This webinar shares effective practice from the Department for Education’s attendance advisors based on their experience of working with local authorities implementing the Working together to improve school attendance guidance. It provides practical tips and example of how councils of different sizes and different starting points have met the expectations in the guidance.
This webinar will cover:-
• Progress to date across England, since the publication of the working together guidance.
• Next steps at a national level
How councils have met the expectations in the guidance on:
• Local authority wide srategies and use of attendance data
• Communication with schools and providing advice
• Targeting support meetings
• Multi-disciplinary support for families
• Legal intervention
• Support for children with a social worker
Date of webinar: 6 November 2023
Hello everyone we’ll start in a few moments uh we’re just waiting for others to join us for those people just joining we’re going to start in a moment or two we’re just waiting for this to join us right everyone we’ll make a start we have the next slide
Please thank you very much everyone for joining us this afternoon um the purpose of this afternoon session is to reflect on uh the first year full year of the attendance advisor program and to uh share some of the learning that’s come up uh during that year as our advisers
Have worked with uh local authorities up and down the country uh my name is Adam Luke for of you who don’t know me and I head up the uh School attendance policy and strategy team at the department uh and I’m joined this afternoon by our advisers uh Diane McConnell uh Victoria
Franklin and Kevin Burns uh and they’re three of our local Authority uh focused uh advisors uh next slide please uh the agenda for uh this afternoon is pretty simple uh I’m going to do a quick Roundup uh of the national picture uh and and uh the progress to
Date and the next steps from the Department uh and then I’m going to hand over to the advisers uh in succession uh who will guide you through uh their Reflections uh on effective practice that they’ve seen up and down the country in different types and sizes of
Local authorities uh under each of the expectations set out in the working together to improve School attendance guidance and they’re going to try and illustrate really um one of the key learning points from the first year uh that was baked into the program uh and baked into into the guidance which is
While there are a core set of things uh that all local authorities are expected to do uh delivery of those uh will be different and can be different and should be different uh based on the uh context local needs local school population Etc uh this afternoon is the
First in a series of events uh that are going to take place between now and Easter uh all virtual uh where you’ll have the chance to see effective practice examples uh from other local authorities up and down the country uh and the the idea there really is to help
Shape your thinking or get some talk tips to help with your ongoing uh implementation uh today’s session is uh very high level it’s an overview of uh each of the expectations um but following today uh we’re going to meet uh virtually uh in each region um with
Your Regional colleagues uh so that we can delve a little bit more deeply into two or three examples uh in each region uh and so that you can ask uh questions and reflect on the sort of more detailed practice uh of a number of different
Laas in your uh region and so that they can share their tips and suggestions with you um as today is a bit of an overview uh we’re not doing a specific question and answers um but if you do have thoughts Reflections or questions for the advisors you can pop them in the
Chat uh as we go through we’ll capture them at the end of the session and we’ll use those to shape uh and plan each of those Regional sessions so that you get out of them uh what is most useful for you basically uh next slide please perfect on progress to date then uh
Since they’re working together to improve School attendance came into force in uh last September September of 2022 uh we’ve seen an absolutely Herculean effort uh from all types of schools local authorities uh and many many partners uh in every area of the country up and down the country um to
Move to a really new way of working for some to build on an existing way of working for others to change uh and improve for for yet more um really putting support first and ensuring that all parties uh and all partners are working together to treat the the cause
Of uh barriers to attendance rather than seeing absence as a uh a cause in and of itself recognizing that it is a symptom of whatever is happening uh in that child’s life um we’ve seen absolutely everything from uh countywide Charters to targeting advertising campaigns uh people who’ve completely redesigned
Their service uh to people who who’ve done uh very small tweaks to procedures that have been very effective uh or they’ve changed the way that they think about their finding or their use of prosecution um to to embed support first things can be done at all different
Sizes and scales of ambition uh and there’s been uh so many different examples uh in so many different local authorities uh at school level um surveys that the Department’s run plus uh the work of the attendance advisers uh show significant amount of progress implement the core elements that schools
Have been given for the first time and that are set out for the first time clearly uh in the new guidance uh that includes 79% uh who now have an attendance policy that uh meets the expectations of the guidance uh 90% that now have a senior leader in school with responsibility for
Attendance uh and 56% who are now having their terally uh targeting support meeting with their local Authority at local Authority level uh advisers uh have worked or are now working with uh all of the local authorities uh in the country that wanted the support um and they’re working with them to support and
Implement those new uh expectations from whatever the starting point and whatever the resourcing perspective of that local Authority was uh the significant progress in almost every local Authority uh despite what I know has remained a challenging set of circumstances uh uh locally for many many people the survey
That many of you remember that we did at the end of the summer term showed roughly a a third of local authorities are delivering all of the guidance from the beginning of uh this term from September just gone uh and 2third will be in a position to deliver all of the
Expectations by the beginning of next term uh in January after the Christmas holidays uh on some of the key expectations uh 89% of local authorities now have uh link contacts in place for all of their schools within the School attendance team um and people again have
Chosen to do that in many different way ways uh I spent some time with uh the team in Darlington local Authority just last week uh they’ve allocated based on school need so that um all staff have a manageable Cas slad others I know have done it geographically or by phase or
There are all different ways of looking at it uh 67% uh are now delivering their targetting support meetings again lots of different ways that people are doing that I was lucky enough earlier this month to H join some billion colleagues in Nori local Authority uh in their virtual uh targetting support meeting
With the primary school in Great Yarmouth uh and I’m looking forward to joining colleagues uh in person next week in both sanwell and Dudley and sitting in on some of their uh targeting support meetings uh 93% of people of local authorities in that uh survey before the summer um uh reported
Improved uh joint working uh on attendance from other services in the council so on all of that on both schools and local authorities it’s a very promising start uh but there’s still more to do uh for us in the policy World um we published our consultation response on modernizing uh School
Attendance and admission registers uh and on improving the uh consistency of support for fixed penalty notices uh and we’re looking to update both the attendance uh cording and the uh new famework on fixed panty notices and have them in place for the beginning of next academic year uh as you hopefully all
Know uh We’ve continued over the course of the first year uh indeed still continuing this year um to work very closely with both the association of Education welfare management uh and the association of directors of children’s services um and that has led to several updates uh and clarifications on the
Guidance on common sticking points uh both for schools and for La uh and as you have seen additional fact cheats on uh working with crossborder pupils for example uh how to deliver effective and efficient targeting support meetings uh within the resource that you’ve got uh and what local authorities can and can’t
Trade in terms of additional uh servfaces above and beyond the core expectations in the guidance and next slide please on the flip side of that then and as I said a really brilliant start and I can’t stress how much that’s a testament to all the hard work that so many
