EDUCATION Secretary Bridget Phillipson was urged to address the lack of youth mental health services and “exam factory” culture within schools after she vowed to redouble efforts to cut down on classroom absences today.

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede warned that the logjam in young people receiving timely support is “one obvious issue” behind a recent rise in the number of children in England who missed at least half of their classes.

He said: “Many secondary schools now report a two-year wait for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) meetings, and in turn GPs are looping families back to schools because there are simply not enough CAMHS appointments in the local area.

“This means young people are not receiving timely interventions and personal responses. This logjam is also placing enormous pressure on school staff and parents. 

“We need to see a much quicker rollout of mental health hubs across the country, as well as more counsellors and school nurses in all secondary settings.

“It is also clear that the narrowing of subject choices and an ‘exam factory’ culture in our schools is demotivating for many young people.

“It is vital that the ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review corrects this course that schools have been stuck on for many years.”

Department for Education (DfE) figures released last week showed that 147,605 pupils were classed as severely absent — which means they missed at least half of possible school sessions — in the autumn term of 2024/25. 

That is compared to 142,487 in the autumn term of 2023/24.

The DfE said that the research shows a decline in the number of pupils persistently absent “is likely to improve severe absence” in time, adding that the rate of increase in severe absence is slowing down compared with the previous two years.

Writing in the Telegraph, Ms Phillipson said that children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in particular were missing chunks of time with plans to transform the Send system and expand mental health support in schools.

“We will only continue to drive absence down if we discharge our shared responsibility: parents… sending children to school, schools creating welcoming classrooms, and the government providing support,” she said.