Post-pandemic anxiety key driver in school absences

Anxiety and poor mental health exacerbated by the pandemic is a key driver behind the school absence crisis, a programme supporting students to return to the classroom has found.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

The number of children missing school remains high compared to pre-pandemic levels, with recent government statistics showing 20 per cent of pupils were persistently absent – missing 10 per cent of sessions or more – in the past year.

This is almost double the level in 2018-19 when 10.9 per cent were persistently absent, although it marks a slight fall from 21.2 per cent in 2022-2023. In total, children lost 11.5 million days of learning in the autumn term last year, research from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated.

A pilot programme run by charity Barnado’s, and commissioned by the Department for Education, has been working with families to get children back to school. The scheme, which began in September 2023, is running across five areas in the north of England: Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Stoke, Salford and Norsley. It will now be expanded across the country to reach 10,000 more children in 10 new areas, including Ipswich and Blackpool.

One mother said her 11-year-old son, who is on the scheme, started fretting about the amount of oxygen in a room after the pandemic hit, while another child is having panic attacks and struggling to adjust back to normal life after lockdown at home. Under the programme, families are given attendance mentors who meet up with the children at home or school to work through why they are missing classes.

Of the 671 children referred into the programme, 66 per cent – or around 440 children – said mental health and anxiety was a key barrier to them attending school, findings shared with The Independent show. Staff are worried that Covid has had a much more lasting impact on children than is widely recognised, with the damage still being felt five years on.