Parent Voice Project releases annual report
Public First
New polling shows parents growing more relaxed about term-time absence, using AI more for homework each year, and feeling more positive about their children's mental health.
The Parent Voice Project (PVP), in partnership with Public First, has today published its 2026 Annual Report, tracking how parents' views of their children's schools have changed over the past year.
Among many deep insights, parental attitudes to absence stand out. Mums and dads have become significantly more permissive about taking children out of school during term time, according to the research.
In 2026, 57 per cent say parents should be allowed to take their child out of school during term time if they wish, up from 49 per cent in 2025. The proportion who thinks schools should do everything they can to prevent term-time absence has fallen from 44 per cent to 37 per cent.
This is one of several important findings from the PVP's second nationally representative survey of parents, published today. Other findings point to persistent and, in some cases, widening gaps between different groups of parents:
- Almost half (48%) of AB parents now say their child uses AI regularly or occasionally for homework, compared with 31% of DE parents.
- 64 per cent now rate the mental health support at their child's school as 'fairly' or 'very' good, compared with 60 per cent last year.
- 77 per cent of parents whose children attend special schools rate the quality of education on offer as 'high' or 'very high', compared with just 55 per cent of parents of children with SEND in mainstream schools.
In the focus groups that formed part of the PVP research programme, a number of parents voiced scepticism about how far ordinary childhood emotions are now being treated as symptoms of an underlying condition.
"The other day he was brushing his teeth and he said he felt anxious. And I was thinking, 'You are six years old. You shouldn't even know what anxious is'. I don't feel like a six-year-old should feel anxious. I gave him a hug and he was fine... I feel like it's overdone now where children are feeling these feelings and believing they've got something at a young age when they shouldn't even know what that feeling is."
Mother from Hull in social grade C1 with children aged 6 and 8
Fiona Forbes, Founder of the Parent Voice Project, said:
"Parents are still overwhelmingly satisfied with their children's schools, especially when compared to public satisfaction with other public services. However, our data once again shows that some of the biggest gaps in the education system are driven by socio-economic factors – how much you are asked for feedback, how clear communication is and, ultimately, how respected you feel as a parent. These are the things that should be worrying policymakers as much as any headline statistic."
Full report available at: theparentvoiceproject.org.uk
The Parent Voice Project will continue to continue to share insights throughout the year via it's Substack: https://parentvoiceproject.substack.com/
The Parent Voice Project 2026 Annual Report is by the Parent Voice Project in partnership with Public First, drawing on nationally representative surveys of 6,199 parents of school-aged children in England in June 2025 and 6,016 in July 2026, alongside focus groups with parents.
For more details, please contact Ed Dorrell via email at [email protected].
Public First conducted an anonymous online survey of 6016 parents of school-aged children in England between the 2nd and 23rd of July to understand their attitudes towards education. All results are weighted to nationally representative proportions by gender, region, ethnicity and education-level to nationally representative proportions. Results were also weighted to match the proportion of individual child ages in the 2025 Parent Voice Project survey.