NOTE: The government had stated its intention to put new legislation before parliament, but this was dropped in December 2022 and it is still not clear if/how this will proceed in terms of legal powers. The legislation was due to make the process for issuing of FPNs standard throughout England and encourage use of a wider range of legal powers. This page will be kept updated with any further information as the DfE clarifies what will happen now, but the following remains the current guidance.
STOP PRESS: The DfE published the results of a public consultation on the above and has now published the results of this and the government response as of August 2023. This article gives a good summary of the document and will be quicker and easier to read than the full document.
You can find general information about the legal action that can be undertaken to enforce school attendance here. Each Local Authority will have different procedures for the issuing of fixed penalty notices and is likely to be reviewing these during the year. This DfE blog aimed primarily at parents, explains the amounts that may be fined.
If you would like to see how your local authority has performed in relation to the various legal recourses available to them to improve attendance then you can now interrogate the latest set of parental responsibility measures data and information for 2021/22 (these will be updated in December 2023 but remain the most current figures at present).