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How the Attendance Service can support you

As patterns of attendance are habitual, early identification and support is essential for individual pupils in need of help. Where barriers go beyond the classroom, this requires schools, local authorities, and other partners to work together to put joint support in place as quickly as possible. We have developed our service level offer for schools based on the new DfE duty and positive feedback from our training offer.

Target Support Meetings are to be held virtually by the allocated Attendance Improvement Officer (AIO) and the school’s Attendance Lead. This meeting will be used to provide guidance regarding recording on the school register, accessing services, school policies, analysing data and the wider attendance approach. AIO’s will also provide support concerning complex cases and pupils who are severely absent, by discussing approaches already taken and aiding the school to identify support from within the LA, statutory and voluntary services.

Frequency of target support meetings will vary depending on educational settings, level of need, newly appointed Headteachers/ Attendance Officers and PA figures.

Cluster meetings will occur virtually throughout the academic year to enable the dissemination of information, advice, and guidance in relation to relevant attendance topics. Termly webinars will be available to provide training opportunities to schools to aid the development of best practice.

Schools will have access to a non-school attendance Helpline via email, Monday to Friday 9.00 – 15.30 during term time. This is monitored by trained and experienced Attendance Improvement Officers who can provide information and advice on general attendance issues. Schools are welcome to request a call back to speak to an Officer, if the school would prefer.

Email: nsa.helpline@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

The process of investigation begins when a school makes a referral for the application of a Penalty Notice or Prosecution and the Legal Panel decides that the referral requires further investigation. The investigation is the responsibility of the Attendance Improvement Officer (AIO) and can result in the following:

  • A Penalty Notice
  • The conviction of a parent via the Single Justice Process (SJP)
  • In cases of an aggravated offence, in the magistrate courts
  • If evidential difficulties have been identified, no further action be taken

The Local Authority has a statutory responsibility to identify, as far as it is possible to do so, children missing education (CME). Upon receipt of a referral, CME officers will review the content and conduct in depth searches to identify, where possible the location of the pupil. CME Officers will provide guidance to schools concerning next steps and the deletion from school roll process.

Changes to Attendance Referrals:

We here at Cambridgeshire County Council have been working closely with the DfE to help prepare for the upcoming statutory duties. This has involved reviewing our processes and the use of legal sanctions, by creating two pathways called the Notice to Improve or Attendance Contract.

Our tiered approach to legal sanctions will be remaining the same. The first legal sanction applied will be a Penalty Notice, unless the parent has been prosecuted via the Single Justice Process or open court case under Section 444(1A) of the Education Act for an Attendance related offence. Please note that this does not include legal sanctions for term time leave.

If attendance does not improve, following appropriate early interventions, schools can re-refer to request that parents are prosecuted under Section 444(1) of the Education Act. Cases will be heard by the Single Justice Process, which typically takes less time than open court.

Should either of the first approaches be ineffective, schools can make a request for prosecution under Section 444(1A) of the Education Act, then cases can be heard in open court and requests can be made for Parenting Orders.

We acknowledge the complexities when supporting families and the effect that this can have on attendance. For complex cases, schools are welcome to contact the NSA helpline to receive guidance, signposting, and support.

Non School Attendance Helpline: Monday – Friday 9.00 to 15.30.

Email: nsa.helpline@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Changes to Online Referrals:

There is an increased focus on early intervention prior to legal sanctions being initiated, as outlined in the DfE duty. It is important that young people and families who are either on the waiting list or currently receiving support are given time for the interventions to work.

We have updated all online referral forms for attendance legal sanctions. Whilst additional questions have been added, we passionately believe that this will help to reduce the number of investigations or requests for information from Legal Panel. Therefore, this will save schools time and enable them, when appropriate, prompt use of legal sanctions as a means of improving school attendance.

We are confident that this new referral form will assist schools and the Attendance Service to assess the effectiveness and suitability of a legal sanction. This will reduce the number of legal sanctions being withdrawn due to mitigating circumstances and/or evidential difficulties.

It is important that families open to support are given time to work with external agencies. The Attendance Contract pathway can still be followed during this time, however a legal sanction for attendance, will not be issued if any of the below apply: -

  • An Early Help Assessment (EHA) has been submitted for additional support or the family have been open to Target Support service for less than 12 weeks (YOS, SAFE TEAM, Family Worker, Young Peoples Worker etc.)
  • An EHA has not been offered to the family (please note offering via letters, telephone calls, meetings and door knocks is acceptable)
  • Young person is currently receiving support from Specialist Teaching Team (Ed Psych / SEN Caseworker) for less than 12 weeks
  • If currently on an IAEP, less than two cycles of IAEP reviews have taken place
  • If the young person has an EHCP but this has not recently been reviewed.

Referrals which include an attendance certificate that contains N codes will be returned. The prosecution period stated in the referral must be for a minimum of 10 school weeks with a minimum of 10 unauthorised absence marks. If the prosecution period is for more than 10 school weeks, the majority of the absences must be unauthorised.

Thank you to all our schools who have been patient during the changes to this process. If you have any questions or would like clarity concerning these amendments, please contact your allocated Attendance Improvement Officer or make contact through the Non-School Attendance Helplin

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