Professionals have done not just in local authorities where as I said there’s been a Herculean effort uh but also in so many schools and in so many partner agencies uh really brilliant to see those coming on board and having joint approaches to health joint approaches to working between schools in
Uh within an area uh effective practice sharing meetings between schools within within the local Authority area and so on and so forth but underneath of that challenges do remain uh and I’ve heard those loud and clear when I’ve been uh out and about in the country um there is
Still I know um some local authorities who have far further to travel than others uh that’s natural given the variation in starting point for everybody um but on some of those remaining challenges uh the department will continue to uh help local authorities to build um all of these
Things on the screen really ownership across uh other local Authority services that includes on children social care uh and as you hopefully know the national attendance action Alliance uh which includes both the president of the adcs and the chief social worker are working hard this Academic Year to move that
Forward uh there’ll also be updates so they’re working together Safeguard children uh to make clear uh the link and connection to attendance uh working with Independent Schools I know he the last piece in the jigsaw for a number of local authorities uh and we focused first on getting
Things right for state funded schools uh I know that’s definitely the case in Camden uh in Newcastle in uh Lincolnshire where I’ve been recently um but I know is also particularly tricky uh that piece working with local Authority H working with independent schools for local authorities with dispropor proportionate numbers uh of
Pupils at Independent Schools uh I know resourcing remains a challenge for many local authorities it’s not just the size of the teams uh it’s often in fact um uh really brilliant examples are often in fact where there are tiny teams far below uh what the new burdens assessment
Originally set out that are making the most of what they have and delivering uh above and beyond what the guidance expects with very little um but also the availability uh and the ability to recruit staff and I know that’s been particularly uh difficult um over the
Last year as as as people have tried to uh increase stuff in certain parts of the country uh and I know the availability of support services and the sort of waiting times of Support Services is a uh an area that uh is a worry for many as is uh the the sort of
Court time that has been allotted to teams uh in some parts of the country uh improving uptake and uh usability of the the wand attendance data system The View Education data uh is something again that I’ve heard that people uh still think there is is work
To do I know uh two local authorities now have a 100% sign up um but there’s more to do there uh and now that we are starting to see very high levels of sign up for sharing data we can start to focus a bit more in this coming year on
Uh encouraging schools to use that and encouraging uh schools and local authorities to work together on that Tool uh so that we can improve the early uh availability of support for families and by recognizing that need earlier really and then the flip side which you’ll hear about shortly from Kevin is
Using that rich data that is now available in the local Authority uh for some of you for the first time um to really Target uh be strategic and Target uh the resource that you have got to where it will make the biggest difference and focusing on the parts the
Pupils the parts of the bar the corts where you can have the biggest difference and and again the the other thing I know from being out and about is that managing uh school expectations is a wary for some uh expectations around what the LA can and uh will do uh under
The new um uh expectations that’s the same I’ve heard that from practitioners and service leads as well as here from dcss and uh directors of education so we’ll be looking at what more we can do uh on that in the department this year um and in terms of next steps um we’ll
Be turning our Focus this year to uh school and Trust implementation across the country uh including work with Governors and trustees uh we’ll publish the last in that series of fact sheets that I mentioned uh with one on Independent Schools to help those people who are still working on that last piece
Of the jigsaw um and as the consultation response uh that I mentioned back in the summer uh uh uh sort of suggested we’ll be working on a replacement for the P registration regulations and the same for the national framework on fixed penalty notices for absence uh both of
Those with the aim uh to begin at the beginning of the next academic year and as I said at the start really now so many local authorities uh uh have have the experience of this implementation journey and have have started to see uh many of the benefits
Of working in this way um I we know that so many of you are delivering in different ways um we’ll Endeavor to share that so that you can all learn from one another and pick up tips and suggestions from one another there’s there’s no clear and right way to do
This uh and the next step as I said in doing that is to meet regionally now uh after today’s sort of introductory session where there’ll be real time set aside to discuss and ask questions of your peers and really delve into some of the detail uh of how they’ve gone about
Making those changes and with that that’s uh enough for me and I’ll hand over to Kevin uh the first of our advisors to take to the virtual stage this afternoon uh who’s going to talk to us all about uh strategy and use of attendance data thanks Kevin thanks very much indeed and good
Afternoon everybody um so we’ve been asked to talk to you around what we’ve noticed in our travel around the country of things that are working well um and also things that we’ve noticed working well in different areas so things that you might be able to take away and apply
To your own area or things that may be happening in your area already because all of these examples are pinched all these examples come from the good practice that we’ve seen around the country already um and all these good examples are part and parcel of the everyday work that you and your teams
Doing in in local authorities none of these will work in isolation when we were discussing which examples we would use to share with you this afternoon whilst we’re picking out multiple examples from several authorities all of the the practice is intertwined and all of these areas do
Complement each other so as we talk this afternoon we will highlight some of the things in each other’s um examples but also the expectations is none of these is a silver bullet and none of these will work in isolations they’re all part and parcel of a much bigger picture so
The strategy and use of data is a section that I’m going to cover first and the first thing that we’ve noticed nationally is a move to consider attendance Beyond School attendance because that language has in the past proved a bit of a barrier to other services other stakeholders and other
People who could be involved in making sure that the tend is as strong as it could possibly be so thinking about educational engagement think about um uh Community engagement think about being part and parcel uh of their community and of the education offer is more along the lines of what
Strategies where they’re having success are aimed at we’re still seeing barriers in some areas around it being just attendence or just a school issue and some of the ways you can tackle that and some of the ways you can respond to that is thinking about how you use your
Strategy where you pitch your strategy and who’s involved in that um Dian will talk later on about the importance of multi-disciplinary action and multidisciplinary involvement and it’s really key that a strategic level that you have the decision makers and the uh the movers and shakers if you like in in
In a multidisciplinary approach to to strategy so getting those right Partners in place and making sure that everybody’s business is exceptionally important but also making sure that that’s tangible so again starting from your strategy thinking about okay how do we make attendance to everybody’s business and then how do we demonstrate
That on a daily basis how do we make sure that everybody is signed up how do we make sure that everybody can see what’s in it for them but also the importance of really strong School attendance on improving things um right across the pace for children in terms of
Their uh Community engagement but also success and outcomes over time being really clear from the start of your strategy about what success looks like perhaps in a locality um but also thinking about what that might look like for partners but also that it might be different across your local Authority
Area and not every strategy is going to be the same uh because it’s very easy to Google them and cut and Pace from other people’s but the most successful ones we’ve seen um are are really focused on what’s particular or peculiar about that local area and what particular
Communities you need to engage with particular families need to engage with or particular schools and stakeholders you need to engage with too so that uh strategy is very much a bespoke document that is um taken down off the shelf and impacts on daily practice so those broad
