Families are fined £1.1m for term-time holidays

Yorkshire parents faced with a postcode lottery

PARENTS in Yorkshire have been issued with more than 30,000 fines totalling £1.1m in the past 18 months for taking their children out of school during term time – with enforcement set to get even tougher following a landmark legal ruling. An investigation by The Yorkshire Post shows families face a postcode lottery, with some local authorities issuing more financial penalties for unauthorised absence than others.

And in the wake of a decision by the Supreme Court to uphold a ban on parents taking children out of school for holidays during term time, one council is already preparing to clamp down.

North Yorkshire County Council, which almost halved the number of fines issued in 2015-16 to 424 from 929 the previous academic year, confirmed it would be calling for schools to report unauthorised absences for holidays taken in term time.

When a High Court ruling in May last year cleared Isle of Wight father Jon Platt of failing to ensure his daughter’s regular attendance at school, North Yorkshire County Council suspended issuing penalty notices for unauthorised absence if a child’s school attendance was 90 per cent or above in the previous six months, including any holiday.

But corporate director for children and young people’s services Pete Dwyer said the council was now reviewing its guidance, adding: “There is evidence that even short unauthorised absences from school can have an adverse impact on a child’s education.

“The county council will require schools to report any unauthorised absence for holidays taken in term time and will seek to prosecute when appropriate.”

A council can issue a fine of £60, which rises to £120 if the parent does not pay within 21 days. But the regime was thrown into disarray after last year’s ruling.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) show that in some parts of Yorkshire – amid the uncertainty surrounding Mr Platt’s legal battle – the money collected in the last two terms is already significantly higher than the whole of the previous academic year.

In Bradford in the 2015-16 school year, 4,985 fines were issued, with the council collecting £129,485. Since September, despite a lower number of penalty notices handed out – 3,165 – the council has already collected £153,950.

Bradford Council’s deputy director for education Judith Kirk said: “It is important to stress that it is for headteachers to determine if the requests for leave of absence are reasonable. Each request should be judged on a case-by-case basis.”

Figures for the last three years show an almost 50/50 split in the number of councils issuing more fines in the 2015-16 academic year compared with 2014-15.

Half of the region’s authorities, including Leeds and York, continued to hand out a rising number of fines while awaiting the Supreme Court’s verdict, but some councils, including Sheffield and Wakefield, backed off.

A FORMER president of the National Union of Teachers has warned parents they are now more likely to be fined if they take their children on holiday during term-time.

Anne Swift has branded the current system, which was introduced in 2013, as unfair to headteachers and teachers who risk souring relationships with families and has likened the Government’s approach to “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.

The former Scarborough headteacher has also warned that Yorkshire parents are more likely to suffer as a result of the region being at the heart of the UK tourism industry, with many being unable to take time off at the height of the busy summer season.

She said: “I think councils will now take a tougher stance but whether they should or not is a different matter. It sets up an area of conflict between schools and families which doesn’t need to be there.” An investigation by The Yorkshire Post has revealed some councils were already starting to ramp up their fines after father Jon Platt, a businessman from the Isle of Wight who refused to pay a £60 fine for taking his seven-year-old daughter to Disney World in term-time, lost a twoyear legal battle, despite arguing that she had a good overall attendance record.

The case was billed as a definitive decision as to whether parents across the country can take their children out of class without headteachers’ permission.

Mrs Swift said: “The system that was previously in place, where headteachers had the discretion to allow parents to take children out of school during term-time for up to 10 days in a year, worked perfectly well as they made a judgement based on the circumstances at the time.”

Mrs Swift said the union did not support any parent breaking the law, but felt it had been altered so that it was not in favour of supporting families, particularly the most vulnerable who may need to spend time together and those who worked in the tourism industry.

She said: “The law doesn’t take into account people who live and work in tourism areas, like Scarborough and Whitby, who can’t take time off during school holidays. Now we have got a situation where headteachers get to make allowances in ‘exceptional circumstances’ and that puts them in a difficult position.

“It’s the interpretation of what is reasonable and what is exceptional that is the grey area. Many of my colleagues say they don’t want to damage a good relationship with families and want to make sure those who need to spend time together can.

“There are children who have a day off every week or turn up to lessons late every morning and this is far more disruptive to education. For children who have very good attendance, a two-week holiday is not unreasonable.

“Children should be in school as much as possible to benefit from the education available to them but it’s not an area there needs to be conflict over. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”

The Department for Education said headteachers would continue to have the ability to decide when exceptional circumstances allow for a child to be absent. But the ruling removes the uncertainty for schools and local authorities that was created by the previous judgment, a spokesman said.

He added: “The evidence shows every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs, which has a lasting effect on their life chances. We will examine the judgment carefully and will update schools and local authorities as soon as possible so they are clear what the judgment means for them.”

Anne Swift, former president of the National Union of Teachers. It sets up an area of conflict between schools and families.