ON Thursday, the Government announced a series of measures as part of a drive to return school attendance to pre-pandemic levels - including increasing fines for parents taking children out of school without permission from £60 to £80.

The DfE has said school absence fines will be brought under a national framework to help tackle inconsistencies in their use across England.

Schools have now been told to consider a fine if a child misses five days of school for unauthorised absence.

In Warrington, will you be fined if your child does not attend school?

In Warrington, the council does not issue a fine but court is an option for parents who do not ensure their children are going to school on a regular basis.

Here is what the council says.

A Warrington Borough Council spokesperson said: “We do not issue penalty notices but operate a ‘Fast-Track’ prosecution process, to ensure better management of poor school attendance.

“The ‘Fast-Track’ process involves the school, parents and the attendance team setting time limited targets for the improvement of individual pupils’ attendance. If agreed targets are not met within a nine week time frame, we may take legal action through the courts. We only take this action when all avenues of support have been tried and failed.

“In the academic year 2022/23 a total of 266 parents have been placed on the fast track process and of those 46 parents have been found guilty through the court of failing to ensure the regular attendance of their child/children at school.”