School attendance strategy 2026 to 2029

Forward

Every child and young person in Lincolnshire deserves the opportunity to achieve, thrive and realise their potential. Central to this is regular school attendance. Being in school not only supports academic success but also promotes wellbeing, builds resilience, and provides the foundations for positive future life chances.

This Attendance Strategy sets out our renewed commitment to improving school attendance across Lincolnshire. It builds on the strong progress made in recent years, where the majority of our children attend well and benefit from safe, inclusive and high-quality education. However, we recognise that for some children and young people, attending school remains a challenge. Absence is often a symptom of wider need, and behind every absence is a child who may require greater understanding, support and coordination from the adults and services around them.

We are clear that improving attendance is not the responsibility of schools alone. It requires a shared commitment from families, schools, local authority services and partners across health, social care and the community. This strategy reinforces our ‘support first’ approach, ensuring that barriers to attendance are identified early and addressed through coordinated, child-centred support. At the same time, we remain committed to fulfilling our statutory duties, using enforcement proportionately where all other avenues have been exhausted.

Lincolnshire has strong foundations to build upon. Our attendance rates continue to compare favourably to national averages, and our collaborative approach - recognised by the Department for Education and Ofsted, has already demonstrated the impact of effective partnership working. This strategy takes this further by strengthening our use of data, targeting support for the most vulnerable children, and embedding attendance as a core component of safeguarding and inclusion.

Importantly, this strategy reflects a wider ambition: to ensure that every child feels a sense of belonging in their school and community. When children feel safe, valued and supported, they are far more likely to attend, engage and succeed. By working together, we can remove barriers, build trust with families, and create the conditions where attendance is seen not just as an expectation, but as a shared priority.

We would like to thank schools, academies, early years providers, partner organisations and families for their continued commitment to improving attendance. Together, we can ensure that every child in Lincolnshire is supported to access their education fully and to benefit from all the opportunities it provides.

Introduction

This strategy builds on Lincolnshire’s previous Attend to Achieve Strategy (2023–2026) and aligns with current DfE guidance, including Working Together to Improve School Attendance (2024) and emerging expectations within the Wellbeing and Schools Bill (DfE, 2026).

Attendance is a key indicator of a child’s safety, wellbeing and future life chances. Absence is rarely an isolated issue and is often an early sign of unmet need or vulnerability. Improving attendance therefore requires a whole-system, child-centred approach focused on early intervention, inclusion and partnership working.

Lincolnshire is committed to promoting a positive attendance culture where barriers are identified and addressed early, and where children, young people and families feel supported to engage fully in education.

Encouragingly, 84% of children in Lincolnshire have very good attendance and leave school well prepared for adult life. However, we recognise that for some children, attending school can be complex and challenging. For these children absence is often multi-faceted and more must be done to support those who face barriers to regular attendance. This strategy prioritises collaborative working and seeks to strengthen the effective use of data, not simply as a measure of attendance or absence, but as an indicator of how well children feel included, supported, and are able to access their education.

Whilst this strategy focuses on children of statutory school age, our Best Start in Life strategy highlights that patterns of attendance are established well before a child reaches statutory school age. Absences can begin in early education and, if not addressed, may persist into primary and secondary school, reinforcing the need for early intervention and coordinated support. Children who do not attend regularly in their early years are significantly more likely to experience ongoing attendance difficulties throughout their education.

While statutory attendance requirements change after the age of 16 years, the importance of participation in education, employment, or training remains. In line with Participation of Young People in Education, Employment, or Training: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities (DfE, updated, 2024), we promote continued engagement post-16, recognising that attendance remains a key factor in achieving positive outcomes.

Lincolnshire’s vision

Lincolnshire is committed to ensuring every child and young person feels safe, included and supported to access education so they can achieve, thrive and realise their potential.

Attendance reflects belonging, inclusion and safeguarding. Securing good attendance is a shared responsibility requiring strong partnership working, effective use of data, early intervention and a consistent focus on supporting vulnerable children.

Aligned with wider council strategies, this approach promotes a coordinated, whole-system effort across schools, families and services to improve outcomes, safeguard children, and support them to lead healthier, safer and more successful lives.

What is good attendance?

Children should attend school every day, with 100% attendance as the expectation. In practice, attendance of 95% or above is typically considered ‘good’. Attendance below this level is a cause for concern and should prompt early support and action from schools, families and wider services working together.

Even small amounts of absence quickly accumulate for example; 95% attendance equates to around two weeks of missed learning over a school year.

Importance of regular attendance

Good attendance is fundamental to children’s educational success, wellbeing and future life chances. Missing school leads to gaps in learning, reduced confidence and increased anxiety about returning.

