Well, I couldn't agree more with the Member on the first point that she made, which is that teaching and school staff have put the well-being of their learners very often ahead of their own. And I think I just want to put on the record again today my gratitude to the entire education workforce for the incredible efforts they’ve made over the last 18 months, but with, I think, particular recognition of how challenging the last term has been in our schools.

And the other point that she made that I want to underscore is that these are individuals and not just, as you acknowledged in your question, a question of numbers—each individual case is important. That’s why, actually, as well as looking at the patterns of attendance and non-attendance, I wanted to commission a piece of work to understand what's actually happening on the ground in terms of school leaders' views about why this is happening in particular.

And so, I’m hoping to be able to announce some particular support, before the end of this term, for pupils who have had a pattern of non-attendance and to support schools to engage more with those families. There is a particular issue in terms of those who are eligible for free school meals. There’s been a tendency for there to be lower attendance rates amongst those pupils. And there’s also an issue in relation to year 11 pupils, who have tended to be less likely to attend as well. So, those are two of the cohorts, but also the ones that she mentioned in her question. It is very important for us to understand individual circumstances and work with those families and learners.