’Shocking’ state of absence from Sheffield schools revealed
‘We’ve got children who are on an hour a day timetables, floating around on parks, becoming very vulnerable to exploitation’
Sheffield Council's plans for a new attendance strategy revealed 1,478 children across the city are on part-time school timetables, with many only studying for an hour a day.
Councillor Dawn Dale, who chairs the education, children and families policy committee at Sheffield Council told the committee on November 3 she found this shocking.
She said: "We’ve got children who are on an hour a day timetables, floating around on parks, becoming very vulnerable to exploitation.
“We’ve got families in communities who are under immense pressure to be working. They've got to be at work, it impacts everything in their life."
Part-time timetables are meant to be used as a short-term intervention to prevent children from being fully absent from school, a report to the committee explained.
The report said reduced timetables should only be in place "for the shortest time necessary."
However, the council said over a third of all part-time timetables were in place for more than 20 weeks.
Councillor Ann Whitaker said she had worked with families of children on part-time timetables of an hour or two hours a day where the young people want to attend more, parents are "desperate" to get them in, but have "great difficulties working with the school."
“I am sure children when they are persistently on a part-time timetables potentially could then end up in youth justice because they're very vulnerable," she said.
In the academic year 2025-2026, 1,478 pupils were on a part-time timetable as an intervention to support their engagement with learning.
This does not include children with smaller timetables in place, for example those who leave 10-15 minutes early each day to avoid crowded corridors or to catch earlier buses home.
The council said including those children which would make this figure "significantly higher."
Reduced timetables is now a 'focus area' in the council's attendance strategy for 2026-30.
Coun Dale asked officers who is responsible for children when they are only attending school for an hour a day.
She said: "I worry about the pressure on families who are under immense pressure anyway. This sort of thing doesn't happen because everything is going well."
Shirley Woods-Gallagher, assistant director of accessible and inclusive education, said it was the responsibility of head teachers because “they are community leaders as well.”
Ms Woods-Gallagher said she was concerned that the council no longer collected data on part-time timetables, because they are “the earliest indicator of something starting to go very tangibly very wrong.”
She said under the new attendance strategy, the council would work with school leaders to collect data on how long children are on part time timetables, notice trends and hold them to account.
Councillor Bannister said this is where a ‘play strategy’ should come in, because “if we’re talking about filling timetables, we need to fill it with something they enjoy.
“Even if it's not working towards something academic, it's still keeping them inside the system.”