Skip to main content

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

 

Outcome of attendance online referral consultation

Beneath heading – The Attendance service is grateful for everyone’s feedback and responses following the survey concerning our online attendance referral form. You may have already noticed prior to the summer school holidays that slight amendments were made. Schools can now upload multiple documents to provide evidence, save the form as they go along and also have the option to select both the attendance contract and notice improve pathway. This is for when parents have attended the attendance contract meeting but refused to sign, therefore a notice to improve letter is needed.

We hope these amendments improve your user experience, and we will continue to review our online forms and streamline where possible.