With Manchester ranking amongst the worse in the UK in terms of issuing fines to parents for school absences, we dug into the reasons behind the issue.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World, my name's Theo Hewson-Betz and this video is all about schools.
00:04And that's because the coronavirus pandemic had a big impact on schools across the country and particularly schooling for children.
00:11This is because basically every child across the country was homeschooled for the large part of two years,
00:15meaning that parents had to bear the brunt of education alongside their own careers.
00:19As well as impact in learning, it had a severe impact on kids' socialisation, which is very important at a young age.
00:24And since Covid, there's been a real increase in the amount of absences across the country, as well as suspensions and exclusions linked to behavioural issues.
00:32Manchester has been named one of the worst in the UK in terms of parents being fined around school absences,
00:38with £41 million paid across England and Wales for parents taking a child out of school during term time.
00:44Nearly 900,000 fixed penalty notices were issued across England and Wales between 2022 and 2024, with Manchester ranked as the 10th worst.
00:51Manchester City Council issued over 20,000 fines in the same period.
00:55As of August last year, fines for unauthorised absences stood at £160, which can then be reduced to £80 if the fine was paid within three weeks.
01:03Many of the absences can be attributed to holidays, with the cost of living having made everyone clutch their purse a little bit tighter.
01:09It can make it more difficult for parents to afford holidays during the busy periods around the school holidays.
01:14A survey found that families could save an average of £567 by holidaying during term time,
01:19which is over three times the size of the fine for taking a kid out of school.
01:23Now this is clearly a massive problem across the country.
01:25Kids have already missed so much education due to Covid,
01:28but at the same time the cost of living is negatively impacting the kids' and families' abilities to enjoy life.
01:34Many are calling for reforms to the system, but how would you solve the issue?
01:38Please let us know, but that's all for now.
01:40Thank you for watching Manchester World.