Schools provide more than academic learning - they support social development, routine, relationships and aspiration, acting as a key protective factor for vulnerable children.

Evidence consistently shows that even small amounts of absence can have a measurable impact. Pupils with attendance of 95 to 100% are significantly more likely to achieve positive outcomes, while those whose attendance falls below 90% are at increased risk of poor attainment, reduced confidence and wider vulnerabilities. Good attendance is therefore typically understood as attending school consistently at 95 to 96% or above, supported by a strong culture where attendance is prioritised, barriers are identified early, and families are actively engaged.

Poor attendance is also linked to long-term detrimental outcomes, including reduced employment opportunities, lower lifetime earnings and increased safeguarding risks.

While elective home education is a legitimate parental choice for some families, it should not be used as a response to unmet needs or challenges within school. Where difficulties arise, partners should work collaboratively with families to remove barriers and enable children to access and benefit from education in school.

Why are children not attending school?

The reasons for absence can be wide and varied however; there are some recognised common factors which include:

  • Illness: it’s usually safe to send children to school with mild illnesses, like a minor cough, runny nose or sore throat; children should stay at home if they have a high temperature of 38°C or above. Read the NHS guidance to help decide if your child is well enough to attend school. It gives information about common childhood illnesses and conditions. For example, coughs, colds, chickenpox, measles and headlice. 
  • Long term illness: pupils with long-term or complex medical needs may require a different approach, with schools working in partnership with health services, including The Children and Young People’s Nursing Service (CYPN), to provide appropriate support, reduce barriers, and enable sustained engagement with education.
  • medical appointments: medical appointments do not have to be in school time but they generally are, often due to limited availability.
  • unmet special educational or medical need: whilst schools must continue to meet needs through reasonable adjustments whilst they assess, the delay in identification has resulted in children being absent.
  • anxiety (parent/child): children sometimes feel a bit worried about going to school. This is a normal emotion and it is important to recognise that going into school can help them worry less, than if you let them stay at home. Any long-term absence is likely to trigger a level of anxiety as well as the common reasons such as bullying, friendship groups and unmet special educational and medical need. Many parents developed anxiety themselves resulting in a reluctancy to send their children to school in situations where previously they would have.
  • holidays: absence during term time due to holidays is on the increase and it is important that all schools robustly follow the DfE guidance and discourage holidays in termtime. (LCC, Code of Conduct)
  • parent dissatisfaction with school: this can result in parents removing the child from school until they feel that any issues have been resolved.
  • truancy: particularly older children can make their own decisions on whether they attend school. Some parents are unaware of these absences until the school inform them. These children may be at risk of harm by engaging in criminal activity or being a victim of exploitation.
  • bereavement: children can take a significant period of time to overcome the sadness of a bereavement and without support the impact of the loss can escalate resulting in further barriers and increased absences.
  • parenting: this ranges from parents’ inability to provide the daily structure that is needed for a child to attend regularly to parent’s disinterest in sending their child to school due to their own educational experience or life events.
  • young carers: may be at increased risk of attendance difficulties, as the demands o their caring role can impact their ability to engage consistently with education.

Many children experiencing these challenges are at risk of falling into the category of persistent absence. Children with attendance at 90% have already missed 4 weeks, almost half a term of their education.

Persistent and severe absence

What we mean by persistent absence

Persistent absence is defined when a pupil’s attendance falls to 90% or below for any reason, whether authorised or unauthorised. Over a full academic year, this equates to around 38 sessions (19 school days), or approximately one day of absence every fortnight.

What we mean by severe absence

Severe absence refers to pupils who miss 50% or more of their education. These pupils are likely to face significant barriers to attending school and may require more intensive, coordinated support from a range of partners. As such, these pupils should be a priority for support and intervention.

This strategy recognises that both persistent and severe absence are rarely driven by a single issue and are often experienced by our most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils. The evidence highlights that the underlying causes are often complex, interrelated and rooted in wider family circumstances. As such, attendance should not be viewed as a stand-alone issue, but instead as an indicator of wider need, requiring coordinated, whole-family support across schools, services and communities.

Vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils

In the context of attendance, “vulnerable” or “disadvantaged” pupils refers to children who face additional barriers that make it harder for them to attend school regularly, engage in learning, or benefit from education in the same way as their peers. It is important to recognise that this is not one single group, but a broad range of children with different and often overlapping needs.

