Pupil attendance and absence management policy

Stockton-on-Tees Council Locality Team fulfils the statutory duty and responsibilities of the local authority in relation to school attendance. The locality team promote and enforce regular attendance at school for all children of statutory school age in Stockton-on-Tees and work in partnership across agencies.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council absence procedures ensure schools and the local authority provide support and challenge to parents or carers and pupils to afford children of Stockton to take advantage of the best possible educational opportunities available to them.

If a parent or carer of a child registered at a Stockton school fails to meet their parental responsibility in ensuring their child's regular school attendance, then legal action may be taken.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's absence procedures outline the actions at tier 1 and tier 2 that schools in partnership with other agencies should take prior to a tier 3 referral to the locality team for legal intervention to support and enforce the child's attendance at school.

School must follow their own internal school attendance procedures. This will include:

• first day response
• regular home visits
• regular (more than one) meetings to discuss concerns and identify support measures with a formalised attendance improvement plan with SMART targets that include parent and pupil views
• details of the reasonable adjustments academic and pastoral to support the pupil should be included in the plan, along with support relating to any Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) need
• consider the use of direction off site to an alternative provision for some pupils who are difficult to re-engage with school
• escalation to the school senior leader responsible for attendance (SLT)

School should work with other agencies to ensure a full package of support is provided to the pupil; this will include:

• advice and guidance from the School Support team
• support from Family Support teams for children who have an active early help assessment and a family worker
• details of the reasonable adjustments academic and pastoral to support the pupil
• request for outreach support for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) needs, for example, Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) One Point Panel, specialist support from other agencies, for example, mental health, 0 to 19 nursing service
• Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP) interim reviews where necessary
• support from Social Care teams for children who are Children in Need (CIN), Child Protection (CP) and Children and Young People in our Care (CYPIOC)
• safeguarding agency referrals, if children are in need of intervention due to neglect, abuse, radicalisation, or any form of exploitation

Attendance improvement plans used at tier 1 and tier 2 should have a written record with minutes produced detailing the discussion, the key issues and barriers to attendance, actions that each member will take to resolve the issues and an attendance target set. The attendance improvement plan should run for no less than 6 school weeks. Parents and carers should receive a copy of the minutes from this meeting. A review date should be set and agreed with parents. During the attendance improvement support plan meeting, school staff should detail how contact with the parent and pupil will take place and who will make the contact. This may be a weekly support meeting, a home visit or where this is not feasible due to the parents' work commitments, a telephone contact as a minimum.

It is advisable that from the attendance improvement plan meeting, further absences are unauthorised unless evidence is provided to school to inform that the absence is for a serious and unavoidable reason. If the absence is for reasons of illness, acceptable medical evidence that should be considered may take the form of a prescription slip, sight of medication prescribed by the GP,  note or letter from the GP, medical or dental appointment letter, or evidence that the pupil was sent home from school too ill to remain in school. In these instances, the absence for the day the child was sent home should be authorised and a common-sense approach taken for any further related subsequent absence.

Parents and carers should be made aware that continuing unauthorised absence may result in escalation to tier 3 and a referral to the local authority for legal intervention.

On review, the school should decide either to extend the attendance improvement support plan, make a referral to the local authority for legal proceedings to commence, or end the attendance improvement support plan if absence is no longer an issue. 

Where a pupil's absence continues following the interventions detailed in tier 1 and 2 and the threshold for a referral to the locality team is met then escalation to tier 3 should follow.

The Local Authority threshold for referral is 10 unauthorised absence sessions in the previous ten school week period.

Referral to the Locality Team will be accepted when:

• school have completed tier 1 and tier 2 interventions
• unauthorised absences continue 
• the documentation to evidence completion of tier 1 and tier 2 interventions by school is provided with the referral form, this will be quality assured by a member of the locality team
• the referral threshold is met ten unauthorised sessions (5 school days) in the previous 10 school weeks

It is good practice to inform the parent or  carer that a referral has been made to the local authority Locality Team for legal intervention.

All referrals should be accompanied by the following supporting evidence:

• copies of letters to parent or carer
• details of home visits - dates, outcomes
• copy of school's attendance improvement support plan including minutes from review meetings
• copy of the Help and Support Assessment and details of review (provide reason if this is not in place)
• up to date attendance printout
• details of other agency involvement
• fully completed referral form
• details of person with parental responsibility
• signed and dated by the headteacher 

On receipt of all the relevant paperwork, a fully completed referral form and an attendance printout displaying recent unauthorised absence over the previous 10 week period, the locality team will action the referral.

