Falling Leeds school attendance linked to cost-of-living crisis as ASCL union leader calls for investment

The average attendance rates across all schools in the city stood at 92.5 per cent in the last academic year, a Leeds City Council report said. That’s down from the 95.2 per cent it was across 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The council’s report said the fall in attendance could be put down to illness, with Covid still having been rife across much of the 2021/22 school term. But the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the “desperate circumstances” faced by many families was also making children’s mental health worse – and contributing to the attendance figures.

With 44 per cent of Leeds school pupils living in the most deprived areas of the city, the cost-of-living crisis is potentially affecting children here more than in other parts of the country. Geoff Barton, ASCL’s general secretary, said: “School attendance is a problem in all areas of the country. Normal routines were disrupted by the pandemic and this has been exacerbated by rising levels of mental health problems among pupils, such as anxiety and depression, which are made worse by the cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr Barton said the government was providing extra help to schools to tackle absence, but claimed this is “very limited and does not address the underlying causes of the problem”. He added: “There needs to be more investment in schools and local services so they are able to provide the pastoral and specialist support that is required, and more action is needed to address the scourge of child poverty. The fact that so many children live in such desperate circumstances should be a source of national shame.”

Speaking to the BBC in February about issues nationally, the Department for Education said it was working with schools and councils to “identify pupils who are at risk of becoming, or who are persistently absent and working together to support that child to return to regular and consistent education”.

Leeds City Council’s report said that in local primary schools, attendance was now higher than the national average, although in the city’s secondary schools it is slightly lower. The report said: “The lower attendance rate is due to an increase in the authorised absence rate which has been driven by an increase in authorised absence due to illness.”