CONTENTS
Section / PageLocal Authority Responsibility / 3
School’s own Management of Attendance / 4
School’s Nominated ‘Attendance Lead’ / 5
School action before requesting support from MAST / 5
Requesting FURTHER ATTENDANCE Support FROM MAST / 5
Local Authority Targeted Support
for Schools and Providers / 6
Statutory Defences / 7
SCHOOL BASED ATTENDANCE OFFICERS
PENALTY NOTICE PROCESS / 8
Standard SCHOOL letters & forms / 11
PENTALY NOTICES – WHEN TO CONSIDER AND WHEN TO ISSUE / 14
PENALTY NOTICE PROCESS FLOWCHART / 14
HOLIDAY FINES & TERM TIME LEAVE / 15
HOLIDAY PENALTY NOTICE PROCESS FLOWCHART / 16
Local Authority Responsibility
Schools, local authorities, parents/carers and the wider community all have a role to play in improving attendance. Every child should be in education every day and every school should have policies and procedures designed to ensure that all its pupils attend regularly. The Local Authority should have clear policies and procedures in terms of how it will carry out its statutory duties and support schools with the wider attendance agenda.
The Local Authority will initiate legal proceedings only as a last resort when all other attempts to resolve attendance issues have been unsuccessful. Sheffield Local Authority will implement the Early Intervention and Prevention model of working with the children, young people and family to improve school attendance.
The Attendance Strategy can be accessed here:-
https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/education/information-for-parentscarers/at-school/attendance/school-attendance.html
Early Intervention and Prevention Services
The key principle which underpins the Local Authority’s procedures for managing attendance is the belief that regular and punctual attendance is the key to academic and social development. This will in turn safeguard vulnerable young people and will improve their life chances. Attendance therefore is a key priority for all MAST staff as they continue to work closely with children, young people, families, partners and schools to embed the concept of Early Intervention and Prevention and keep children and young people safe.
Children, Young People & Families (CYPF), via MAST, will continue to provide support to schools on a range of issues, which will include attendance and inclusion (including exclusions). When schools have exhausted their internal support systems they can refer to MAST.
Definition:
Throughout the document the term ‘parent’ means all natural parents, whether they are married or not; and includes any person who, although not a natural parent, has parental responsibility (as defined in the Children Act 1989) for a child or young person; and any person who, although not a natural parent, has care of a child or young person.
Definition:
Throughout the document the term School Attendance Officer means any member of the school staff that has a lead responsibility for attendance e.g. Education Welfare officer, or Attendance Officer etc.
Date issued: Draft update September 2016
Date of next review: September 2017
Responsible LA Officer: Marie McGreavy, Strategic Lead Attendance
School’s own Management of Attendance
Schools have a statutory duty under Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. While regular school attendance is predominantly the responsibility of parents and carers, schools play a central role in ensuring that children and young people attend school regularly. This includes taking a positive and proactive role in the promotion of regular school attendance through strategies identified within the school attendance policy that will engage families. It is important that Governors take a key role in promoting good attendance when approving this policy. It is further acknowledged that schools will take responsibility for low level attendance issues before requesting additional support from the Multi Agency Support Teams (MAST). In most schools this would include ‘First Day’ absence procedures, meeting with parents and, where resource permits, home visits.
Good practice guidance suggests that schools can improve attendance by:
· Designating a member of the Senior Management Team as Attendance Lead;
· Identifying a member of the Governing Body to take responsibility for attendance. Other governors may also play a more active role in monitoring individual cases where this is part of the school’s attendance policy;
· Producing and reviewing a whole school attendance policy, which sets out how attendance is managed and what monitoring systems are in place. This should be endorsed and monitored by the governing body;
· Setting realistic but challenging annual attendance targets;
· Having efficient and effective registration systems which encourage punctuality and safeguard children;
· Adhering to legal requirements regarding attendance and registrations (please refer to ‘Full and Effective Use of Legal Powers’ No. 3.22 in Attendance Strategy)
· Having efficient and timely monitoring and referral systems that identify attendance concerns, provide support and escalate to Social Care Fieldwork Teams when appropriate;
· Being observant and alert to changes in patterns of attendance by individual pupils as well as particular groups;
· Having a rigorous approach to sanctioning holidays in term time, following the LA guidance (please refer to Appendix C of the Attendance Strategy);
· Encouraging both teaching and non-teaching staff to forge effective links with parents;
· Sharing good practice locally across families of schools.
