TEACHING union leaders said today’s new measures to tackle persistent absence from school are “immensely frustrating” and “too little too late.”

The Department for Education announced there will be 18 new “attendance hubs” across six regions — local tip-sharing sites run by schools with excellent attendance — bringing the total to 32.

Some £15 million over three years will go towards expanding the attendance mentor pilot programme, with trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September.

But National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) general secretary Paul Whiteman said it was “immensely frustrating” that ministers are only now slowly beginning to recognise the effect of cuts to crucial support services.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said the proposed extension of the attendance hubs programme “is rolling out too little, too late, for many children and young people.

“The programme supports only 10 per cent of schools: nowhere near enough to tackle the extent of the problems.”

He said the proposals failed to provide a means to address the complexity behind absence rates, such as slow Send (special educational needs & disabilities) assessments, adding: “Effective change requires funding pastoral teams to work with parents and students to address the underlying issues for unauthorised absences.”

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson will announce Labour plans to tackle absenteeism today. They include more mental health counsellors for secondary schools and universal free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil.

Mr Kebede said: “Healing our damaged education system needs to involve rebuilding and resourcing local authorities to have the capacity to support schools.

“Children’s services have been decimated through austerity and they will need to be painstakingly rebuilt if Labour are to achieve their aims.”