Pupil absence ‘growing driver’ of disadvantage gap, report finds

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has called for the government to address the underlying causes of school absences, as it identifies higher levels of absence to be a key factor in the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

Its latest report found that pupil absence is a key, and growing, driver of the disadvantage gap. If disadvantaged pupils had the same level of absence as their peers in 2023, the attainment gap at age 11 (of 10.1 months) would have been almost one month smaller and the gap at age 16 (of 18.6 months) would have been over four months smaller.

It said the growth in the disadvantage gap at age 16 by 0.5 months since 2019 (to 18.6 months in 2023) can be entirely explained by higher levels of absence for disadvantaged pupils.

At each key stage, more than half of the gap is explained by the size of the gap in earlier phases. The EPI’s analysis found that by age seven, nearly 60% of the gap at age 11 has already developed. 

In addition, disadvantaged students fall even further behind when they attend schools and colleges with lower-attaining intakes – this peer effect adds over 1 month to the GCSE gap in 2023, and a third of a grade to the 16-19 gap. 

The report also suggests the attainment gap is widening for the youngest pupils with special educational needs, with pupils on SEN support in reception year falling 0.7 months behind their peers between 2019 and 2023. 

While the 16-19 disadvantage gap has “changed little” since 2019, disadvantaged students have become less likely to continue education after the end of key stage 4.

As such the EPI report recommends that: 

• The government should prioritise early intervention to improve school readiness and reduce gaps throughout schooling, by increasing the early years pupil premium to match the pupil premium in later years, ensuring a high quality workforce and improving childcare accessibility for disadvantaged children in particular. 
• As part of wider SEND reforms, the government should prioritise training in child development and different types of SEND, making it a mandatory part of initial teacher training and early career development. 
• The government should develop a new absence strategy which addresses its root causes and includes improved SEND identification, better mental health support in and outside of schools, and fostering pupils’ sense of school belonging. 
• The government should introduce a student premium in the 16-19 phase, similar to the pupil premium at key stage 4. 
• The government is due to publish its Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. This should specifically consider centralising auto-enrolment for free school meals to ensure wider coverage, as well as abolishing the Two-Child Limit and the benefits cap. 
• Given the need to reduce segregation in the education system, school admissions should be reformed to level the playing field for disadvantaged pupils and better information, advice and guidance should be provided to support high-attaining disadvantaged students in particular.

EPI chief executive, Natalie Perera, said: “Over the past eight years, we have seen the disadvantage gap widen in all phases of education and the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to accelerate the widening of the gap. This report provides new and critical analysis to help us understand why the gap widened between 2019 and 2023.

“Its findings are disturbing. In this report, we are confronted with the harsh impact of an education(and wider public service) system that has meant that record numbers of disadvantaged young people are missing school, for a range of reasons, and this has contributed to them falling considerably further behind their peers.”