1. The Government welcomes the Committee’s report into persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils, and we have considered the findings and recommendations of the report carefully. We want every child to achieve their potential. Attending school regularly is crucial - it positively impacts a child’s academic attainment, safety, development and wellbeing. Children who are not attending school regularly miss out on chances to learn, to socialise, and to play an active part in their school community. The Committee’s work is an important contribution to the public debate on school attendance. 2. As the Committee heard, while most children attend school regularly, the pandemic created unprecedented disruption in attendance habits and led to higher rates of persistent and severe absence for some children. 3. Recent data show improvements – the percentage of children persistently absent or not attending school for Covid-related reasons fell to 22.3% in 2022–23, down from 27.5% a year earlier, which is equivalent to around 380,000 fewer pupils persistently not in school. But there remains a long way to go to achieve the goal of achieving pre-pandemic attendance levels or better. 4. The Government had previous success in improving attendance, prior to the pandemic. As the committee has found, there are few quick fixes - sustained improvement in school attendance requires long term focus across the system. In the decade before the pandemic, the Government commissioned the Taylor Review, delivered a tougher definition of persistent absence, drove sustained Ofsted attention, and updated and improved the legal framework alongside wider school reforms. Persistent absence fell from 16.3% in 2010 to 11% in 2014/15 and remained largely stable until 2018/19. To return to these levels or better, the Government is delivering a comprehensive attendance plan.