Best Practice

School attendance is everybody’s business

Attendance
For years attendance was considered a problem for schools and schools alone. But last academic year the DfE took steps to address this, reminding us that attendance is everybody’s business. How far have we come with these initiatives? Suzanne O'Connell takes a look
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“I won’t be the only headteacher who has been told by social services or the police that attendance is a school matter and not a safeguarding issue.”

 

For headteachers such as Emma Meadus, the elephant in the attendance debate has been around for far too long – while there are obvious links between the social and welfare needs of pupils and their absence, often persistent, from school, the safeguarding aspect of attendance is often not sufficiently recognised.

As such, attendance officers can find themselves working in limbo, stuck between social services and education.

The challenge facing us is stark. Attendance figures for the last academic year show that 17.2% of primary pupils were persistently absent, meaning they missed more than 10% of sessions (the rate for secondary schools is 28.3%). Meanwhile, overall absence stands at 7.5% (falling to 6% for primary schools), but absence rates rise to 11.4% for disadvantaged pupils, 13.3% for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans, 11.1% for those with SEN (DfE, 2023).

Last year, the Department for Education published guidance placing new expectations on schools, governing bodies, academy trust boards, and local authorities (DfE, 2022). The principle is to ensure consistency of support for children and families, early intervention and a multi-disciplinary approach to breaking down attendance barriers, with the strong message that “attendance is everyone’s responsibility” and with clear links to safeguarding.

Ms Meadus, headteacher of Coppice Valley Primary School in Harrogate, said: “I welcome this more overt link between attendance and safeguarding. We know that good school attendance is a protective factor for our most vulnerable children. Yet I have sometimes run into barriers when attempting to work with local safeguarding partners around complex cases of severe absence. Now though I will be quoting page 32, section 87!”

The section, from the guidance, entitled Working together to improve school attendance, states: “If all avenues of support have been facilitated by schools, local authorities and other partners, and appropriate educational support has been provided but severe absence for unauthorised reasons continues, it is likely to constitute neglect. Schools and local authorities should be especially conscious of potential safeguarding issues in these cases and, where these remain, conduct a full children’s social care assessment.”

The doomed Schools Bill, which was set to make the new guidance statutory, did not make it to the statute books. However, the intention remains that the guidance will become mandatory. Victoria Franklin, president of NASWE, a national body of attendance professionals from a variety of UK educational settings, said: “The guidance will become statutory as soon as Parliamentary time allows and the commitment to implementation is strong across all sectors.”

The guidance did not require schools to radically overhaul their approach to attendance. For many, it simply acted as a reminder of what the expectations are. Headteacher Update wrote about these expectations at the time (2022). To summarise, schools should:

  • Promote a culture of good attendance.
  • Have an attendance policy.
  • Have admissions and attendance registers.
  • Follow up absence daily.
  • Review absence data regularly.
  • Have strategies to support poor attenders.
  • Work with families and local authorities when absence is persistent or severe.

Nothing too groundbreaking and schools took it in their stride with tweaks and improvements as required. Ms Franklin continued: “They have seen it as an opportunity to assess and review practice and procedures, including a review of the attendance policy to ensure compliance with prescribed components, as this will be a statutory requirement. As a result, schools are identifying training needs and upskilling staff.”

Additional initiatives have been launched. The DfE facilitated a series of best practice webinars last year for schools and local authorities (still available) and it has published case studies (DfE, 2022).

An attendance advice team has been established to support local authorities and a selection of MATs and this support will be on-going this academic year.

The Attendance Hubs remain a key part of the DfE’s strategy. Launched earlier this year after a successful pilot in the North East, the DfE is designating schools to lead the new Attendance Hubs and at the time of writing 14 hubs have now been announced. It is hoped the new hubs will be able to support more than 600 schools, sharing effective practice and practical resources.

Ms Franklin added: “Nationally a ‘what works’ approach has been adopted. The hubs are led by senior leaders in schools from some of the largest trusts evidencing effective practice, sharing strategies and resources. Schools were asked to apply to join the programme and it is currently oversubscribed. Peer-to-peer support, sharing ideas on how to improve attendance and what this looks like in practice is the aim of the programme.”

 

Further research 

Much of what the DfE is keen to promote is based upon the sharing of best practice. However, a commitment to research is also an indication that there are still many gaps in our knowledge. 

Ms Franklin added: “Research is being undertaken by the Behavioural Insights Team into messaging parents on the number of school dates missed. This follows a pilot in Bristol which showed promising indicators. We will have to wait to see the evaluation and outcomes of all this work before it can be claimed as providing answers.”

Meanwhile, an attendance mentoring scheme funded by the DfE and run by Barnardo’s is entering its second phase following a pilot in Middlesbrough. The scheme involves one-to-one mentoring of persistently and severely absent students. 

Ms Franklin added: “This is initially for one year with a view to rolling out to four other Priority Education Investment Areas in year two and all five by year three.”

Both these projects are being evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

However, James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Headteacher, wants to see this support reaching more schools sooner. He said it was a “particular concern that disadvantaged pupils are much more likely to miss school regularly”.

He added: “A decade of cuts has seen the teams that used to support schools with attendance decimated, and large parts of the country do not benefit from either the Attendance Hubs, or pilot mentoring programme. The government really does need to redouble its efforts and commit the necessary resources to tackle this issue. In particular, there needs to be greater investment in specialist teams which work directly with pupils who frequently miss school and their families.”

 

Struggling alone? 

Schools may still be struggling to find equilibrium when it comes to attendance but at least the DfE is backing us up and now expects local authorities and MATs to play their proper part too.

Ms Franklin added: “The National Governance Association is working with the DfE to facilitate getting these messages across and meeting expectations.

“National organisations such as Better Governor are delivering webinars and Governor Hub is providing resources. Local authority governor development services are providing information and training and academy trust boards are looking at how to deliver training to governors and academy councils and cross-trust attendance management.”

It is still early days and the figures show that the post-Covid attendance challenges are proving to be very sticky. And we are yet to see whether social services, a key element in the network of support, will have the resources to work alongside attendance officers.

The message from many schools is not purely about the need for advice and mentoring or the sharing of good practice, it is about being able to access the human resources and specialist knowledge to deal with the multitude and diverse range of issues that families face and which prevent children from attending school. 

Suzanne O’Connell is a freelance education writer and a former primary school headteacher. Read her previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/suzanne-oconnell 

 

Headteacher Update Autumn Term Edition 2023

  • This article first appeared in Headteacher Update's Autumn Term Edition 2023. This edition was sent free of charge to every primary school in the country in September. A digital edition is also available via www.headteacher-update.com/content/downloads 

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