The Local Authority Locality Team will decide to either:

(a)  follow Stockton local authority penalty notice procedure, or

(b)   arrange an Attendance Case Conference

Penalty Notice Procedure

A penalty notice "Notice to Improve" will be issued by the local authority to the parent(s)/carers named on the referral form outlining their parental responsibility.  The Notice to Improve advises the parent or carer the child should return to school immediately with regular daily attendance.

The "Notice to Improve" will cover a 6-week monitoring period and no further unauthorised absence is expected during this time.  Evidence to cover absences must be provided by the parent or carer.

At the end of the 6-week monitoring period, the locality team caseworker will review the pupil's school attendance.  If the target has been met (no unauthorised absences in the 6-week monitoring period) the case will be closed and passed back to school level monitoring.

If unauthorised absences continue, a penalty notice will be issued to the parent or carer named on the referral form submitted by the school.

In cases of non-payment, the local authority will consider prosecuting the parent or carer in the magistrate court.

Parent or carer may not be issued with more than 2 penalty notices in a rolling 3-year period from the issue of the date of the first penalty notice.  A further instance will be escalated directly to prosecution in the magistrate court.

Attendance Case Conference

If a parent or carer has been prosecuted previously for failing to ensure their child's attendance, an Attendance Case Conference will be convened.

A notice to improve will be issued to the parent or carer detailing their parental responsibility and outlining the local authority's consideration of prosecution in the magistrate court if unauthorised absences continue.

The local authority officer will contact school staff to arrange an Attendance Case Conference.

Once the Attendance Case Conference has been arranged, a letter will be sent to the parent or carer inviting them to attend to the meeting. If other professionals are involved with the family, they will also be invited to the meeting.

A parenting contract and a 6-week attendance plan will be negotiated and put in place at the meeting.  The parent or carer will be cautioned according to PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, PACE).

The officer will visit the parent or carer within one week of the meeting to deliver the minutes and parenting contract.  The parent or carer will be invited to sign the parenting contract.  All parties will be asked to sign the contract: school representative, parent, pupil, and local authority officer.

Further home visits will be made at least fortnightly during the period of the plan to offer advice and support to the parent and pupil.

On review, if the attendance target set at the attendance case conference is achieved, a further 4-week monitoring period will take place.  The caseworker will maintain contact with the parent or carer and pupil during this period. If targets continue to be met, the case will be closed and passed back to school level monitoring.

If new information becomes available to the caseworker during the intervention that suggests the family circumstances have changed, or a significant need emerges relating to the family, then it may be appropriate to return to attendance case conference to ensure the plan is fit for purpose.

If the targets set at the attendance case conference meeting are not achieved, then the local authority will consider prosecuting the parent or carer in the magistrate court.  

The case file of intervention will be reviewed and authorisation sought from the Attendance and Safeguarding Manager.

Papers and witness statements will be prepared and sent to Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's Law and Democracy Department to obtain a summons from the Magistrate Court.

An attendance certificate detailing the period of prosecution signed by the head teacher is required and will be requested by the attendance officer to accompany the paperwork sent to the solicitor prosecuting on behalf of the local authority from the Law and Democracy Department.

In some circumstances, school staff may also be asked to provide witness statements and appear in court as a witness for the prosecution where a not guilty plea is entered by the parent(s) or carer.

Following prosecution

If the pupil's school attendance has improved, the case will be passed back to school for school level monitoring and should unauthorised absences reoccur, then the school should commence their school attendance procedures.

If unauthorised absences continue, the attendance officer will arrange a post court attendance case conference. If the parent(s) or carers received a disposal from the magistrates court that is suspended, the parent should be aware that a subsequent prosecution within the time period of the suspended disposal will result in that disposal being imposed along with additional sentencing for the current offence.

In certain circumstances and if deemed necessary, consideration will be given to changing the attendance officer working with the family.

Schools should follow their Safeguarding Procedures for first day response throughout this process.

The case file of intervention will be reviewed, and authorisation sought from the Inclusion and Vulnerable Learners Team Manager.

Papers and witness statements will be prepared and sent to Stockton Borough Council's Law and Democracy Department to obtain a summons from the Magistrate Court.

An attendance certificate detailing the period of prosecution signed by the head teacher is required and will be requested by the officer to accompany the paperwork sent to the solicitor prosecuting on behalf of the local authority from the Law and Democracy Department.

Following Prosecution

If the pupil's school attendance has improved, the case will be passed back to school for school level monitoring and should unauthorised absences reoccur, then the school should commence their school attendance procedures.

If unauthorised absence continues, the caseworker in consultation with the Inclusion and Vulnerable Learners Team Manager will take into consideration any new information.  The case will be assessed to consider the range of parental responsibility measures to ensure the most appropriate response.

Schools should follow their Safeguarding Procedures for first day response throughout this process.