Progress to date
- Year on year, Lincolnshire has seen an overall improvement in attendance for children in primary, secondary, and special schools with all schools showing an increase since 2023/24.
- Special schools show a 0.5% increase in attendance over the last year which is higher than the 0.1% increase nationally. This improvement reflects an in-house, dedicated focus on special schools for 2024/25.
- In comparison with our statistical neighbours, Lincolnshire school attendance is ranked 2nd for primary and secondary children. Special schools remain ranked 7th although specialist work with these schools ensures the gap is narrowing.
- Attendance in Lincolnshire primary and secondary schools continues to be higher than the national average.
- Primary schools have a lower than national percentage of children who are persistently absent but a slightly higher percentage who are severely absent.
- Secondary schools have a slightly lower number of pupils who are severely absent.
The Department for Education has placed significant emphasis on reducing persistent and severe absence due to the scale, impact, and long-term risks associated with these patterns of non-attendance.
Looking ahead, Lincolnshire is committed to a more refined analysis of attendance data to successfully track trends and patterns of non-attendance. This has already proved to be invaluable in identifying our more vulnerable cohorts of pupils, requiring enhanced support. This is addressed with schools and academies, through planned interventions, targeted panel processes, and coordinated multi-agency responses. Alongside this, we continue to run a successful attendance delivery programme of briefings, network meetings and training events. These approaches have become embedded, helping Lincolnshire to ensure consistency in practice and drive sustained improvements in attendance outcomes across settings.
Alongside this, we will strengthen our focus on consistent engagement with families from pregnancy through the first 1,001 days, while supporting access to early years education entitlements. This will help establish the routines, expectations and behaviours that underpin regular school attendance.
Best Start Family Hubs will play a critical role in building these early habits, supporting smooth transitions into primary education, and identifying families who may require additional support. By proactively wrapping evidence-based interventions around those facing barriers, we will address the root causes of non-attendance, strengthen family engagement, and ensure children are better prepared to attend, participate and thrive when they start school.
Our Education and Attendance teams will continue to work closely with Early Years and childcare partners to promote good attendance, share effective practice, and support school readiness for preschool-aged children.