I have a medal which was my father's which is from his Education Authority inscribed:
"Never Absent, Never Late"
Bereavement wipes out everything
Voting. I’m so glad we still have the ‘old fashioned’ system…
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Michael Gove: deduct benefits for parents whose children skip school
(56 Posts)Reported in The Times, not sure if there’s a paywall so here’s the gist. What do you think? My own feeling is that they need to look harder about why this is happening. It’s not like my own childhood, when my mother took me to school and I went home for my midday meal then she took me back to school. Most parents now have no choice but to work and I’m not sure that’s a good thing in all cases.
Parents could lose their child benefit payments if they allow their children to play truant, under plans being pushed by Michael Gove.
Michael Gove: deduct benefits for parents whose children skip school
February 28 2023, The Times
Parents could lose their child benefit payments if they allow their children to play truant, under plans being pushed by Michael Gove.
The levelling up secretary wants the penalties to be included in an action plan on reducing antisocial behaviour that he is preparing for Rishi Sunak.
Gove said it was time to “think radically about restoring an ethic of responsibility” and argued that financial penalties would give parents an incentive to stop their children missing school and committing low-level crime.
Last month, when Sunak put Gove in charge of the plan, he said antisocial behaviour should not be seen as “inevitable or a minor crime” but as a gateway to more serious offences.
Gove said that cutting truanting would be central to stopping teenagers drifting into offences such as vandalism or graffiti, and urged police to stop “virtue signalling” and clamp down on such offences.
“We need to — particularly after Covid — get back to an absolute rigorous focus on school attendance on supporting children to be in school. It is often the case that it’s truanting or persistent absenteeism that leads to involvement in antisocial behaviour,” he told an event on the future of Conservatism organised by the Onward think tank. “One of the ideas that we floated in the coalition, which the Liberal Democrats rejected, was the idea that if children were persistently absent, that child benefit should be stopped. I think what we do need to do is to think radically about restoring an ethic of responsibility.”
Gove sought to introduce the plan while education secretary but was blocked by Nick Clegg and later pushed David Cameron to put it in the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 election. But today he said that “linking parental responsibility for attendance and good behaviour to the state” was an idea that “needs to be reconsidered again”.
It is understood that Gove is keen for the policy to be included in an action plan to be published in the next month. However, the idea has yet to be discussed with other ministers, including the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, or the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride.
Under the coalition’s plans, parents would have faced penalties of £60 for persistent truanting, which, if not paid, would double to £120. They would have been collected through child benefit to ensure they were not ignored.
Unauthorised absences from school have been drifting up in the past two years, with an estimated 180,000 pupils skipping school every day.
Gove insisted that minor offences should not be dismissed, saying: “Low-level crime can have a high impact on the lives of many”, and that confidence in politics suffered when it was not addressed.
He said this was also true of the “confidence that investors have in communities where low-level crime and antisocial behaviour is not dealt with. And we also know that there have been incentives for some in the world of policing to virtue signal, rather than to pursue vice and that needs to change.”
In his speech, Gove also hit out at social progressives whom he refused to describe as “woke”, arguing: “I dislike the use of the word both because it can at times seem to trivialise and render as simply eccentric, and amusing what is actually an increasingly powerful and destructive force in our society. And also because I believe in being awake to genuine injustice is a distinctive part of the conservative tradition.”
Insisting “I want to bring peace to our culture wars”, Gove argued that it was “the radical social change activists who want to identify, create and magnify divisions”.
Arguing that progressives wanted to present Britain as a “pirate society” to legitimise institutions and values, he insisted: “We need to be clear that enlightenment values have to be defended. We need to be clear about objective scientific truth in human biology: emotion can’t change our chromosomes; any examination also of the historical record should be based on a balanced assessment of the evidence.”
Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said: “If Michael Gove thinks that the solution to encourage children back to school is to impoverish them, then he is living in a different century.”
What a poor replacement for Sure Start. Some parents are incapable of responding sensibly to Gove's cutting benefits and their children will be even worse off. Sure Start was one of some 30 achievements of the Blair government which Corbyn totally rubbished.
If they tried that here the First Nations people would be up in arms. There is a big problem with attendance, especially in remote areas. If kids are not attending maybe they should have a good hard look at the relevance of the curriculum.