Statements about wanting to be um back at the same levels uh pre the school closures or at national average need to be refined and thought about so they’re really really pertinent to uh your area your local area that the targets you’re setting are achievable for um the teams
Who are delivering on them but also aspirational for the children young people who are there so making those connections through your strategy to everybody who’s available making those connections and utilizing what you’ve got there already as um we talked about at the start of of this meeting using those connections and bringing on
Partners could really support you in the direction that you want to take and the work that you want to do so one example of that is using uh kind of governance apparatus that’s there already so you’re looking for example to your local safeguarding board um as an opportunity
To have the right sort of people to be informing your strategy be involved in your strategy so it’s not just the usual suspects who are involved in School’s attendance it’s thinking about those wider offers and those wider uh stakeholders who can have a real impact and a real difference that can be made
Beyond the school gate for the children young people and their families so in terms of the top tips around the strategy it’s it’s being really clear and making milestones and deliverables really clear so people know what success looks like there’s an awful lot of discussion around overwhelm in
The system around attendance and local Authority and School attendance uh teams and officers often talk about not sure being not sure that they’re making a difference or because they’re aiming for National or better than National it feels like a long way to get there so being really clear with short-term
Outcomes uh for your teams makes it makes it really clear that they can demonstrate the progress that they’re making also being clear on what success looks like um at an individual level and a strategic level so thinking about again local areas the differences between different parts of your local
Authority and think about making it really specific um to how you know you’re going to be making a difference and how your strategy is going to be impactful so you can see on a regular basis six monthly 12 monthly that the difference is being made against what
You set out to do what difference did you want to make was it around persistant absentees was it around uh an increased involvement of stakeholders was it around severely absent was it around a geographical area or particular communities being really clear what what your strategy is trying
To fix and then thinking about how you’re going to demonstrate that progress and then again if it is everybody’s business and attendance is going to be everybody’s business within your services how do you make that tangible for people how do they know what bit they have to do to make sure
That they’re delivering against the strategy that you’ve set can I have the next slide please we’ll start we’ll just pick up a little bit around data we seem to be fairly data Rich across most local areas local authorities and schools but what tends to happen is that data although widely
Used is not necessarily clearly understood or focused so again when you’re thinking about your strategy how do you come up with what is you’re trying to fix how do you come up with what you’re trying to work on how do you identify what difference is that you
Want to make and having those really clear structures around import uh reporting and ensuring pressures are really clearly understood is exceptionally important um and also thinking about uh whether are new opportunities so if you see gaps into terms of what your data is telling you have you got the right people around the
Table to help uh so for example one uh attendance Alliance was looking at their their data and really unpicking there was their current pressures were down to several short-term illnesses for a particular group of children in young people so it’s thinking about how they could use their strategic approaches
Through links with health providers with their GPS about working out ways they could tackle those several short-term illnesses because that’s what was having the greatest impact on their data and that was having the biggest impact in terms of their strategic approach about what they needed to tackle next so it’s
Recognizing what the data is telling you and using that to feed in your strategy and being clear in your strategy in the first place which areas that you want to fix because again that idea of overwhelms trying to fix everything at once is proving exceptionally problematic so our local areas in
Partnership are are breaking down what they know and then tackling them stage by stage uh making sure that they’re focused on the way they can have either most impact or they can see big the biggest risk is having the biggest uh impact as far as we can
See also being um reflective on the data that you have not everybody has a full data set and even with the the changes nationally and even with um the opportunity that several local areas have had to relook at their Data Systems and their their Management Systems not
Everybody has a full data set not every school has signed up yet not every school contributes local Authority data or not every local Authority is is looking at the data at a kind of a pupil refined level but instead of making that a barrier it’s picking up on okay what
Are opportunities here what do we have the data to prove at the moment and then refining that as time goes on some of the most interesting work we’ve seen around the use of data is where there’s been significant change to local area and the way they report data
Anyway so there’s been a change as a result of a change to the EMS system or they were finding how social care were capturing their work through EMS or the send service and as a result of that they’ve enabled themselves to really look at attendance in those areas too so
Whilst those are expensive changes other local areas who’ve not had the luxury being able to do that have used what they’ve had and used the systems that they’ve got and are as able to uh check and challenge themselves around the data they have and the focus they have it may
Not be as pretty and the graphs may be slightly harder to create but the actual content that they get to at the end using the data they have and the systems that they have uh has been just as high quality so in terms of top tips then
Around these of data to perform strategy it’s thinking that the numbers that you have are leading into action so it’s not just a uh aive reporting of information the mechanisms through which the governance is put in place are the mechanisms by which those systems are checked and challenged mean that um it’s
Informing strategy all the time and as a result of what boards are being told what alliances are being told what local area Partnerships are being told they are defining actions as a result and making differences and changes and that will result in better attendance of children young people making sure there’s an
Understanding there’s a difference between assurance and reassurance um so finding out that yes we we we’re doing really well we think is okay but it’s really using those boards and governance structures and the data to really check and challenge yourselves and your stakeholders and your partners to they’re doing what they
Said they would do when we talked about strategy we talked about involving as many people as we could and giving them ways in which they could demonstrate how they were impacting the more measurable those are the more reportable those are the more demonstrable those are then the
Easier it is for you to show the progress that you’re having and again that helps for your officers who can feel overwhelmed by the number of children young people who still in the system who are experiencing difficulties in their attendance and also thinking about celebrating that success it’s
Difficult to LEAP back above National if you’ve been below for a while it’s difficult to get back to the same levels that we were through the school closures so it’s about identifying those small steps and incremental improvements through your data celebrating them and making sure that the the teams know that
The work they’re doing is impactful um and making sure that the work they’re doing is being well um is being well reflected strategically and well recognized so I’m going to hand across next to Victoria who’s going to talk about communication thank you very much good afternoon everybody it’s great to be
With you this afternoon and thank you very much uh Kevin for handing over to me so like Kevin and um Diane uh my examples of of strong and best practice have been gathered from the word that I’ve been been doing across the country they are from a mix of different local
Authority types um and just like as Kevin has said some of the examples are born out of very much creative thinking very much wanting to perhaps change and use technology better than had been used in the past um and I want to share with you uh some some of some of the impact
