Attendance is everyone's business and, as a new school year begins, it must be our priority. Pupil absence remains a key challenge for schools post-COVID. The figures for persistent absence are, quite frankly, scary. In the last academic year, 22.3% of our children and young people were persistently absent – meaning they miss 10% of sessions (17.2% at primary and an unbelievable 28.3% at secondary) (Department for Education [DfE], 2023) (see Page 163).
And it doesn't stop there, while overall absence stands at 7.5%, this rises to 11.4% for disadvantaged pupils, 13.3% for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans, 11.1% for those with SEN (DfE, 2023).
Attendance must be a priority for all those working in and around schools given the links, of course, to students’ academic outcomes – but it is the clear connection with harm, abuse and neglect that make this such a burning issue.
The connections with mental health work are also blatant – all of us working in and with schools have seen all too clearly the rise in issues such as emotionally based school avoidance.
But in recent years, with the austerity agenda and cuts to services, attendance officers have often found themselves working in isolation. And that is not even to mention the difficulty in accessing mental health support.
Department for Education guidance last year (DfE, 2022) sought to change this mindset, putting expectations on schools, governing bodies, academy trust boards, and local authorities to work together on attendance post-COVID.
The DfE is also launching a new Attendance Hubs programme, while a pilot of mentoring interventions is underway as well.
The overall message from the DfE? ‘Attendance is everyone's responsibility.’ This is reflected in the annual update to the statutory safeguarding guidance, Keeping children safe in education (DfE, 2023). It tackles the issue of children missing education.
All staff working in schools are reminded: ‘Children being absent from education for prolonged periods and/or on repeat occasions can act as a vital warning sign to a range of safeguarding issues including neglect, child sexual and child criminal exploitation – particularly county lines.’
Of course, we can never have enough resources to address this issue – in schools, but also in the social care system and for local authority mental health and education welfare teams.
The National Association of Head Teachers has pointed to the ‘decimation’ of the services and teams of professionals that have traditionally pulled together to reengage frequently absent students and their families.
The new Attendance Hubs and mentoring scheme are welcome developments, but many schools will not benefit from this support.