It has emerged that in the past three years, about 400,000 penalty notices have been sent to parents in England and Wales for children's truancy and term time holidays, where they have been fined £24 million for not sending their children to school.
Penalty notices can be issued for various reasons, such as truancy and taking term-time holidays. Local authorities act on behalf of schools in issuing penalty notices, which starts from £60 and goes up to £120 if not paid within three weeks of the notice being issued.
A spokesperson for the Association of School and College Leaders said, “No doubt people will argue that there should be a uniform approach across the country. But I would have thought there is a reasonable case for these decisions to be made locally as schools and councils will be in the best position to judge what is most effective as part of an overall strategy to deter unauthorised absences. The other point – and surely the most important one – is that there should be no need to issue any penalty notices at all because children should not be removed from school without authorisation.”
