Fines for parents taking children out of school drop

The number of fines issued to parents and carers for taking children out of school to go on holiday has fallen in Essex, bucking the national trend.

In Essex - including the boroughs of Southend and Thurrock - some 15,856 fines were issued in 2024/2025, a drop of 1,664 compared to the previous academic year.

According to government figures, fines for unauthorised family holiday absences in England rose by 16,000 from the year before, with 459,288 fines issued for the 2024/25 academic year.

All schools nationally must consider issuing a penalty if a child has missed five whole days of education for unauthorised reasons within a rolling 10-week period of school time.

Rebecca Allerton, from Castle Point, is a blogger and a mother of three boys, two of whom are of primary school age.

She agreed it was a hard ask for teachers who had "so much they need to teach children".

"But I personally think that missing some school time isn't that detrimental if you are staying within the 95% bracket of attendance," said Allerton.

She said she always asked teachers for work to complete while her children were absent - but had never been given any.

Instead her children read books and use platforms like Times Table Rockstars, while they are away.

She added that she and her husband, who both work, have planned a break at Butlins for the family.

During school term this costs £89 - but increases to £580 during the school holidays.

"So that just shows you how ridiculous it is," she said.

"It should be on the holiday companies that do this to families, and it shouldn't be on us parents getting prosecuted."

Allerton added that the family tried to only take about three days off in a term "bulking it on the back of some bank holidays or the days when our school is a polling station".

So far the family has not been fined, she said, and believed her children's learning had not been impacted.

"And if they did start to falter, then that would be when we take a step back," she said.

Simon Kidwell is the president of the NAHT - the teachers' union - and is also a serving head teacher.

He said he had "sympathy" with Allerton, who was being "reasonable" given the huge spikes in prices out of term time, but added "attendance was really important".

Kidwell said: "The range in which we can authorise term time absences is really narrowed and we give them very little scope of what we can authorise."

He said he had a family from India and while he could authorise absence for a wedding, he could not endorse a longer holiday to spend time with relatives.

"And that's really sad because this is a one-off lifetime event," he said.

He said holidays in term time accounted for about 1% of absences, which had remained static since before the pandemic.

"But the big causes for non-attendance in school are around sickness and that can sometimes be children's mental health or sometimes can be due to families with ill health as well," he added.

Since 2024 fines were set at £80 if paid within 21 days, doubling to £160 if paid afterwards and up to 28 days.

Repeated failures to pay fines could result in a conviction, a fine of up to £2,500, a community order and even a prison sentence of up to three months.

The Department for Education has been asked for comment.

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