The definitions
The DfE’s statutory guidance, Working together to improve school attendance, defines two levels of serious absence (chapter 5):
- Persistent absence: missing 10% or more of school. That is “equivalent to 1 day or more a fortnight across a full school year” (paragraph 134).
- Severe absence: missing 50% or more of school, so the pupil is absent more than they are present (paragraph 135).
Both are measured against the sessions a pupil could have attended. Schools take the attendance register at the start of each morning session and once during each afternoon session (paragraph 32), so a school day is two sessions.
Why absence is a safeguarding issue
Keeping children safe in education 2026 is clear that absence is not only an attendance matter. Children being absent from education “for prolonged periods and/or on repeat occasions can act as a vital warning sign to a range of safeguarding issues including neglect, child sexual and child criminal exploitation - particularly county lines” (paragraph 221). Annex A adds mental health problems, substance misuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and ‘honour’-based abuse to the risks absence may point to.
KCSIE also says the school’s response to persistently absent pupils and children missing education should help identify abuse and help stop absent pupils becoming children missing education in the future. Being absent can increase known risks for a child who already has a social worker.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 says being in school “is a protective factor against wider harms, including exploitation”, and that not receiving education could be a sign of neglect, abuse or exploitation, “or could in itself constitute neglect in severe and sustained cases” (paragraph 128). It lists being persistently absent among the reasons a child may need Family Help (paragraph 141).
The attendance guidance goes further for severe absence. If every avenue of support has been offered and the right educational support is in place, but severe absence for unauthorised reasons continues, “it is likely to constitute neglect” (paragraph 136). Schools and local authorities should then be especially alert to safeguarding issues and, where they remain, carry out a full children’s social care assessment.
Children missing education
Children missing education are children of compulsory school age who are not registered at a school and are not receiving a suitable education otherwise, according to the DfE’s Children missing education guidance. A pupil who stops attending can become one if their name comes off the register without anyone knowing where they are.
That is why there are rules before a name is deleted. For example, where a pupil hasn’t come back within 10 school days of the end of a leave of absence, the school and local authority must first make joint reasonable enquiries to find out where the child is and agree there are no reasonable grounds to think they will return (attendance guidance, paragraph 252).
What schools must and should do
Working together to improve school attendance sets out expectations for all schools. The main ones are:
- A senior attendance champion on the leadership team, named in the attendance policy, with overall responsibility for improving attendance (paragraphs 23 and 24).
- A written attendance policy, published on the school website, including the school’s strategy for reducing persistent and severe absence (paragraphs 24 and 27).
- Day-to-day follow-up. Contact parents on the first day of absence if no reason has been given, and make further contact to ensure safeguarding if absence continues without explanation. Enter the correct code for an unexplained absence as soon as the reason is known, and no later than 5 working days after the session (paragraph 42).
- Regular data analysis, at least weekly, at pupil, cohort and year group level, shared with leaders including the DSL (paragraph 44).
- Meetings with families. Meet pupils at risk of persistent or severe absence and their parents to understand the barriers and agree actions (paragraph 17), and hold regular meetings with parents of pupils who are persistently or severely absent (paragraph 42).
- Telling the social worker. Tell a pupil’s social worker or youth offending team worker about unexplained absences (paragraph 52).
Schools are also legally required to share register information with the local authority (paragraph 48):
- New pupil and deletion returns when a pupil joins or leaves outside standard transition times.
- Attendance returns naming pupils who fail to attend regularly or have been absent for 10 school days in a row with unauthorised absence codes (G, N, O or U), at least once a month.
- Sickness returns for pupils expected to miss 15 days or more, in a row or in total, through illness.
State-funded schools must also share pupil attendance data with the DfE on request. Sharing it automatically from the school’s management information system meets this (paragraph 51).
Support first, then formal steps
The guidance expects support to grow as absence does. Severely absent pupils should be the top priority for all partners (paragraph 135). Where voluntary support hasn’t worked, schools work with the local authority on formal support such as an attendance contract or education supervision order. Statutory children’s social care should be involved where there are safeguarding concerns, “especially where absence becomes severe (below 50% attendance)” (paragraph 19). Penalty notices and prosecution are for when other routes have failed or aren’t appropriate.