Of that really um and it’s been it’s been quite exciting to be alongside some of those local authorities who have really about the way that they are um communicating information advice and guidance to schools and to um and and to parents and and young people and other
Partners one of the biggest areas of of development that I’ve seen is actually having um and developing a strong online presence that’s both in person and for resources um and I’d like to explain a little bit about what I mean by that what I’ve what I’ve actually observed so
An online presence would be where a local Authority is providing uh some online training some online Network meetings and I’ll I’ll I’ll talk about those in a bit in a bit more detail as we go through this this slide one of the local authorities that I’ve been working with have built an
Online toolkit platform with password access to information so that negates the need for lots of phone calls into the local Authority for advice and guidance and that toolkit platform provides information about all related attendance matters um including CME um E Eh and they’ve called those quick guides to frequently ask questions um that
Helps people to become informed and empowered to make their own decisions um in school and also understand the system better without having to rely on on others one of the developments around that online toolkit platform has been the sharing back with schools of their data that they’re sharing with the local
Authority and that has provided a level of analysis again it’s only available to uh schools who um have a password so not it’s not available to all schools it’s not on that platform for everyone to have a look at but that data pack is presented to schools for them to enable
Them to use data as Kevin said um in a way that is helpful to Target resources that schools have um available to themselves one of the other ways of communicating with u schools and partners is a month newsletter which might seem um uh you know perhaps something that you’re already doing or
That you’re aware that that some of the officers are providing however I think it’s about having a a much more nuanced approach to that newsletter um what what is it that that we want our partners to know what is it that schools need to be updated about um one of the local
Authorities that I was actually meeting with this morning actually sought from their schools um and colleagues what information did they actually want to have from the local Authority and that’s actually helped them to to form what’s going to be become part of their their updated sort of newsletter so that’s
Online it’s up to uh schools and partners when they read that but also um using using the time of the of the Academic Year to give the most relevant information so for example in term six there was a big focus on preparing for the new school year perhaps coming
Towards the winter time a focus on health matters so it’s actually about using that newsletter to update both National information and local priorities as well what have you noticed um that’s particular to the to the area that your some of your schools are working in what’s the data showing you
Where linking to Kevin’s point you know what’s the data showing you share that back with schools and and and um it’s Anonymous advice that means that the school can go away and take some actions without having to wait either for somebody to uh come into cont
Of course you know we’ll hear in a bit about targeting support meetings um that this is this is not a way to necessarily replace those more in-depth meetings but this is a quick weekly online um um available drop in for those people who want to know a little bit more about how
To manage something themselves and also an offer of free online training in relation to fixed penalty notice completion um children missing education um Administration and also online training about that senior leader role and we heard from Adam about the percentage of senior leaders now in place leading on School attendance so
All this the impact of all this has meant there’s been an increased uptake and Improvement in school practice um schools feeling empowered to be able to take steps themselves with just a small amount of guidance um and and obviously a cut down on the time that this takes so people not having to
Go into travel into a school setting to give that advice it’s readily available and we are used to are we not having information at our fingertips through through um online presence and and websites so we need to make sure that we are making the most of that capacity and
Uh one of the other impacts is having a consistent approach across the local Authority the same information um going out to everybody so some top tips really consistent cohesive messages from all services and other services using the newsletter for example to get messages out around some of the um areas that
They want Partners to know about the work that’s going on around school attendants and linking with that in their service maximize all available Communications channels and think about again as Kevin referred to building on those existing networks not actually recreating um a whole a whole new channel of communication but looking at
What’s already out there next slide please and linking to that um an example um a very good example of a local Authority who are using the um National attendance Alliance model at a local Lev level through their own meeting structures and I’m going to jump straight really to the impact of that
Because it it it’s actually an an excellent model where localized most contextual Solutions are found so in some local authorities uh you will already be you will already be divided up into localities or areas um different solutions needed for different parts of your local Authority and by by by reconstructing a local attendance
Alliance better Solutions can be found can be found um and that that’s proved to be very promising and and getting all Partners on board locally as well as part of that because as you will be aware the national attendance alliances Adam referred to has made up of lots of different partners getting that
Attendance message that attendance is everyone’s responsibility um through through all the different systems and Frontline children services um another really excellent example of good practice is data peer support for schools with common issues um again very much mirroring the attendance Hub work so that’s great to see
So using that data to show where there are issues in one part of the local Authority with some schools that might be occurring and others putting them together the communication around well this is happening in our school so maybe we can give you some support and advice
Around that uh this is what this is what worked for us so putting schools in touch with with each other to share practice and also best practice around involving parents and and carers and students into shaping the message of comms um and what it what it actually
Looks like and what what do parents listen to ask parents what it is that makes the difference around School attendance what is it they listen to what is it they hear because um there’s quite a bit of work going on around um messaging parents um and what
Works um and in the impact really I think around involving parents um and carers and student students and and one local Authority has actually LED um into some of the work that Kevin was talking about um where where they’ve they’ve actually been very much contributing to what the strategy look like looks like
So that’s obviously very heightened um best practice but it links very much to the research about parental attitudes that um we’ve we’ve just um heard from public first and also the children the office of children’s commissioner student survey around what works and what messages um young people and and
Parents respond to so the way that communication um is is delivered is is absolutely vital I will now hand back to you Kevin because you’re going to be talking about targeting sport meetings thanks Victorio Adam start talked about there being a difference between local authorities because of the
Different places that were at the start of this uh process and the start of um the working together guidance for me with the authorities I’ve worked I think the biggest range and diversity we saw in terms o o of the guidance was this idea of how you get the target support
Meetings up and running or working or how you build on meetings you were already having or how confident local authorities were that were already covering most of those agendas through Works they had already there’s a real range of um authorities and very different places but also a a real
Variety in the way in which that the uh target support beings have been used and applied um just depending on where the local Authority was in terms of their journey and also where they were in terms of their focus and their priorities so this for me is the one
That’s got the the greatest range but from the feedback um we’ve had from different local authorities the one that’s been most impactful because it’s provoked and it’s allowed difficult questions and difficult conversations to be had so the general features of the target support meetings that have been more successful have been where the
