Labour is cracking down on truants, but as a mother and ex teacher, I know tough love goes only so far | Gillian Harvey

When my daughter developed anxiety around school, there was little we could do to make her go. Solving the problem starts with recognising the causes

When the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, vowed last week to get “tough” on persistent school absenteeism, you might have expected someone like me – a former teacher, a mother of five and a firm believer in education – to applaud. There is plenty to welcome in Phillipson’s announcement: she has pledged to support parents and help children get back into the classroom. But when this approach doesn’t work, she is prepared to get “tough” – implying that the parents of persistently absent children need to be punished.

Some 21% of pupils in England are now labelled as “persistent absentees” – meaning they miss 10% or more of school time each year. Plenty of evidence suggests that these absences have a devastating impact on a pupil’s future: a report last year by the Children’s Commissioner for England revealed that only 36% of pupils who were persistently absent passed five or more GCSEs, compared with 78% of regular attenders. There are undoubtedly parents who need a little more stick and less carrot when it comes to ensuring their children are in school, and one approach has been to fine parents (currently, schools in England can issue a fine when children miss five days of school within a year for unauthorised reasons).

Gillian Harvey is a freelance writer and the author of The Riviera House Swap

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