Stage 1: School level intervention

A school will follow its own internal school attendance procedures. This will 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 and remind parent(s) or carer of their responsibility in ensuring their child's attendance at school.

An Early Help Assessment should be completed at this point to assist the parent(s) or carer and pupil with any issues. Other services should be considered and referred to as relevant, examples include EP Service, SEN Team, Early Help Team, Youth Direction, School Health, Preventions, 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. The attendance improvement plan should run for no less than 4 school weeks. 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.

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 is: prescription slip, sight of medication prescribed by the GP, note/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.

Parent(s) or carer should be made aware that continuing unauthorised absences can result in a referral to the local authority 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 8 school week period.