Structures are really clear and shared and understood so everybody who was participating in the target support meeting was really clear what the agenda was was really clear what the focus was they were able to do some prep beforehand uh but also make sure the right people were in the room so where
The um target support meetings perhaps weren’t as impactful was where there weren’t decision makers from either the local Authority or from the um the schools so as a result of the meeting nothing particular happened being really clear on the actions being really clear on what’s going to happen in those
Meetings and having that really structured agenda that everybody could be well prepared for was was seen to be really really important those agendas might shift and those agendas might change a little depending on the time of year uh and Victoria mentioned you know sometimes it might be about summer
Holidays sometimes it might be about coping with cops and calls it’s going to vary from term to term it’s going to vary from area to area depending on what their focus is as long as that that structure is clear and people have a clear expectation of what’s going to
Happen in that meeting and how they can prepare for it then they seem to be more successful particularly so if they’ve got senior leaders from school there who can make decisions and start to make changes as a result o of that meeting straight away also effective use of data
We talked about a little bit that in terms of strategy but this is much more in terms of a school level or Community level or local level you know about you know why are the young people in this community not attending why are they are they missing out on their education and
What are the push and pull factors um you know within that community that that’s being impactful in terms of attendance so that might lead to some very specific agenda items for certain schools again as long as that agenda is clear that agenda is well established and people know what they’re getting
Beforehand it means people can be well prepared and the questions therefore and the the provocation therefore can be more impactful also some real open and honest conversation um the target support meetings at their best are an opportunity to to have some really honest uh provocation around what it is
That’s preventing the children attending uh their school what’s getting in the way of their educational engagement it’s easy for it to become superficial but again everybody who’s involved in that that process doing their homework understanding what some of the issues might be particularly for that school or
Area and then what sort of support might be available for them what you could direct people to as a result of that meeting who you could sign post them to or who you can lead them to um you know a focus Beyond kind of just what the
School and the attendance team can do who else is involved who else could understand um the issues that the family re the young people are are facing and what what uh what impact they could have on that one local area um was really thoughtful around understanding what different services offered so what did
For example uh the send service offer or an inclusion service offer or a behavior service or social care or early help and so it was agreed that some senior Managers from each of those strands would go and listen in to a few of the target support meetings and start to
Understand what offer they could make to um oneof they can make to the children young people Diane’s going to pick up more about that in terms of multidisiplinary support but it’s important to understand that each area needs to understand what is available and also how that can be sign posted as
A result the target support meetings so the top tips for the first part of this are a real focus on making a difference what’s going to make a change for the children young people who you talk about in the targeted support meetings getting the right level of participation
Engagement so having the right people around the table to actually influence and make a change and a difference for children young people you’re talking about simple systems for booking and recording meetings so it’s not about picking the phone up and chasing and chasing and chasing and coordinating
Diaries um and also ways in which you could live record those meetings and the actions from them so there’s no need for minutes um or to delays in getting things done because you’re waiting for minutes to be sent out so there’s really simple booking and recording systems uh
Using it um or or Google meet or or whatever kind of um skills and Magic you have in your local area which would allow you to do that just take some of the the pressure out of it and some of some of the thing out in terms of
Organization if we could pop on to the next slide one of the models that we’ve talked about for the target support meetings is thinking about those children young people who may need something different and so one of the models we’ve talked about in terms of the graduation it’s very simplified so
So bear with us is that idea of if you’ve got children young people who’s whose issues are just attendance and that is an inverted commer so those traditional young people who the work of your attendance teams and the Schools attendance teams would be well matched to suit perhaps there isn’t a huge
Amount of time you need to talk about those in your target support meetings then at the top end so where your children are really struggling with their engagement and perhaps attendance is only one part of the difficulties they have in terms of their engagement with life in general are probably quite
Complex young people so you may have large groups of adults already involved with them or significant oversight all there already so it may be that your your target support meetings really unpick that group in the middle who have that poor ASP paradic attendance and really understand what barriers they’re
Facing so using the target support meetings to really get to grips with what the the barrier is for those children young people in the middle so that will help link it to the other areas of graduate support it will help identify the children young people who perhaps see something different um from
The usual offer within school or perhaps the usual offer across Services it’s available in local Authority and thinking about highlighting them with the right people highlighting those with the right teams or highlighting them with the right Services it helps also the schools to understand what they’re offering to
Talked in the previous slide about these conversations being really open and transparent again some of those best ones there is where it’s cards on the table and we had one school who through this process recognized huge group of their children young people weren’t attending because the number of Supply
Teachers they’ had and their curriculum wasn’t right as a result so they in school offer wasn’t right for the children young people and they were voting with their feet so that school had to do some really you know difficult s searching about there was no point doing the other attendance work until
They had that right they had to make the the author really attractive but that was handled really delicately and really carefully by a really talented attendance team who worked worked with Partners worked in Partnership through the target support meetings they were really clear what they were going to do
Before they went in um and it allowed the school to get to that point where they’re able to reflect in front of other colleagues that they need to do something internally first so the power of the targeted support meeting isn’t just about you know saying oh we need
This service for that young person or that service for this young person it’s about really unpicking what the challenges are about what really understanding what the barriers are and then who’s got the opportunity to change that who’s got the opportunity to make that better for the children young
People and really make a diff a difference in those families so the top tip there is really is the summary of that really think about what those barriers are and who’s best place to do something about it who’s able to do the fix and have they got influence in that
Meeting to then take away and do something different about it so I’ve I’ve thrown forward to Dian a few times to multidisiplinary teams but she’s going to talk to us about that in more detail now right thank you very much Kevin so I’m going to talk about multidisiplinary
Support for families so the expectation to ensure that where there are barriers to attendance there’s a family face support to tackle that cause of um absenteeism and unblock the barriers to attendance and this for me is really where the magic really happens that can really make a difference in councils
Where the focus shifts gromet being the job of the attendance team or a small band vwo and becomes the job of services across the council particularly into early Health and Social care so I’d like to start and reflecting on where this has been well implemented by looking at the top tip tactics first
