Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Paragraph: 46
Ensure all schools across the country can access good support for tackling persistent absence.
Recommendation
We heard that support offered by local authorities can vary significantly. For example, since the funding for Education Welfare Officers has been devolved to schools, it has become a “traded good” for most schools, and a postcode lottery for pupils. We understand the Department has recently conducted a new burdens assessment to improve the consistency of support offered by local authorities, but not all local authorities have the resource to effectively provide the required level of support. Ultimately, the Department must ensure that all schools across the country can access good support in tackling persistent absence.
Government Response Summary
The government states it is already closely monitoring local authority support and that its 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance sets out core functions for attendance staff, which it monitors through a team of advisers working with every local authority.
Paragraph Reference:
46
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Department is already closely monitoring support provided by local authorities. The role of the local authority in attendance has changed significantly from that of the pre-2014 Education Welfare Service. While core functions have been retained, the ‘Working together’ guidance also sets clear roles and responsibilities for schools for the first time. These include day to day management of attendance and casework support for families where the barrier to attendance is school based, which is the significant majority of cases. This approach followed analysis of effective practice and a public consultation in Spring 2022. A significant majority of school and local authority respondents agreed with the allocation of responsibilities set out. ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ includes a core set of functions that local authority attendance support staff (whether titled education welfare officers, attendance officers or early help practitioners) are expected to provide free of charge to all schools and funded centrally through the Central Schools Service Block and Supporting Families Grant. These functions comprise: communications and advice: bringing schools together to communicate messages, advise and share best practice within the area; targeting support meetings: all schools are expected to be given a point of contact in the attendance team holding termly meetings to identify pupils and cohorts at risk and agree targeted actions; Multi-disciplinary support for families: providing practical whole-family support where needed to tackle the causes of absenteeism; Legal intervention: taking forward the full range of attendance legal intervention measures where voluntary support has not been successful or engaged with. Schools can choose to provide what is set out in the guidance using their own attendance or pastoral staff. They can also choose to employ independent education welfare companies to fulfil their expectations, or buy additional attendance support capacity from their local authority. The Government monitors the implementation of these expectations through our team of advisers who are working with every local authority in England, reviewing their approach and supporting them to develop and implement a plan to deliver the guidance expectations. Each local authority remains responsible for the way in which it shapes its services to deliver the guidance expectations.