Greater Manchester hotspots for school term-time holiday fines revealed

Four areas in Greater Manchester are key hotspots for parents getting fined for taking their kids on term-time holidays. Last year, nearly half a million fines were dished out across England, primarily for unauthorised absences due to family holidays. In Greater Manchester, Oldham topped the charts with the second-highest fine rate in England—1,500 fines for every 10,000 pupils, totalling 6,000 fines last year. Bolton, Rochdale, and Manchester also made the top 20 list, with fines ranging from 1,023 to 1,197 per 10,000 pupils. Meanwhile, Barnsley had the highest fine rate in the country. The number of fines for term-time holidays has surged over the years, increasing from 116,000 in the 2016/17 academic year to 288,000 by 2018/19, just before the pandemic hit. It seems this trend of penalties isn’t slowing down anytime soon!

Read the full article at Manchester Evening News