And then I’ve got a couple of examples of uh councils that have utilized this approach so the first top tip is to um look at the use of the DFE self assessment tool because I really think it cements the princip of attendance being everybody’s business if senior managers across services are informed
About self assessment and populating it um in some councils this has started with the creation of a tendance Steering group with senior managers representing their services and then has led to creating a composite document that reads across all services and really raises the profile for how Partners needed to
Contribute so out of this has training Cross services explicit Pathways of support and much clearer sign posting of who does what when um and one Council had 12 Services color coded in the self assessment tool which also gave rise to an action plan to further develop the coherent multidisciplinary
Working so the second top tip is to ensure the contribution of all is rooted in a very clear understanding of what each contribution each service will making their day-to-day business and some councils have developed these into pledges as Kevin um referenced but I think it’s very helpful when a pledge
Statement is Then followed by concrete tasks so for example one Council um housing pledged that we shall challenge when a schoolage child is at home during a visit and sign plose support um police pledged we can ensure attendance is a key element of all youth Justice and tag plan
Uh dentists in the region pledged we will check the child’s age when booking routine appointments and book outside of school hours incredibly sensible really effective and indeed the Royal College of GPS has just released a very helpful report on the role of GPS in maximizing School attendance that was published
This summer and and has five very very useful principles that GPS can adopt and similarly of course you’d want early help to be pledging that there would be a SM smart attendance Target in every child’s plan and this leads me to my next top tip really about having the data if
Every early Health practitioner has access to the live attendance data on the children for whom they’re devising plans this can really ensure attendance becomes higher profile and some councils routinely issue every social worker with the attendance data for their case loads and every early help worker and of
Course also training and support to interpret this data and you know realize to be flippant that 87% is great on a test but it isn’t good for attendance and we need to be aiming for well over 90% to ensure the child secures the learning they
Need and then the last top tip is really back to the strategy work but it’s so important that the role of agencies is spelled out explicitly in a graduated response you know it’s back to who does what when and where this is clearly articulated and pathway document or some
Councils have a flowchart or a teered graduated response It’s very effective so if we could look at one example of this this is from um a large Metropolitan bur count I’ve worked with it’s got a high degree of deprivation and challenge but it is started by rooting attendance concerns immediately
Into the early help service so if a school identifies a concern around attendance and they’ve endeavored to engage the child and family in the school strategies that would be expected they would refer it through to their Link Worker who sits in a locality base and has a role for early help and attendance
Explicit in their job description so the resulting support will be predicated on the early help assessment and the council runs many parenting programs and interventions which could then be deployed so the pathway for attendance concerns is through the early help and different responses are signposted in a graduated response pathway this council
Is called the early help School attendance matters pathway and when cases are complex all stuck these come to a panel to triage and on this panel is a full range of services to agre a Way Forward including of course considering the issue of warning letters and penalty notices but
The support and interaction with the family is the first priority so the centrality of early help in this Council um is also extended into influencing other services to prioritize attendance for example you can see here that the head of early help sits on the send panel so all the um oversight of Ed
The Education Health and Care plans um has attendance at its heart and the route into social care is also very clear not only are there attendance targets and intervention included in every plan but cases can be stepped up into social care under education neglect where concern exists and where all else
Failed and all social workers and only health workers here have instance access to live data um for the the children that they have on their case LOE children’s plans are also audited by senior managers on the theme of attendance to ensure the sufficient cognizance paid to attendance and impact
Uh is achieved through the plan and lastly this Council just had a Triumph early I think that they they’ve ensured that their health teams across nor 19 and now going to use the same early help assessment tool which I think is an enormously exciting step forward to ensure all families are assessed for
Family support and intervention with this Keen focus on the child’s attendance thank you in the next slide please thank you this is another brief example from a smaller Metropolitan burough Council and you can see the council has collected together a wide range of agencies and partners to wrap
Around schools to support families with attendance you can see the diagram here demonstrating the range of partners that can be drawn into this collaboration and what is impressive in this council is the teered response that has been articulated that catches the role of these partners and presents it
In a graduated response that guide School through a pathway of support again a group exists here you can see it’s a complex low attendance and avoidance group uh with senior managers to direct responses for difficult cases and this Council invests heavily in its educational psychology service and there’s a very strong emotionally
Based School nonattendance Pathway to ensure there’s a robust response to children who are not attending through citing their mental health or anxiety issues and this pathway includes School intervention where schools have been trained extensive by EPS but then if this fails the intervention from the educational psychology service itself
And additional officers and if this is still unsuccessful the pathway then involves health services and of course cams you can see this Support also draws on local community and volunteer support in a place sort of based programs because the role of voluntary faith and Community organizations I’ve seen in
Some councils has been enormously helpful and effective to affect change in families I’ve seen examples of Partnerships with mosques with women’s refugees and particularly where schools have worked with locality partners and businesses to draw in additional support for families and mentoring support so this is really just a useful
Di diagram to demonstrate the approaches I’ve been discussing that involve a wide range of services in an explicit and teered way LED by strategic managers and informed of course by attendance data and panel discussions thank you so the next slide please if I move on to talk about um legal
Intervention and clearly legal intervention is what we would hope would be the last resort I’ve just talked about how we we hope to emphasize early support but there is of course the expectation on councils to use a wide range of Parental responsibility measures to formalize support and or to enforce
Attendance and this includes of course formal measures such as parenting contracts education supervision orders issuing fixed penalty notices where absence is unauthorized and taking forward attendance prosecution um as I say as a last resort so as my previous slides have discussed support for the families should come first a multidisciplinary
Support should be delivered extensively to empower families to improve their attendance behaviors before we consider this legal intervention and this is really because uh we know it works better um it’s more sustainable by changing behaviors rather than just punishing them and finding families that are challenged um isn’t
Necessarily going to be helpful as we know that the most vulnerable pupils uh that we find tend to be those from free School meals backgrounds where poverty is an issue to begin with anyway so throughout this advisor Support Program I’ve worked with many councils whose attendance team had the
Sole function of just implementing the legal interventions and I haven’t found one team who weren’t desperate to break out of the cycle and this sausage machine of penalty notices and prosecutions and do more Family Support to make a difference and indeed throughout this program many councils have and have found it much more
Productive so one uh which is my first top tip has gone on a real charm offensive with parents um Victoria mentioned the use of parent care forums but they’ve gone a charm offensive to really sell the support first approach to avoid the a punitive approach so they’ve worked with the
