Penalty Notices

If the fine is not paid within 28 days, the Attendance Compliance Team can proceed to prosecution under section 444 Education Act 1996 or withdraw the notice.  If prosecution action is to be taken, you will receive a Notice of Intention to Prosecute.

The Local Authority can also prosecute parents for non-attendance without issuing a Fixed Penalty Notice. Only the Local Authority can prosecute parents and they must fund all associated costs.

Local authorities must conduct its investigations in line with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).

If you have any additional new information for the Attendance Compliance Team to consider, you can contact the Attendance Compliance Team on the number below:-

Parents can be issued a Fixed Penalty Notice by the Local Authority for their child’s non-attendance. The penalty is £80, and this rises to £160 if paid after 21 days but within 28 days.

The Department for Education has introduced a new Statutory National Framework, that all schools and local authorities in England must follow from 19 August 2024.

If you believe you have been incorrectly issued with a penalty notice you should request a meeting with the Head Teacher or authorised Deputy.  You will need to provide evidence of the reason your child/young person is unable to attend school and ask the penalty notice to be withdrawn. You can also raise your concerns to the Governing Body.

A penalty notice can only be withdrawn if it:

• contains errors
• is shown that it should not have been issued
• did not follow the Essex 'Code of Conduct' for issuing penalty notices 

In some situations parents may have new or additional information which they believe may either:

• support their child's school to reconsider the decision to request penalty notices
• enable the school to recode some of the absences which have been recorded as unauthorised

If you believe school are recording illness as 'unauthorised absence' it might be helpful to look at the Department for Education Working Together to Improve Attendance - August 2024 for schools around recording attendance.  It states:- 

62. Medical evidence for recording absences should only be needed in a minority of cases (see Code I). Where a pupil’s health need means they need reasonable adjustments or support because it is complex or long term, schools can seek medical evidence to better understand the needs of the pupil and identify the most suitable provision in line with the statutory guidance in supporting pupils at school with medical
conditions or arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs 

 

Code I: Illness (not medical or dental appointment)

 

365. Schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness absences. Schools should only request reasonable medical evidence in cases where they need clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register – i.e. making a decision that code I is the absence code that accurately describes the reason the pupil is not in school for the session in question. In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical
evidence be requested to support the absence.

 

366. Where medical evidence is deemed necessary, schools should not be rigid about the form of evidence requested and should speak to the family about what evidence is available. Schools should be mindful that requesting additional medical evidence unnecessarily places pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointment system, particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Where a parent cannot provide evidence in the form requested but can provide other evidence, schools should take this into account. Where a parent cannot provide any written evidence the school should have a conversation with the parent and pupil, if appropriate, which may in itself serve as the necessary evidence to record the  absence.

• 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session.
• This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks).
• These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks).
• The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).
• If in an individual case the local authority believes a penalty notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met.
• Where this guidance refers to a parent, the school and/or local authority will need to decide which adult is most appropriate to work with. Generally, parents include:
  • all natural parents, whether they are married or not;
  • all those who have parental responsibility for a child or young person;
  • those who have day to day responsibility for the child (i.e. lives with and looks after the child).

The guidance also states in regard to further or repeat offenses:

• A second penalty notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
• A third penalty notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first. In a case where the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within those 3 years, alternative action should be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions set out below.

There is no right of appeal against a Fixed Penalty Notice once it has been issued. Essex County Council will only issue penalty notices when they are in receipt of all required evidence.

A penalty notice can only be withdrawn if it:

• contains errors
• is shown that it should not have been issued
• did not follow the Essex County Council Code of Conduct

If you have received a summons for court for one of the above offences, you should seek the advice of a criminal solicitor and check whether you qualify for criminal legal aid. Some courts can provide duty solicitors, who may be able to advise and represent you at a hearing, usually if there is a risk of imprisonment.

We are unable to provide further information or advice once a summons has been issued as the matter is then covered by criminal law and not education law.

If a registered pupil of compulsory school age fails to attend school regularly, the parent could be guilty of an offence under section 444 of the Education Act 1996. In April 2017, the Supreme Court held that attending school “regularly” means attendance in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school, and not "sufficiently frequent attendance". This means that a child must attend school every day that the school requires him or her to do so and failure to do this may lead to the commission of an offence.

There are 2 offences:

• Section 444(1) Education Act 1996 – If the child is absent without authorisation then the parent is guilty of an offence. This is a strict liability offence i.e., all that needs to be shown is a lack of regular attendance. Sanctions can include a fine of up to £1,000.
• Section 444(1A) Education Act 1996 – an aggravated offence. If the child is absent without authorisation and the parent knew about the child’s absence and failed to act, then the parent is guilty of an offence. Sanctions can include a fine of up to £2,500 and a prison sentence of up to 3 months.

There are some limited defences to these offences:

• The head teacher authorised the absence.
• The child could not attend because of sickness or ‘unavoidable cause’ in an emergency. Case law has held that anxiety arising from bullying, behavioural or mental health difficulties or a ‘chaotic lifestyle’ should not be considered an ‘unavoidable cause’.
• The child was absent on a day exclusively set apart for religious observance.
• The school is outside of the statutory walking distance of the child’s home and the Local Authority has a duty to make travel arrangements in relation to the child under and has failed to discharge that duty
• The child is not registered at the school and the parents are providing a suitable alternative education.
• The parents’ trade or business requires them to travel from place to place.

Parents can also be prosecuted by Local Authorities under section 103 Education and Inspections Act 2006, where a pupil of compulsory school age who remains on the Admissions Register is found in a public place during school hours, after being excluded from school. Sanctions can include a fine of up to £1,000.