These include children who:

  • have a social worker and/or youth offending worker - CIN (Child in Need), Child Protection (CP) and CiC (Children in Care), this includes children supported by Futures4Me and Children with Disabilities (CWD)
  • have Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) – EHCPs (Education, Health Care Plans)
  • previously looked after - (PLAC)
  • are eligible for Free School Meals – (FSMs)
  • belong to communities such as, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children – (GRT) families
  • have English as an Additional Language – (EAL pupils)
  • are experiencing medical or mental health difficulties – e.g. Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
  • attend Alternative Provision or are at risk of exclusion – (AP)
  • are young carers or facing wider family social challenges (YC)

These characteristics are often interrelated, and pupils experiencing multiple vulnerabilities are at greatest risk of persistent and severe absence.

 

Attendance and safeguarding

Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, KCSIE, 2025) identifies persistent or prolonged absence - including missing parts of the school day -as a potential indicator of safeguarding risk. This can include neglect, child sexual or criminal exploitation, and risks linked to county lines. Children with low or irregular attendance may require early help and targeted intervention.

Attendance should therefore be viewed as part of a wider safeguarding framework, requiring:

  • early identification of concerns
  • information sharing between professionals
  • coordinated, multi-agency responses

Local evidence, including Lincolnshire’s Best Start in Life Strategy and Local Plan 2026–2031, highlights how absence can compound disadvantage from an early age by limiting access to education and key protective factors such as safe environments, trusted adults and consistent support.

Children involved in offending or at risk of becoming NEET should also be viewed through a safeguarding lens, as non-attendance is often linked to underlying trauma, unmet need or exploitation. Early identification and intervention are essential to reduce long-term harm.

National context

Nationally school attendance has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. There has been a gradual recovery in overall absence which remains around 6-7% (compared to under 5% pre- 2020). 

Attention has now shifted to persistent absence (missing 10% or more sessions), with nearly one in every six pupils falling into the persistently absent category, which is at 18.14%. 

Severe absence (attendance of 50% or below) has continued to increase, highlighting that the challenge of non-attendance has shifted from short-term disruption to a more entrenched pattern of disengagement, particularly among disadvantaged pupils.

 

Lincolnshire’s attendance profile

Since 2023, raising the profile of attendance in Lincolnshire has remained a key priority, with the Attendance Team, who have been recognised by the Department for Education and Ofsted for its effective approaches to improving attendance through good communication and collaborative working methods.

What Lincolnshire absence data tells us from 2024/25:

  • Lincolnshire’s overall absence rate of 6.59% has improved since post-pandemic levels but there is still work to be done.
  • Persistent absence has reduced year on year with a clear sustained improvement. It is now at 17.50%, which remains below the national average.
  • Severe absence, at 2.34% is also below the national average and has shown a recent improvement. Nationally the trajectory implies there is an increase in more vulnerable pupils falling into severe absence and if Lincolnshire follows this trend these children will need more targeted intervention to support a recovery in their attendance levels.

Source: Lincolnshire Census data based on autumn/spring data, 2018-2024/25

Lincolnshire has adopted aspects of the DfE Attendance Framework to strengthen practice across schools:

  • developing robust attendance training materials
  • improving communication and collaboration with schools
  • adapting approaches across large academy trusts to improve consistency, while recognising the influence of their distinct interdependent demographics
  • educating governors on their responsibilities around attendance
  • providing each school and academy with a named attendance contact for advice and guidance
  • introducing a RAG rating system to monitor attendance performance
  • offering targeted support where it is most needed
  • supporting schools to prioritise and address attendance concerns for the most vulnerable children at risk of missing education

Lincolnshire has adopted the DfE Attendance Framework to strengthen practice across our schools.

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.

National developments

The 2025 Ofsted School Inspection Framework introduces significant changes, placing attendance at the heart of school culture rather than treating it as a standalone measure. Inspectors now consider how attendance reflects pupils’ sense of inclusion, belonging and support, with a stronger focus on understanding the underlying reasons for absence and the effectiveness of early intervention.

Schools are expected to demonstrate robust systems for monitoring attendance patterns, identifying and addressing barriers - including those linked to SEND and mental health difficulties and ensure attendance is fully integrated within their safeguarding practices. There is an increased emphasis on leadership accountability, with governors and senior leaders required to rigorously scrutinise attendance strategies and ensure that staff are appropriately trained.

For vulnerable groups, particularly children with a social worker, the framework aligns with statutory guidance such as, Working Together to Improve School Attendance, 2024. This reinforces expectations around multi-agency collaboration, the development of personalised support plans, and the integration of attendance within Child Protection and Child in Need plans. This is in line with new non-statutory guidance from the DfE, from September 2025, intended for local authorities in: Promoting the education of children with a social worker and children in kinship care arrangements.

