Parental responsibility measures
Academic year 2024/25

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Parental responsibility measures in England' official statistics release’s underlying data file. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in a new tab) (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data.

The methodology should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

Information on parental responsibility measures for attendance used by schools and local authorities to improve poor attendance in schools. The underlying data file includes national, regional and local authority-level information for England from 2009/10 through to 2024/25. Data is not available for 2019/20, due to the pandemic.

It includes data on:

- penalty notices issued
- penalty notices paid and withdrawn
- prosecutions following non-payment of a penalty notice
- cases entering the attendance case management system (a process setting out actions and time frame for improving a child’s attendance)
- parenting orders and parenting contracts

The information is based on local authority data collected through the parental responsibility measures attendance census. Refer to the methodology documentation for more information on data collection and coverage.

File formats and conventions

Rounding

This dataset has not had suppression applied.

Conventions

The following convention is used throughout the underlying data.

‘x’ - unavailable

Data files

Parental responsibility measures

Filename: prma_v4.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2009/10 to 2024/25
Content summary: Data on penalty notices, reasons for penalty notices, cases entering attendance case management, parenting orders, parenting contracts and education supervision orders.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name                                 |  Variable description
--------------------------------------------  |  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
case_management                               |  Total number of cases of attendance case management
case_management_prosecuted                    |  Number of cases of attendance case management prosecuted
case_management_withdrawn_att_improved        |  Reason for withdrawal of cases: attendance improved
case_management_withdrawn_before_prosecution  |  Number of cases of attendance case management withdrawn
case_management_withdrawn_other               |  Reason for withdrawal of cases: other reason
enrolments                                    |  Total number of pupil enrolments
parenting_contracts_accepted                  |  Number of parenting contracts that were accepted by parent
parenting_contracts_offered                   |  Number of parenting contracts offered
parenting_orders_granted                      |  Number of parenting orders made by the courts
parenting_orders_implemented                  |  Number of parenting orders implemented
parenting_orders_not_imp                      |  Number of parenting orders not implemented
parenting_orders_not_imp_breachbyparent       |  Reason for not implementing parenting orders: breach by parent
parenting_orders_not_imp_lackofprovision      |  Reason for not implementing parenting orders: lack of provision
pn_issued                                     |  Total number of penalty notices (PNs) for unauthorised absences issued
pn_issued_rate                                |  Rate of penalty notices for unauthorised absences issued per 100 enrolments
pn_paid                                       |  Total number of penalty notices paid within 28 days
pn_paid_21                                    |  Number of penalty notices paid within 21 days
pn_paid_22_28                                 |  Number of penalty notices paid between 22-28 days
pn_prosecuted_non_payment                     |  Number of prosecutions following non-payment of penalty notice
pn_unresolved                                 |  Number of unresolved cases at the end of the period
pn_withdrawn                                  |  Number of penalty notices withdrawn
prosecution_pn_limit                          |  Number of cases prosecuted due to reaching the limit of 2 PNs within 3 years
reason_pn_hols                                |  Main reason for issue: Unauthorised family holiday absence
reason_pn_late                                |  Main reason for issue: Arriving late
reason_pn_other                               |  Main reason for issue: Absence due to other unauthorised circumstances
repeated_pn                                   |  Number of PNs issued to a parent for the same child for 2nd time in 3 years
supervision_orders_inadditiontoprosecution    |  Number of education supervision orders issued in addition to prosecution
supervision_orders_inplaceofprosecution       |  Number of education supervision orders issued in place of prosecution
supervision_orders_total                      |  Total number of education supervision orders issued
withdrawn_reason_conduct                      |  Reason for withdrawal: Issued outside of the terms of the local code of conduct
withdrawn_reason_expiry_no_legal              |  Reason for withdrawal: After 28 days unpaid LA do not wish to prosecute s44
withdrawn_reason_material_error               |  Reason for withdrawal: It appeared that the notice contains material errors
withdrawn_reason_wrong_issue                  |  Reason for withdrawal: Ought not to have been issued or issued to recipient

Footnotes:

1. Data for 2019/20 is not available as the data collection did not take place due to the pandemic.
2. Data for 2020/21 includes a period of two months where measures were disapplied. See publication text or methodology for more information.
3. Reason for issuing penalty notices is not available prior to 2016/17.
4. Voluntary question added to the census in 2024/25, data is incomplete and so should be treated with caution.
