Any parent who takes a child out of school for term time leave for 6 consecutive sessions (3 days) or more, not authorised by the school (under exceptional circumstances rule), may receive a Penalty Notice.
If 3 or more term time leave Penalty Notices have been issued over a 3 year period then prosecution in relation to Section 444 Education Act 1996, may be considered as an alternative to a Penalty Notice fine being issued. Where a parent takes a child out of school during term time for an extended period (20 days or more), not authorised by the school, prosecution in relation to Section 444 Education Act 1996, may also be considered.
Referral for Penalty Notice for Term Time Leave form
We have seen an increase in the number of requests from schools to withdraw a Penalty Notice (PN) fine that had already been processed and issued. For the academic year 2021/22, a total of 214 PN fines were withdrawn at the request of the school. Similarly, for the current year 2022/23, 127 PN fines were withdrawn.
The process of issuing a fine involves a lot of resources and time as you would expect. This is further compounded when a request is subsequently received from a school to withdraw a fine that they originally requested. Issuing a fine involves analysing evidence and data received from the school as well undertaking further investigations by our Attendance Officers. A significant number of administrative tasks are involved when fines are issued, which includes generating letters, logging of information, posting etc. When a request is received from a school for withdrawing a fine, further time and efforts are utilised which incurs additional costs to the Local Authority. On occasions, cases listed for court for parental failure to pay a fine have also had to be withdrawn, further complicating the process. This has resulted in approx. 75 hours (2022/2023) of administrative time, which could have been used more productively to support communications with schools following referrals.
Due to this we will be following the practice used by our neighbouring Local Authorities, therefore from Sept 23, we will be charging schools £25 per term time leave (TTL) penalty notice which is cancelled for the following reasons:
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Referral received requesting TTL PN be withdrawn due to school changing their mind.
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CCC withdraw TTL PN due to inaccurate/ additional information being supplied by the school.
This charge will provide a contribution towards the cost of administrative tasks and follow up actions with the school.
Therefore, can we please remind schools to ensure that all lines of enquiry are exhausted, before consideration of a PN fine referral is sent to the LA. It is the school’s responsibility to check all the information submitted to the LA is accurate and to undertake any follow up required to check the validity of information sent by the parents, before a referral is submitted for a fine to be issued.
We hope that this approach will enable all of us to reduce the number of inaccurate referrals being made and penalty notices needing to be withdrawn. We are eager to show a united front in tackling the issue of families taking term time leave during school time.
Thank you for your understanding and partnership in this process.
To be used for:
- Fast track - at least 8 unauthorised sessions over an 8 school week period (minimum 80 sessions) with no authorised sessions within the period.
- 90% and below mostly unauthorised over a longer period (must be more than 8 school weeks).
The criteria has changed for submitting Referral for unauthorised absence. Please see How the Attendance Service can support you - Learn Together (cambslearntogether.co.uk) for further guidance.
Unauthorised absence request for the issue of a penalty notice or prosecution online form
To be used to request the withdrawal of a Penalty Notice issued to parent/carer for both Term Time Leave and Unauthorised Absences
Under the Cambridgeshire County Council Code of Conduct a Penalty Notice may be withdrawn by the County Council, regardless of whom within the authority issued it, if it is deemed that:
- a) the notice ought not to have been issued (i.e. where it has been issued outside of the terms of this Code of Conduct or where no offence has been committed); or
- b) the notice ought not to have been issued to the person named as the recipient.
Withdrawal is not automatic and by submitting this form your request will be considered by the Attendance Legal Panel and the outcome will be communicated to you.
Please note - Legal Panel sits every Monday with the exception of School Holidays.
Request for the withdrawal of a penalty notice for term time leave and unauthorised absence form
When a pupil is excluded from school for either a fixed term or permanently, S.103 Education and Inspections Act 2006 places a duty upon the parent/carer to ensure that the pupil is not present in a public place at any time within school hours during the first five days of their exclusion.
Please note public place is defined as ‘outside the boundary of the school’.
Before submitting this referral: A signed witness statement will be required from the person who saw the pupil in the public place and willing to submit this as part of this Penalty Notice Referral.
A template Section 9 Statement for schools can be found on the main Attendance Referral Learn Together page below:
The Section 9 Statement must be completed and submitted along with the Penalty Notice request. Guidance on the witness statement can be sought from your linked Local Authority Attendance Officer.
Request needs to be fully completed and submitted to the LA within 15 school days of the child being seen in the public place.
Penalty notice in respect of presence of excluded pupil in public place
If you are aware of the pupil’s destination and have confirmation of the new educational placement and that the pupil has started the new provision, the school is required to complete the online form below.
This includes instances where a pupil has relocated abroad and you have no reason to disbelieve the parents/carers. Whilst we acknowledge it is best practice to obtain a fixed address and/or school name, we recognise that this may not always be possible:
In all other cases where a school is unaware of a pupil’s destination and/or the pupil and families whereabouts– this also includes those pupils who fail to transfer to statutory education from nursery school, then a referral should be made to the central Attendance Team, after the school has made initial investigation to the pupil’s whereabouts, including a home visit. If a pupil is deemed vulnerable then the referral should be made immediately. Schools are required to complete online form below:
If a school receives notification of decision to EHE or parent approaches school regarding intention to EHE school, please refer to the below flowchart which will contain points of discussion and next steps. If the child meets the following criteria the ‘EHE Enquiry with LA’ online form below will need to be completed:
- open Social Care/Early Help involvement
- EHCP
- is a Young Carer
- open to an Education Inclusion Officer
- Pupil is from Military Family
If non of the above apply, on receiving a confirmation letter or email from the parent of their intention to home educate the school needs to refer to the local authority via the Elective Home Education Deregistration online form below, as soon as possible.
If the parent does not provide the school with a letter or email explaining their intent to home educate but you are aware that this is the case, then please refer using the Elective Home Education Deregistration online form below.