School’s Nominated ‘Attendance Lead’
School action before requesting support from MAST
Requesting FURTHER ATTENDANCE Support FROM MAST
Within MAST there are a number of specialists that are available to give help and advice to schools. These include Senior Learning Mentors, Parenting Practitioners, Social Workers and Attendance and Inclusion Officers.
Attendance & Inclusion Officers – are available to give help and advice to schools on a range of attendance related issues including strategy, policy, practice, data and targets.
Attendance & Inclusion Officers - Social Work Qualified (SWQ) specialise in giving support to schools and MAST staff on any aspect of the legal process and progression of cases to court. They also have a remit as a Looked After Children’s Champions.
CHILDREN MISSING FROM EDUCATION (CME)
It is a requirement of all schools that they inform the Local Authority of any child or young person that has been missing from school for more than10 days and the school have tried without success to establish their whereabouts.
Please refer all these cases to the Children Missing from Education Team (CME), Floor 5, Moorfoot Building, S1, Tel: 0114 2736462.
It is acknowledged that schools and providers across the city may be at different points in terms of attendance process and procedures, and may have differing resources to support this agenda. Before a referral is made to MAST, the Attendance & Inclusion Officers will work with schools/providers to ensure that staff are able to:
· Identify the absence patterns;
· Work with the young person to identify the issues and put a support plan in place to address the issues;
· Contact parents where attendance issues do not improve;
· Inform parents that a referral is being made to MAST when the school/provider has exhausted all its internal support services available.
When interventions have been tried without success and school has made every effort to engage with parents, a request for support to MAST may be considered appropriate. At this point School Attendance Officers may contact Attendance and Inclusion Officers for advice.
Local Authority Targeted Support
for Schools and Providers
MAST will work collaboratively with schools to identify key issues relating to the impact of persistent poor attendance on overall attainment and progress. For schools and providers with identified attendance issues the LA will target its resources to support them in the following circumstances:
· Schools that have a Persistent Absence figure of 2% or more than the National Average (NA) (Primary NA 3.9%, Secondary NA 8.4%);
· All Special Schools with identified attendance issues and high levels of PA;
· Schools that are identified as causing concern where attendance is a key issue;
· Schools that are in a category for school improvement;
· Schools that have an influx of new groups that may impact negatively on school attendance;
· School with high numbers of children identified in the ‘Building Successful Families’ programme and or Young Carers;
· The Inclusion Centres;
· Providers of alternative provision that have young people with attendance issues.
Statutory Defences
If your school is considering the legal prosecution route for attendance you should always have consideration for statutory defences prior to progression of the process
All decisions regarding legal proceedings will be made by the A & I Officer SWQ. The Statutory Defences (reasons why cases would not be progressed through the legal system) are for information for Schools.
SCHOOL BASED ATTENDANCE OFFICERS
PENALTY NOTICE PROCESS
Regular and punctual attendance is the foundation of academic and social development, safeguarding vulnerable young people and offering support to improve their life chances.
CONTACT WITH MAST ON ATTENDANCE CASES
The Attendance & Inclusion Officers based in MAST will offer a consultation every half term. Schools may make contact at any time with these Officers by telephone or email.
Prior to consultation, school based Attendance Officers should collect as much information as possible on the individual cases and have implemented various strategies to offer support to the family as appropriate in raising their child’s attendance.
Cases for discussion at half termly meeting
These cases should be where a pupil’s attendance is below 90%.