I’m a parent, grandparent of 7 and was a primary school governor for many years. (I resigned last year.) The school had a regular problem with attendance, despite the excellent efforts of the head teacher
and her dedicated staff. The head gave up so much time to helping families whose children had erratic attendance. She followed an agreed procedure starting with conversations and visits with the parents. She even organised for children to be picked up in taxis in the mornings. All this hard work had only some success and the procedure often had to be repeated. I don’t have any answers but depriving families of benefits is gravely counterproductive.
I wonder if pupils would benefit from different pathways in secondary education? If pupils are clearly academic, then gcse and A levels are appropriate but what if pupils are more manually inclined? Or artistic? Or business minded?
If pupils don’t want to be in school, are they being bullied? What exactly is each truant’s issue? Seems that Mr Gove is choosing the easy option by making parents responsible when if school worked for each pupil, there wouldn’t be a problem.
My GD had massive issues with school after the first lockdown
.She just wouldn't go ,she and her sister help care for their mum who is bedbound most of the time through chronic illness .They were terrified they would get covid and it would be passed to mum and it would kill her .
Thankfully it was handled very sympathetically though it took quite a while to get her back on a regular basis .Tking child benefit away would have made no difference to her ,staying home was safeguding her mum in her mind .
deduct benefits for parents whose children skip school
Who suffers then?
Not just parents, struggling to make ends meet on benefits.
The children would suffer as there would be less money for food, warmth, shoes, school uniform.
Stupid man.
Playing truant happens for many reasons.
Some children have real and diverse issues resulting in school refusal, which could be addressed with help years ago but mostly that help has disappeared.
Like your DGD, paddyann, that was a very real fear for them. Others may find social groups shifted during Covid and they could find they were no longer part of a group or that they rather enjoyed working at home. Others had Covid and the after-effects mean that a long day at school involving travelling is very tiring or has resulted in 'brain fog'.
This won’t happen, it is just headline grabbing. What about the truanting children whose parents are not on benefits?
Don’t forget that there are the May elections coming up and as the Tories are devoid of any sensible policies they are thrashing around with these daft ideas.
Expect a lot more in the run up to May, and indeed the elections next year, particularly culture war on minorities - so the Muslim population is already getting it in the neck from Braverman, and of course the perennial immigration issue. Note - there were no small boats prior to Brexit.
It would make more sense to discover why children aren’t attending in the first place. It’s not all down to bad parenting. There could be problems with bullying, mental health issues - anxiety, self harm, depression and eating disorders are all common amongst non attenders and CAMHS and other services are notoriously overwhelmed and provision is patchy. Maybe put more resources into such support services would be the way to go.
Fining parents - and even jailing them - for their child's non-attendance is pretty evil, and Gove's suggestion is appalling. As people have said, there are many reasons why children don't attend school. I remember a special education unit, very small, in our town for children who had had problems with bullying, etc. It was in its own self-contained premises and didn't look like a school at all. And what about teachers giving lessons at the child's home? I know this used to be done under the local authority.
Of course truancy can lead to anti-social behaviour, but the causes and cures are complex and deducting child benefit from families that rely on it for the necessities of life can't possibly solve the issue.
Allsorts
It’s parents responsibility if their child misses school, they need to find out why and deal with it. They should be contacted e mail, not giving it to the child and made aware what is happening, after that a visit with the head.I worked full time as a single mom. I didn’t have any help unless I stopped work and went on social, which I wouldn’t. Started up as a married couple, the husbands then didn’t have to pay maintenance either, they knew the system.
When I was at school in the fifties there was a school board man, who if you dared to be off, would come to your house and your parents would be in trouble. Don’t know what trouble, never knew anyone that bunked off, the parents wrath would have prevented that as they would be ashamed. We expect the state to be responsible for everything, there’s no excuse these day for having children you don’t want to take responsibility for but a lot do and those children deserve protection.
I agree with you in this Allsorts as a child in the 50s and a teacher myself.
Our parents valued Education and made sure we went to school and were ashamed if the School Board man was seen on their step. They wanted us to get to the Grammar schools if possible or use the Secondary Modern facilities to the full..
As a teacher, I was personally pleased when the children were stopped from taking holidays during term time. It stopped assessment being disrupted, they kept up with their peers and the less able were given extra help without half the class needing catch-up lessons to be able to cope with the very prescriptive National curriculum.
Maybe Gove's ideas appear Draconian but parents need to be aware that Education is important and make sure their children realise it too just like we did.
Some will call me old fashion but there are many ways these days that children can be helped with their special education needs and make school a pleasant and safe place to be.Even if it wasn't for their parents.
