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More parents risk fines for term time holidays

Getty Images children dressed in black school uniforms sit in blue plastic chairs in a classroom, with their backs to the camera. A blurred image of a female teacher wearing a pink dress, standing facing the class. Most of the children have one hand raised, seemingly to answer the teacher's question.Getty Images
The education secretary said there is a national "epidemic" of unauthorised school absence

More parents across the South East have been risking fines to take their children on holiday during the school term, latest government figures reveal.

The Department for Education said there was an increase in fines for unauthorised school absences to take children on holiday in Surrey, Kent and Sussex last year.

Across England, the number of fines rose from 356,181 in 2022/23 to 443,322 in 2023/24.

East Sussex saw a 49% increase from 2,829 to 4,201, which was the biggest increase seen by local authorities across the three counties.

In West Sussex, there was a 36% rise in parents being fined for taking their children out of school to go on holiday, from 5,061 to 6,859.

This was closely followed by Surrey, which saw a 33% increase from 3,350 to 4,448 fines.

Brighton and Hove saw a 27% increase from 2,019 to 2,565, while 30% more parents in Kent were fined, going up from 8,488 in 2022/23 to 11,063 in 2023/24.

Medway saw the smallest increase of 0.1%, from 2,880 to 2,885.

The minimum fine increased in August from £60 to £80 per parent as part of a government drive to return attendance to pre-pandemic levels.

Lucy Holt faces the camera smiling next to her three young children, with hay bales in the background
Lucy Holt has been fined twice, but says the summer is too busy on the farm for a family holiday

Lucy Holt, a farmer from Chiddingly in East Sussex, has been fined twice for taking her children out of school during term time.

But the 38-year-old, whose children are nine, seven and two, said January is the quietest time on the farm and the best opportunity to take "quality time together".

During February half term and at Easter she said they were busy lambing, and in Autumn they prepared for the next year's harvest.

"Summer is totally out of the question because it's haymaking and harvest," she added.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: "We need a national effort to tackle the epidemic of school absence."

She added: "When children miss school unnecessarily, all children suffer, as teachers' attention is diverted to helping them catch back up."

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