Attendance road map for schools and other professionals
The suggested road map is about identifying concerns early and putting the right support in place. It is essential schools develop their own processes and practices that embodies a support first approach and meets the expectations placed on them as outlined in the DFE’s statutory Working Together to Improve School Attendance Statutory Guidance.
To support schools with this, the Access & Inclusion Team have developed a toolkit of suggested/template documents, with support first as the priority.
These documents/templates sit with the expectations on all partners to: Expect, Monitor, Listen and Understand, Facilitate Support, Formalise Support and where all other avenues have been exhausted and support is not working, or being engaged with, enforce through statutory legal intervention.
There is no timeline at which to proceed to the next step, or if indeed a step should be bypassed. This is for each school to determine according to their knowledge of each individual pupil and family and whether support is appropriate or not.
It is important to note that the key to successfully improving attendance is early identification, intervention, and support, as well as ensuring on-going and regular reviews of plans with the family.
It is therefore essential that schools and families work in partnership to review support that isn’t working as soon as either party have concerns about its effectiveness.
About the road map
- Contact with parents
- School attendance policy
- Absence call-backs
- Leave of absence
- Pupil check-ins
- Early help and initial concern conversation
- Declining attendance meeting
- Moving to a formal approach
- Deciding if legal intervention is appropriate
Contact with parents
Contact advice with parents (Word)
Where schools are confident that they hold an up-to-date email address for each individual parent of a pupil for whom they hold attendance-related concerns, they may send email communications to parents to raise their concerns, offer support, invite parents in for meetings, send notes following any meetings held, respond to requests for leave of absence during term time, etc.
Emails should be sent to each parent, separately, in the way that letters have always been sent to each parent by separate cover.
When choosing to communicate via email, schools must store a copy of their email, including any attachments and request a “read receipt” for all such emails so that these may be shared, if necessary at a later date, as part of any pre-referral evidence which is submitted alongside a request for statutory legal intervention (penalty notice/prosecution).
Schools are reminded not to send email to shared inboxes where there is any chance of interception and email being deleted by another party e.g. one of the children within the family. An example of such an email address type includes: thesmithfamily@gmail.com.
Handing letters/communications/attendance contracts directly to parents
Where parents attend face-to-face meetings or are present and available in school to be handed a communication in relation to attendance concerns/response to a leave of absence request, etc., schools may hand such communications to parents (fully addressed so that it is clear who the intended recipient of the letter is.
A note needs to be made of date, time, staff member involved and the name of the parent to whom the communication is handed. Any record of communications having been handed to a parent must be in a format which may be shared, should such evidence be required at a later date.
Schools may wish to have a printed template on which to log such information OR make use of their school’s management information system (e.g. Arbor, SIMS, etc.) to make the required record.
Please note: Schools must not hand copies of formal letters/communications to one parent, which are addressed to an alternative parent for the pupil concerned.
Post
Where communications cannot be sent via email (as per the advice above) or handed directly to the intended recipient (with the required log being available to confirm date/time, etc.), these should be sent via Royal Mail, first class post so that “good service” may be evidenced to the court.
School attendance policy
School clearly outlines expectations, processes and procedures.
Template school attendance tracker (Excel)
Absence call-backs
A supportive wellbeing check with the parent about the pupil and family. Designed as an opportunity to see if there is anything else going on (early identification) so where appropriate support can be put in place early.
Absence call-back prompt sheet (Word)
Attendance Monitoring Letter (Word)
Medical Evidence Letter (Word)
Leave of absence (term time holidays)
Addressing leave of absence requests
Our Leave of Absence Request Form (Word)
Unauthorising or authorising leave of absence template letter (Word)
Failed to return from leave of absence letter (Word)
Unauthorising leave of absence – no application made or reported as ill, letter (Word)
Read about referral for a FPN, if the code of conduct is met for holidays during term time.
Pupil check-ins
A supportive wellbeing check-in with the pupil
Designed as an opportunity to see if there is anything else going on (early identification) so where appropriate support can be put in place early.
Return to School Check In (Word)
School Attendance Difficulties Rating Scale (Word)
School Attendance Difficulties Rating Scale (Excel)
Early help and initial concern conversation
Early identification and intervention
Enables opportunities to listen to, understand and facilitate support. Schools should seek to put the right support in place early.
Initial Attendance Conversation Prompt Sheet (Word)
Initial Attendance Support communication letter (Word)
Initial attendance support – discussion summary letter (Word)
No response and further absences letter (Word)
No response and no further absences letter (Word)
Declining attendance meeting
Early identification and put the right support in for the individual family/pupil
Listen to and understand – work together.
Attendance declining despite support – invite to meeting communication letter (Word)
Attendance on-going decline – Discussion Pro-Forma (Word)
Where does my child sit on mountain attendance (Word)
Categorising attendance and learning hours lost (Word)
Attendance on-going decline – thank you for attending – summary of support and notes letter (Word)
Non-engagement with attendance on-going decline meeting letter (Word)
Moving to a more formal approach – attendance contracts should be considered at this stage
Attendance contracts
These are targeted, voluntary support and intervention, meant to be a supportive, preventative measure, and an opportunity for parent/s to engage voluntarily. Designed to avoid the need for formal legal intervention.
Schools should still listen to, understand and provide support as appropriate, offering new support, and/or re-offering of previous support.
Referrals to legal intervention, schools will be expected to share copies of their attendance contract/s or provide a clear rationale as to why a contract has not been developed.
Information on attendance contracts for schools and other professionals (Word)
Attendance contract invite to meeting letter (Word)
Attendance contract template (Word)
Failure to attend attendance contract Meeting letter (Word)
Failure to adhere to agreed attendance contract letter (Word)
Re-arrangement of attendance contract meeting letter (Word)
Deciding if legal intervention is appropriate
Consideration to which route to take, bringing together all documentation of support and interventions offered, creating a timeline / chronology. Consider making a referral for legal intervention in the form of a penalty notice or prosecution.
Checklist for referrals for legal intervention under Section 444 (Word)
Read about referral for a FPN.
Fixed penalty notice can be Issued when the national threshold for legal intervention has been met (10 sessions unauthorised absence in a rolling 10-school-week period) and support is appropriate, but previous offers of support have not been engaged with or have been ineffective – see our code of conduct (PDF).
Notice to Improve can be issued which provides a 6-week timeframe for improvements to be achieved prior to seeking legal intervention. Schools should continue to work with, offer new, and re-offer previous support where appropriate.
Prosecution under Section 444 1 or 1a. Pre-court meeting is offered to parents which School Attendance Officer will arrange with the school and parent. All evidence of support from the school needs to be provided before this meeting. The meeting will consist of Interview under PACE conditions and a parental agreement plan. This will be reviewed usually in a 6-week period. If there is no improvement, we will consider prosecution.