South Tyneside Council Pupil Attendance and Absence Management Policy

The South Tyneside Attendance Team fulfils the statutory duty and responsibilities of the Council for school attendance.

They promote regular attendance for all children of statutory school age in South Tyneside.

Our absence procedures make sure schools and the local authority provide support and challenge parents, carers and pupils to take advantage of educational opportunities available to them.

They also outline actions that will be taken to support and enforce a child's attendance at school.

If a parent / carer fails to meet their parental responsibility in making sure their child attends school reguarly, even with support from schools and other agencies, then legal action may be taken. 

A school will follow its own internal school attendance procedures. This may include:

• first day response
• letters to parent(s) or carer where attendance is becoming a concern
• discussions with the pupil
• home visits to speak with parent(s) or carer in attempt to resolve issues
• reminding parent(s) or carer of their responsibility in making sure their child's attendance at school

An Early Help Assessment and plan should be completed at this point to assist the parent(s), carer and pupil with any issues.

Other services should be considered and referred to as relevant, examples include:

• Education Psychology Service
• SEND Team
• Early Help Team
• Youth Justice
• School Nurse
• Mental Health Services
• Social Care for Family Support

Where a pupil's absence continues following letters and home visit(s), a member of school staff should invite the parent(s) / carer into school to an attendance improvement support planning meeting.

This meeting should be recorded and minutes produced detailing the discussion, the key issues / barriers to attendance, actions that each member will take to resolve the issues and an attendance target set. 

Parent(s) or carer(s) should receive a copy of the minutes from this meeting. A review date should be set and agreed with parents.

The attendance improvement plan should run for no less than 4 school weeks.

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, if this is not feasible, a telephone contact as a minimum.

It is advisable that from this 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 include:

• prescription slip
• sight of medication prescribed by the GP
• note / letter from the GP
• medical or dental appointment letter
• 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.

Parent(s) / carer should be made aware that continuing unauthorised absences can result in a referral to the attendance team.

On review, the school should decide 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.

The Local Authority threshold for referral is 10 unauthorised absence sessions in the previous 6 school week (30 days) period.

Referrals to the team are accepted when:

• school completes the Stage 1 process
• unauthorised absences continue
• the documentation to evidence completion of Stage 1 interventions by school is provided with the referral form
• the referral threshold is met (10 unauthorised sessions in the previous 6 school weeks - 30 days)

It is good practice to inform the parent(s) or carer that a referral has been made to the local authority attendance team.

All referrals should be accompanied by the following supporting evidence:

• copies of letters to parent(s) or carer
• details of home visits - dates, outcomes
• copy of school's attendance improvement support plan to include role of other agencies if supporting the family
• copy of the Early Help Assessment and plan with details of review (provide reason if this is not in place)
• up-to-date attendance certificate
• details of other agency involvement
• fully completed referral form
• details of person or people with parental responsibility
• signed and dated by the referrer

On receipt of all the relevant paperwork, a fully completed referral form and an attendance certificate displaying recent unauthorised absence, the attendance team will action the referral within 10 school days. The attendance team will decide to either:

• follow South Tyneside Council's penalty notice procedure
• arrange a Stage 2 meeting with parent(s) / Carer, School and Pupil where appropriate

Penalty notice procedure

We will send a penalty notice warning letter to the parent(s) / carers named on the referral form outlining their parental responsibility. The warning letter advises the parent(s) / carer the child should return to school immediately with regular daily attendance.

This will cover a 3-week monitoring period with no further unauthorised absence during this time. Evidence to cover absences must be provided by the parent(s) / carer.

At the end of the 3-week monitoring period, the attendance officer will review the pupil's school attendance. If the target has been met (no unauthorised absences in the 3-week monitoring period) the penalty notice warning will be withdrawn and passed back to school level monitoring.

If unauthorised absences continue, a penalty notice will be issued to the parent(s) / carer named on the referral form.

In cases of non-payment, the local authority will consider prosecuting the parent(s) / carer in the magistrate's court.

Parent(s) / carers may not be issued with more than 2 penalty notices in an academic year September to August.

For more information see, code of conduct for education related penalty notices.

Stage 2 Meeting

If the parent(s) / carer have been prosecuted before for failing to make sure their child attends school or for significant absences a Stage 2 meeting will be held.

A final warning letter will be issued to the parent(s) / carer detailing their parental responsibility and outlining the local authority's consideration of prosecution in the magistrate court if unauthorised absences continue with a monitoring period of no more than 4 weeks.

The local authority Attendance Manager will arrange the Stage 2 meeting, a letter will be sent to the parent(s) or carer inviting them to attend to the meeting with their child. If other professionals are involved with the family, they will also be invited to the meeting held at South Shields Town Hall.

A parenting contract and a 4-week attendance plan will be negotiated and put in place at the meeting.

The parent(s) 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 attendance officer.

On review, if the attendance target set at the Stage 2 meeting is achieved, a further 4-week monitoring period will take place. The attendance manager will maintain contact with school 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 attendance manager 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 Stage 2 meeting to make sure the plan is fit for purpose.

If the targets set at the Stage 2 meeting are not met, then the local authority will consider prosecuting the parent(s) or carer in the magistrate court.

The case file of intervention will be reviewed, and authorisation will be needed from the Attendance Manager.

Papers and witness statements will be prepared and sent to our legal team 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 legal team.

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 manager will arrange a post court attendance meeting. If the parent(s) / carer received a disposal from the magistrate's court that is suspended, the parent should be aware that another prosecution within the time period of the suspended disposal will result in that disposal being imposed along with additional sentencing for the current offence.

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