education at the heart of national life to give our children a bright future once again.”

Speaking at the Centre for Social Justice, Phillipson unveiled Labour’s plan to get a grip on children missing school as part of her vision to deliver high and rising standards across all of England’s schools.

Labour’s plan includes the creation of a new Register of Home-Schooled Pupils to keep track of those not in mainstream schooling as part of a new package of measures to get to grips with persistent non-attendance and restore flagging public trust in England’s schools. Other measures will include:

• Empowering Ofsted to review absence as part of annual safeguarding spot-checks.

• Using AI to spot trends in absence by joining up existing records for children to improve coordination between education, social care and the wider services that support families, while busting bureaucracy for parents.

• Equipping every school with funding to deliver evidence-based early language interventions to ensure every child develops the strong foundation in speech and language development that sets them up to achieve.

• Increasing mental health support through dedicated counsellors in every secondary school and putting mental health hubs in every community.

• Reforming the curriculum to deliver a better foundation in reading, writing and maths, while ensuring that children do not miss out on music, sport, art and drama.

• Providing universal free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil in England to boost attendance across the country.

Labour predicts that over 200,000 children are set to miss half their time at school, including 2330 in East Sussex, by 2026 if rates of children skipping school continue.

Between 2016 and 2022, the number of children missing half their lessons trebled across England with an increase of 222% in East Sussex, and is set to continue rising unless urgent action is taken.