Warwickshire education chiefs have been asked to consider setting aside an "off-peak" week in the school calendar to help hard-pressed families afford holidays without being fined.

The idea was floated by Cllr Piers Daniell in response to rising numbers of Warwickshire parents and carers being fined for taking children out of school for more affordable breaks in term time.

However, hopes that his idea might develop appeared to be dashed by senior officers at the county council who cited a number of knock-on complications.

Cllr Daniell raised concern at the rising number of cases and also the sharp increase in families electing to educate children at home, querying whether there was a correlation between the two. 

Data reported ahead of this week's meeting of the county's Children & Young People's Overview & Scrutiny Committee showed there were 1,694 fines issued to parents for leave of absence during term time in 2023-24, way up from the 590 seen in 2021-22.

Meanwhile, the number of Warwickshire children home educated has risen from less than 500 in 2018-19 to more than 1,600 at the most recent count. 

"My concern is we look at parents who take children out of school and try to work with them to come back into school," he said. 

"If we are fining or using penalty notices to try to reduce absence then there is an incentive for parents to elect to home educate, which in turn could improve our absence scoring. 

"I feel there are other levers we should be pulling. For example, could we look at the way we have our holidays? Perhaps look at taking a week out of our summer holidays to bring it into an off-peak time to support parents to utilise cheaper holidays, enabling them to take children. 

"I feel that a big part of education is travelling. I appreciate that all children might not have that same opportunity but there is more we should be doing to address this."

He asked Warwickshire's head of school services and post-16 education Sarah Tregaskis for data around whether there is a connection between the issues.

"The question of holiday dates is really interesting," acknowledged Ms Tregaskis. 

"As local authorities we do set term dates but academies don't have to comply with them. It is an interesting debate and one we have had nationally with the Department for Education (DfE). 

"It is difficult. Holidays are generally set and we cannot control how much holiday companies charge but we have fed that back a number of times to the DfE."

Nigel Minns, the county's executive director for children and young people, added: "The biggest challenge is that we have huge numbers of children who cross (county) borders one way or the other. 

"A family may have a child who attends primary school in Warwickshire but then secondary school in another authority, or vice versa. 

"Creating different holiday dates between the two authorities can cause real problems for families, and that goes all the way around the county.

"There is the other issue of multi-academy trusts that operate across different areas so for them to have different holiday times for different schools is also quite challenging. 

"When we consult, the response tends to be 'no, we want to stick with the traditional', both from parents and schools."

Phil Johnson, a co-opted member of the committee who is not an elected councillor, said: "It is a real hot potato.

"In the area of the county I live, there are three different local authorities within a few miles. 

"We did have one of the secondary schools change their holiday dates to have a (longer) half-term break in October but it caused so many issues they went back the year after."