Information collected by School may include:-
· Up to date attendance
· Historical attendance
· Siblings – D.O.B., school attended
· Parents/Carers – names, addresses
· Behaviour – exclusions
· S. E. N.
· G.P. details
Strategies used to support families could include:-
· Weekly monitoring for efficient identification of attendance concerns
· Pupil interviews
· Telephone contact with parents
· Writing to parents – using standard letters supplied by L.A.
· Meetings in school
· Parenting contracts
· Home visits
· Target setting
At the point of parent contact, either by letter or verbally, the parent should be made aware that any further absences will not be authorised unless medical evidence is provided.
It is important that the overall attendance record reflects a pattern of irregular attendance. The Attendance and Inclusion Officer SWQ will be looking to pursue legal action where appropriate and in line with criteria set by the LA.
CONSULTATION (Attendance Review)
Attendance reviews with Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ should be used to discuss any cases where the above strategies have failed to bring about any improvement in attendance.
The School Attendance Officer will be required to bring all relevant documentation to the meeting to discuss with the A&I O SWQ if requesting the process to move towards a Penalty Notice Warning Letter.
Documentation should show:
· School Attendance Officer has been involved for a minimum of 6 weeks.
· Standard letters provided by LA have been used.
· Contact has been made with parents to ensure they are aware of the issues.
· Parents have been asked if they are able to change the behaviour (if not and parents are asking for help, then a FCAF requesting support from MAST may be appropriate).
· Time limited targets have been set to illustrate ability to improve.
PENALTY NOTICE WARNING LETTER (PNWL)
The Local Authority, in consultation with schools (and other agencies where appropriate), will be responsible for the decision to issue Penalty Notices. This will ensure consistent practice across all schools in Sheffield, assist in avoiding school / home conflicts and ensure that Penalty Notices are not being issued where it is inappropriate to do so, or where the process towards Court prosecution has already begun.
Details of cases where a School is requesting to send a Penalty Notice Warning Letter, where initially accepted by the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ, these will be subject to final checks.
Reason for Checks:-
· Ensure siblings (if applicable) are not already being supported by MAST or taken through the prosecution process.
· Ensure the family have not previously been taken through the prosecution process.
If any of the above applies then the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ will discuss with the school and may advise to proceed straight to court for a FAST TRACK BASIC OR AGGRAVATED OFFENCE.
When the checks are complete and there is no change to the initial agreement the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ will notify the School that a warning letter can be sent out (SA 10)
The Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ will check that any current involvement by Social Care would not prevent the case being progressed to Court
MONITORING PERIOD
Monitoring of the PNWL period should be carried out by the school based Attendance Officer.
REQUESTING A PENALTY NOTICE (PN)
If a pupil does not attend 100% in the Penalty Notice Warning Period, then the parents/carers will be served with a fine.
If School chooses to authorise the absence due to medical evidence being provided or for exceptional circumstances then a fine would not be issued nor could the case be progressed to court.
If a fine is to be requested, a further consultation should take place between the School Attendance Officer and the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ in order to request the Penalty Notice and to agree a Period of Complaint around which to base the final paperwork. A date for the handover of final paperwork should also be agreed.
PENALTY NOTICE PAPERWORK REQUIRED FROM SCHOOL
In the case of an unpaid fine or a Basic Offence, the School Attendance Officer would be required to supply a:-
· Head teacher’s Certificate
· Case Summary covering the period of complaint.
· Witness Statement (would also be needed for an Aggravated Offence)
All proformas will be supplied by the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ.
This information would prove that during the period of complaint, the parents/carers were aware of the child’s poor attendance. The proforma for the Witness Statement will be supplied by the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ.
If the case is Aggravated, the Worker may be requested to attend Court by the parents if they are pleading ‘not guilty’.
If a pupil achieves full attendance during the Penalty Notice warning period, the School Attendance Officer should continue to monitor the attendance and send out letter (SA 11), and if deterioration occurs in later weeks then they should consult with the Attendance & Inclusion Officer SWQ regarding further involvement in the legal process.