Alongside this, the Department for Education has introduced Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams, offering both targeted support for identified schools and a universal offer focused on collaboration, system leadership and the sharing of effective practice. Attendance remains a central priority within this work.

The introduction of Attendance Baseline Improvement Expectations further strengthens a data-led approach, with schools set tailored improvement expectations based on their context. This supports more consistent benchmarking and targeted intervention at school and system level.

Best Start in Life - Best Start in Life reinforces that good school attendance is built in the early years through strong routines, consistent engagement with childcare, and whole-family support via Family Hubs.

Collectively, these developments reinforce a clear national direction: attendance is ‘everyone’s business’, requiring strong use of data to identify need, coordinated multi-agency working, and a consistent focus on early support. For Lincolnshire, this underpins the need to target support effectively, strengthen information sharing across services, and ensure that all partners play an active role in improving attendance outcomes.

National guidance continues to promote a “support first” approach, emphasising early identification of need, a clear understanding of barriers, and collaborative work with children and families.

Attendance as a priority across Children’s Services

Every child deserves the very best opportunity for a healthy, happy and successful life. In Lincolnshire, we want all children to be ready and able to access school, and to benefit from safe, inclusive and high-quality education.

Meaningful engagement across services is key to improving school attendance by recognising it as a collective responsibility. When priorities are aligned across education, early help, social care, health, and partner agencies, services can work together more effectively to identify and tackle the root causes of absence. This involves clearly defined roles, shared use of data and intelligence, and coordinated early intervention approaches that provide timely support to families before concerns escalate.

There are many excellent examples of effective practice already taking place across schools, teams and partner organisations in relation to attendance management. This is supported through a wide range of established approaches, services and interventions that contribute to improving pupil attendance. These include:

  • Family Help Strategy 2026-2029 Lincolnshire’s Family Help Strategy will measure success through a reduction in the proportion of children who are persistently absent from education. The strength of the Family Help offer ensures that children, young people and their carers are able to raise concerns about school attendance at an early stage. This enables professionals to take timely, proportionate action for the appropriate duration, as part of a support-first approach. It also supports schools to address the underlying causes of absence before attendance itself becomes the primary concern. Team Around the Child – Professional resources (lincolnshire.gov.uk).
  • Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) pathway Introduced in January 2022, this pathway provides schools with guidance and support to address absence linked to anxiety, including emotionally based school avoidance. It enables early identification and intervention to support pupils experiencing barriers to attendance related to their emotional wellbeing.
  • Best Start in Life - Support early years to embed the importance of attending a provision; good attendance in pre-school setting is a strong indicator of good attendance later in the child’s education. Support for childcare providers – How to deliver funded childcare - Lincolnshire County Council,
  • The Children and Young People’s Nursing (CYPN) Service plays a key role in supporting children with long-term medical conditions that impact on school attendance. By working in partnership with families, schools and wider professionals, the service helps to identify and address health-related barriers to attendance, enabling reasonable adjustments and supporting safe access to education. Through coordinated, multi-agency working, the CYPN Service promotes continuity of learning, supports self-management of conditions, and ensures children remain engaged in education wherever possible, recognising that good attendance is closely linked to improved health and wellbeing outcomes.
  • Healthy Minds/CAMHS (SEMH strategy) provides for all children under 19 (and up to 25 with SEND) to access support with their emotional wellbeing and to help address the factors affecting their inability to attend school. The social, emotional and mental health strategy for Lincolnshire demonstrates the commitment to supporting children to achieve better mental health and enjoy their time at school
  • Futures4me - A specific Early Help response focusing on support for young people who may be at risk of being in the criminal justice system and/or committing crimes and likely to be absent from school as part of this.
  • Young Carers - A specific Early Help resource focusing on support for children and young people who find themselves caring for others, within the home or extended family; a role that is most likely to impact on their ability to attend school regularly.
  • Behaviour Outreach Support Service (BOSS) - Support for schools to respond effectively to behaviours that may impact a child's participation in school activities and attendance.
  • SEND Graduated Approach the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle provides a framework for considering the impact of a child's special educational needs on attendance and incorporating this into planning.
  • Ethnic Minority and Traveller education - Support for those new to the UK or who may have different experiences of education which impacts on their understanding of parental expectations around attendance or ability to participate fully, adding risk to good attendance.
  • Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Focus on keeping children safe and are committed to understanding and addressing the risks associated with non -attendance for our most vulnerable groups. LSCP Child Neglect Strategy and Neglect Scales Local Resources
  • Virtual School - Regular monitoring of provision for Children in Care and focus on improving achievement of children with a social worker, including whether they are in school and attending well.
  • Voluntary Sector A wide range of organisations with specific expertise who can work with individuals and families on the particular issues that are impacting on a child’s ability to attend school.
  • Alternative Provision Education arranged by local authorities for pupils who, because of exclusion, illness or other reasons, would not otherwise receive suitable education; or education arranged by schools for pupils on a fixed-period exclusion; or pupils to support engagement, address barriers to learning, and promote positive educational outcome.