Forum and consulted with parents and devised a brochure that sets out the attendance Services officers themselves as been people and humans and pictures of them and available to contact and available um for support and advice so it’s very much the uh instead of finding you we could approach and they admit
It’s you know a blatant PR campaign but it is already paying off it’s promoted through parent care and Forum they’ve been contacted by parents and made lots of more informal support plans they also hold a fast track panel every week when parents can actually physically attend
And meet with them face to to face and sometimes bring their children along and work out strategies and I think this has been enormously practical and immediate and engaging families and promoting attendance as Victoria said the recent public first report you know really detailed the seismic shift in Parental
Attitudes to School attendance since covid you know where that understanding of the need to send your children to school routinely has actually been lost so this approach of working directly with parents through the parent care and forums has been very useful and another Council has prep prepared a video aimed
At parents which will be circulated via all schools which addresses what happens around attendance of course the fining but promoting the support first the next top tip is to consider the place of Education neglect in the threshold of need document now once there’s been the help to parents and
Once there’s been the help the formal support support and perhaps parenting contracts or an education support um ban there are and if there are safeguarding concerns the case should be considered for Section 17 or a section 47 statutary social care involvement and the ability to step up
Plans can make all the difference and there’s been some excellent examples in councils and a growing collection of case studies which can demonstrate the impact this can have I can just give you a brief example um recently a 14-year-old boy attaining well below age expected um age related expectations at
Risk of PEX because when he was in school there was quite some uh challenging Behavior demonstrated um very very low attendance the family had a family first worker but the parent was not engaging and an education neglect referral was made through the council’s education uh neglect threshold of need uh pathway and
A full social care assessment was made and this provided a much deeper understanding of the family Dynamic and indeed the parents Reliant uh Reliance on drug and misuse of drugs and the impact of neglect on the child and as a result of this the child was moved to
The grandfather’s house with a support package back into school and without that step up into social care via education neglect the house moved to the parent paternal Grand Grand parents would not have been facilitated and in this case it was enormously impactful but of course the place of
Education neglect needs to be firmly explained and articulated in the graduated response which indeed is the same for the legal interventions which is the next top tip must be clear where they sit and what happens when uh when we uh need to access them so it’s very very clearly um involved in that
Um uh graduated response so if I can then go to this um example please which is um a small unitary Authority this time and this Council has interestingly just rearranged where it has put the uh its law service within the council so they were a centralized resource and indeed uh they have been
Collocated now with individual um services and it’s very interesting the one that has been um allocated to the um attendance team has in made a really interesting review of Where the use of legal interventions is beginning to fall so they have reviewed um how they are allocating penalty notices how they’re
Allocating education supervision orders and indeed who is the lead practitioner named in the plan um that can take this uh forward it has resulted I think in a very interesting um reallocation of um support and it’s been very useful I think to look at who in the council is actually supervising some
Of these measures and of course making it a a contribution from a broader service and that’s where of course we’d want to involve our early help colleagues and our social care colleagues when necessary and in this particular Council as well they’ve had weekly early help clinic and it’s been
Very interesting that schools have been logging into this even when they haven’t had a case to present because of the useful discussion around the understanding of Pathways and support available and interestingly of course often these cases have been around where attendance has been an issue it I think
Has really enhanced the understanding of the sector about Support Services in the council but similarly it’s enhanced Support Services understanding of challenges and concerns um around the sector and schools issue ues and throughout these measures the demand for the legal interventions uh has been very helpfully
Falling thank you so if I could have the next slide please oh gosh sorry have we missed one of my slides sorry previous one can we go back again thank you have I I don’t think I’ve already spoken about this one I think we might have tripped one is that
Right so if you can go to my large County Council exent please uh where the graduated response for legal intervention um has uh been put into place very clearly and has identified 10 Pathways before the legal measures have been used and you can see here that there’s a range of support measures that
Are explored before fines or prosecutions are used so some of these signposts are the services and other programs and some are intended to engage the parent constructively rather than being punitive so the parenting contract for example identifies what the parents needs to do or to attend or what they need to comply
With and there’s often a lead practitioner allocated to support the family with the plan if this is not having a positive impact a range of meetings can be called and as you can see in this Council these range from informal to increasingly formal uh meetings which may then lead to an
Education supervision order be made through the family court rather than the magistrates court and the council is finding that the support plans are increasingly meaning that further fines or prosecutions are not necessary and that even the education supervision orders are seldom used the digital system to pay fines has
Freed up capacity within the team as admin for processing um has reduced and the team are finding they’re not taking so many C cases to court now anyway due to the alternative support Pathways available the termly support meetings that Kevin spoke about are also being seen as reducing the need for legal
Roots as the c-port of pupils who are severely absent is been scrutinized in detail and those not already on plans have been taken forward in these jointly held plans which is again reducing the need for the legal interventions so those hopefully are some examples of of councils that have
Reduced the need for legal interventions although of course they still have recourse to them where all else has failed thank you I’ll now hand over to a Victoria to look at the role of the social worker thank you very much Diane thank you and thank you for raising uh social
Workers having access to um data and information about students and young people that they’re working with so so I’ve been giving I’m going to be giving you some examples of some of the best practi I’ve seen when I’ve been working with local authorities uh various local authorities as before I’ve taken a wide
Set of examples of best practice um slightly different from um from D I haven’t looked particularly in in um in from one local Authority or another local Authority but this is a mix of the the the best practice um that I’ve seen that that really helps to um improve attendance
Across an area for young people so again and and again Ling back to to Kevin’s points earlier around around uh uh use of data and using that data to in in inform actions and and really pinpointing where um that can be most useful is developing a dashboard that
Ensures that social workers have access to attendance data for all their case load um and I’ve included the last bit of this sentence and in and is visible at login um in that the best practice I’m aware of is where social workers will sit down and log in first thing as they
Come in to to in the morning and on their um on their laptop on their device will be the case load plus The Young Person’s attendance plus flags of those children that are persistant the absence plus Arrows with going up and down to show exactly what the attendance looks
Like for all those children on on their case node now that that to me is where we want it to be what we want it to actually look like also that there’s a strategic oversight through a data tracker for all looked after children all children on a
CH protection plan all children who have a child in um in need plan at both a cohort and an individual level and that includes attendance and exclusion and part-time timetables and that that is shared with heads of services um and and head and uh and heads of um of school
