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More than one out of every five children in England are persistently absent from school

By Marthe de Ferrer and Branwen Jeffreys

BBC News

The Labour Party says it will make tackling poor school attendance a top priority if it forms the next government.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson will set out a range of measures later.

The plans include using artificial intelligence to spot trends in absence.

This week, the government promised to extend the existing attendance-hub scheme to support a thousand more schools in England.

Labour's plans are being backed by Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned as the government's education catch-up tsar after failing to secure the funding he wanted.

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Department for Education (DfE) data shows more than one out of every five children in England are persistently absent from school - double the proportion before the Covid pandemic.