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The proportion of children absent or permanently absent from secondary school has reached “crisis” levels in Islington, a new report has found.
In 2024-5, 24.7% of secondary school pupils in Islington were persistently absent, compared with around 14% before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Islington’s Annual Education Report 2025.
The report, presented at Islington Council’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee, found that Islington’s persistent absence rate has increased from the last academic year.
Cllr. Paul Convery, representative for Caledonian Ward, said: “It is over four years since this committee first raised a red flag about absenteeism. It is currently running at a level that’s more than double what it was pre-COVID. That is a crisis.”
Islington’s rate of persistent absenteeism, referring to pupils who miss more than 10% of their sessions, was higher than the Inner London average which sat at just over 20% across the 2024/25 academic year.
A further 4% of Islington secondary school pupils are categorised as severe absentees, meaning they missed 50% or more of their possible sessions.
Cllr. Siobahn Scantlebury, Head of Employment Services for Islington Council, linked the high rate of absenteeism to children who are most at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training).
In her report on Post-16 Progression in Islington, Cllr. Scantlebury emphasised the need to identify early children with low attendance as these young people find it more difficult to transition into work or further training post-school.
Cllr. Ilkay Cinko-Oner, representative for Laycock ward, agreed. She said: “We know there are children whose attendance is around 30-40%, sometimes 10%, and we know colleges in Islington do not report this accurately because there is an off-rolling issue in Islington”.
Off-rolling refers to when children are removed from a school roll without the use of a formal, permanent exclusion or when parents are pressured to do so.
Cllr. Cinko-Oner worried these severely absent children would become “invisible” to council services which aim to create a “smooth pathway” between school and further education and employment.
Jon Abbey, Director of Children’s Services acknowledged this issue: “Those children who are not in education become a statistic. We’re trying to follow up and find out where they actually are.”
The percentage of NEET 16–17-year-olds in Islington has fallen from 4.5% in 2025 to 3.9% in 2026, but remains above the London average of 3.3%.
Islington Council’s Post-16 Progression report comes after the government issued a Post-16 White Paper in October 2025, guaranteeing every unplaced 16-year-old a place in a further education college.
Isabella Steinmeyer is a Newspaper Journalism MA student at City St George's University. She was previously Deputy Editor of Varsity, Cambridge's student newspaper.