Attendant so the attendance for those young people sit very much um with with the virtual with the virtual school but also it’s widened out it’s not just one person’s responsibility and that training is delivered by the virtual head to social workers to improve that understanding of the link between attendance and
Entertainment and I’ve got a very good example of of of that on my on my next slide when we get there and the attendance ENT attainment is as important as the safeguarding in fact as we know it’s in intrinsically linked to safeguarding so it’s about changing that
That mindset maybe to include um that it is the the attainment of a young person at school is very much linked to is how how often they’re accessing engaging in the learning that’s on offer to them another area of best practice that I’ve uncovered was where all the school
Safeguarding audits um that that were undertaken Incorporated deep dives into attendance and support for children with a social worker so it was a feature of of the safeguarding audit that that was actually brought right up um and and scrutinized monthly meetings held with um heads of service and independent
Reviewing officer manages to ensure scrutiny over attendance so again that ownership W widening out around attendance is everyone’s responsibility iros also having access to the local Authority attendance tracker to review children’s attendants before meetings so really raising raising that that that profile and some
Top tips I think um it has been um it’s been an area for development is is giving social workers enough information around understanding as Diane referred to much earlier around 87 7% is uh you know a good high number but not when in relation to School attendance and what
The impact is that for young people um on on outcomes are if that is their level of attendance so you know providing Social Work colleagues with a heighten level of awareness around around their role in attendance and why that’s important in relation to what those outcomes might look like
Encouraging virtual head and social care colleagues to work together um the role of the virtual head with the extension of um responsibilities has been stretched and stretched and stretched to incor to incorporate lots of areas that previously they wouldn’t have have um had responsibilities for and that has
Proven to be um working really really well in some local authorities bringing together um all children who’ve ever had a social worker historically as well where where that’s where that’s been possible next slide please one local Authority have done a dip sample of educational outcomes for
Children in need and for children um who had a CP plan and that those were discussed at a very high level meeting a policy practice and procedures group um and they’re planning to do a follow-up dip sample um with social care colleagues with children who currently
Have a social worker but are not on a plan and um again again relating that to to to to attendance so we can not we can marry up the where attainment and attendance are intrinsically linked um another good example I would say is where the attendance is a priority on the virtual school
Development plan so that again that takes high priority that training is delivered to All dsls by the virtual head that it’s not seen solely as training that should be delivered by the school of attendance team for example we want we want other other Frontline services to be competent and able to
Deliver that training and to understand that everyone has that role in attendance and they are just as able to deliver training around School attendance as a school attendance team and the impact of of this best practice has been that attendance across the local Authority is a high priority it’s
Got high challenge for example um where looked after children might be an alternative provis Vision might be on reduced or part-time timetables that’s challenged because all children have the right to full-time education it’s not accepted um and high expectations as corporate parents as as you would wish
To have for um for for children of your own so I think that’s probably all I want to say about the best practice with uh for children with a social worker there’s so much hard work gone into um expanding and and exploring I think um
Where this role can go um I think we mustn’t underestimate the importance of of the virtual school the virtual head I think um perhaps we have got a lot of untapped um talent and um possibilities with that with that role particularly around um or for all our young people
Who um have ever had a social worker or currently have a social worker I think it’s back to you Adam it is thanks Victoria and thank you in fact to to everybody to all three speakers uh huge amount of um insight there from all different sizes and types of local
Authorities um all different ways of approaching uh very similar core components uh some will feel attainable for for some of you others feel quite distant for some of you depending on where you are in terms of uh your implementation but I hope everybody took something from it that was useful um
There’s an awful lot there to sum up that it’s difficult where to focus but just in terms of um a few core things uh from me um I think it is worth just reflecting on these uh Five Points um it was clear in all of those examples wasn’t it that there were numerous
Different ways and no right answer uh to achieve any of those expectations so um when you’re thinking about developing and adding to and building on what you’ve got um there are a set of those Central core components there but they designed as I said right at the
Beginning in such a way as to allow you to tailor and uh tweak them to your local needs and context and I think that was clear in in all the different examples that that the advisers gave the second is uh and it it it was very clear
In Kevin’s but uh Wen through all of the others is the need to be really strategic and make really best use that you can of the resource that you’ve got lots of these examples that the advisers have talked about uh a very small teams they haven’t grown significantly uh in
Many cases uh as a result of the guidance but they have uh taken a step back thought about what they uh already do and which bits in the self assessment they are already doing um and then prioritize their attention and the time that they have got and the resource that
They have got on where they can make the biggest difference be it the pupils the schools the cohorts where they can uh have the biggest impact uh thirdly uh and I was pleased to hear a number of the advisors mentioned mention it um but it was clear in in the detail of the
Slides uh as well is the the guidance isn’t all for the attendance team um and the successful delivery of it requires or needs um uh other services and partners to get involved to make it really effective uh fourthly uh and I know this uh really clearly myself from being out
And about again in in in various different local authorities but those who implemented early or are furthest down the journey to to f meeting the the expectations recognize that um it’s really crucial that practitioners service leads senior leaders uh and partners all work together um and get involved in designing what that looks
Like at the point at which um you begin to uh develop what your offer will look like or you begin to make some of the changes that um you feel that you need to do if you worked with an adviser or you’re now working with an advisor the
Self assessment as some of the advisor said is a really good opportunity to do that to bring everyone around the table um to have that conversation but there are other ways to do that and get everybody on the same page um uh if you haven’t uh and finally there as as
Schools move to deliver in the majority of the casew work um successful La is that I’ve seen and that the advisers have seen have stressed how important it is to really set out as early as you can and as clearly as you can what the LA’s
Role is what it offer to schools are in your local area uh the times when you’ll get involved what they need to have done and where they need to have gone before um and then you you you get past this uh sort of conflict between two organizations and think instead about
How do we work together um and I think that is probably a good place to stop uh so many things for you all to reflect on this evening uh thank you for me and uh on behalf of our ministers uh and thank you uh from the advisers as well I know
They’ve thoroughly enjoyed H not just those of us uh those with us today but all of the team have thoroughly enjoyed working with such a range of uh really dedicated people in so many different local authorities uh across the country so thank you for all that you’re doing
Um please come along to those Regional sessions they were in the original email but we’ll I’ll ask the team to send them round again uh as we get closer to the ones in each uh region between now and uh Easter when we will uh use some of
The questions that have come in today um and uh other prompts that people have asked for uh to Del into the detail of how all of these expectations fit together in in a number of different uh contexts within the region uh so thank you very much for your time have a
Lovely evening uh and a successful rest of the term