The Government can and should supply the help a lot of children need but can't be held responsible for getting parents up in the morning and making sure their children are in school. The patterns are set at home and some responsibility has to lie with the parents.
Here he goes again - back-of-the-envelope stuff. But why go to the trouble of engaging brain when you get paid to just coast along spouting garbage?
He's just trying to keep the Tory "flog 'em hard, hang 'em high" brigade on board. Any mention of cutting benefits appeals to them.
It won't happen. The degree of bureaucracy involved to make this idea work is untenable.
As for what would help
Smaller classes and smaller schools
more units which nurture and encourage children who can't cope in mainstream
more flexibility in the curriculum (and linked to this)
more creative and arts activities
more and better trained staff
Of course it all costs money
What a lunatic policy. I know of parents who have delivered their children to the classroom and yet the children have "escaped" during the day to truant. My Grandaughter doesn't truant (yet) but she is persistently late because she just refuses to get ready and her parents cannot force her to put her clothes on. Dad used to pick her up in her pjs and deliver her to the school but the school said it was too distressing. Play therapists could not determine why she was so resistant either and had no answers. Her parents are terrified that she will just truant when she gets to secondary school.
My own son truanted twice. The first time he went to bed before coming down to tell me what he had done. The second time he arrived home at lunchtime in a panic because he knew he would eventually be found out. It turned out he just felt it was all such a struggle. Being responsible parents, we got help but had to pay for it. The school were no help because, and I quote, "He can read and write so we don't recognise a problem." Lack of spacial awareness, pain when writing and ADHD so continually distracted...no problem here!
No, Mr Gove, I don't think that will help at all. Children are still struggling after your last foray into education.
At my DIL children’s school parents do get fined for taking children out of school during term time, for many it makes no difference, it’s just an extra cost on the holiday, probably less than the extra holiday cost a few weeks later.
My Grandaughter doesn't truant (yet) but she is persistently late because she just refuses to get ready and her parents cannot force her to put her clothes on.
One of my DC was the same as a teenager, I used to have to heave her out of bed, I did make sure she got dressed and dropped her outside school at the last minute before I went to work.
Guess what her occupation is now 👩🎓
My parents regarded school as somewhere you dumped your kids while dad went out to work and mum did the shopping and housework. I know that my father would never have taken time off work to go to the school for any reason. It was somewhere for girls to be prepared for the fate of marriage and kids. I can recall my father saying to me "Whats the good of educating a girl. Your only going to get married and have babies."
Im sure if I had been born male they would have been more inclined to make a few sacrifices to allow me to do A levels.
I understand the aim of adoption targets is to decrease the number of children in long term care. Data supports the argument that outcomes for such children are poorer than adopted children. Perhaps we are , now, more mindful of the children's needs. I have a friend in her fifties who is very clear that she and her sister should have been removed from her parent's care and not left in the terrible situation of her childhood.
Callistemon21
^My Grandaughter doesn't truant (yet) but she is persistently late because she just refuses to get ready and her parents cannot force her to put her clothes on^.
One of my DC was the same as a teenager, I used to have to heave her out of bed, I did make sure she got dressed and dropped her outside school at the last minute before I went to work.
Guess what her occupation is now 👩🎓
That's so funny! I was like that as a teenager and guess what I became!
Is it something in our makeup? There's a Phd in there for someone!!! 
One of my DC was the same as a teenager, I used to have to heave her out of bed, I did make sure she got dressed and dropped her outside school at the last minute before I went to work.
Her parents are on strict instructions from the powers that be not to touch her so no heaving there. They've spent a lot of time explaining what you mustn't do but no help yet as what to do.
It’s a shame he doesn’t spend some energy on finding all the missing children.
www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSJ-Lost_but_not_forgotten-2.pdf
I can’t count how many times my grandson has turned up for a class at his 6th form college but the teacher didn’t.
MerylStreep
It’s a shame he doesn’t spend some energy on finding all the missing children.
www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSJ-Lost_but_not_forgotten-2.pdf
Thanks for that report MerylStreep the family stories are heartbreaking. But some excellent outcomes when help was given.
MerylStreep
It’s a shame he doesn’t spend some energy on finding all the missing children.
www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSJ-Lost_but_not_forgotten-2.pdf
Thanks MerylStreep, I shall read that later.
Covid and lockdowns have been so difficult for many children.
The schools are shut here today because of strikes.
We could be producing a generation of disaffected young people unless there are radical changes.
Fines, stopping benefits etc is not the answer.
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