Lincolnshire’s attendance priorities

Whilst good progress has been made over the past three years, there is more to do. This revised strategy builds on existing successes and reflects current priorities to further improve attendance outcomes. Lincolnshire’s six priorities are to:

  1. Improve overall attendance for all pupils
  2. Reduce persistent and severe absence
  3. Improve attendance outcomes for vulnerable groups
  4. Strengthen the use of data intelligence to inform targeted intervention
  5. Embed attendance within safeguarding practice
  6. Strengthen partnership working across services and schools

To support this, Lincolnshire has introduced a clear and consistent framework which categorises attendance and absence into bandings. This approach enables us to identify patterns, target support, address priorities and measure progress over time.

This strategy is aligned with wider Children’s Services priorities, recognising attendance as central to ensuring children can access education, achieve positive outcomes and feel a strong sense of belonging. These include the Family Help Strategy, SEND Local Offer, guidance for children with a social worker, the LSCP Neglect Strategy, Better Belonging programme, Inclusion Strategy, and Family Hubs Programme within our Best Start in Life initiative.

How will we achieve our priorities?

  • foster a culture of belonging, inclusion and high expectations, for all children
  • strengthen a system-wide commitment to attendance, as a shared responsibility by aligning multi-agency partners and delivering support in partnership with children and families, placing them at the centre of all interventions
  • working alongside our Best Start Family Hubs to ensure staff are equipped to have confident, routine conversations with parents and carers about attendance, promoting positive habits from an early stage and encouraging engagement with schools where barriers arise
  • implement a targeted, multi-agency approach to monitoring and tracking pupils with severe absence to ensure effective intervention and sustained improvements in attendance
  • deliver attendance training across services, maintained schools and academies to build shared understanding and strengthen best practice in supporting good attendance, early identification, and professional curiosity around absence
  • strengthen oversight of part-time timetables to ensure time limited use to support children back into full-time education
  • support wider services to ensure attendance for vulnerable children is explicitly addressed within their plans, including SEND, Child in Need (CIN), Child Protection (CP), and Looked After Children (LAC)
  • utilise live data feeds, including DfE “View Your Education Data”, to provide timely intelligence that supports targeted intervention and drives reductions in absence, specifically to identify cohorts such as those children with persistent absence
  • routinely share attendance data, trends and emerging patterns with school leaders and attendance leads through our core offer of Targeted Support Meetings, as well as collectively through networks and training sessions
  • celebrate and recognise positive attendance and areas of improvement

Targeting Support Meetings (TSM’s)

In line with the DfE guidance, local authorities are expected to organise termly Targeting Support Meetings with each school in their area. The attendance team will RAG rate each school in Lincolnshire to determine how many TSMs they will need each academic year:

  • mainstream schools with attendance above 94.5% are rag rated green and have a minimum of 1 TSM each year
  • mainstream schools with attendance between 90.5% and 94.5% are rated amber and have a minimum of 2 TSMs each year 
  • mainstream schools with attendance below 90.4% are rated red and have 3 TSMs each year.

TSMs are delivered by the Local Authority Attendance Team using a standard template to ensure consistent data collection and analysis. Every maintained school and academy in Lincolnshire are allocated a dedicated Attendance Team Officer, as their ‘single point of contact’. This has proven to be a successful resource which is valued by schools.

For specialist schools, these meetings will also involve the Local Authority SEND Team Manager. For those pupils in alternative provision and for the Pilgrim Hospital School, meetings will also include a Pupil Reintegration Team Officer.  TSM’s may be held face-to-face or via MS Teams and will focus on the following key areas:

  • school attendance priorities
  • local authority attendance priorities
  • attendance across absence banding categories (see Appendix 4)
  • attendance of identified vulnerable cohorts
  • successes, strengths and areas for improvement
  • use of part-time timetables
  • pupil movement, including leavers and joiners
  • legal intervention

These meetings provide an opportunity to build strong relationships and work collaboratively with schools to support a consistent and effective approach to attendance. They also support schools to identify key priorities for development within their policies and practice. This may include reviewing and analysing school-level data and facilitating opportunities to learn from and work alongside other schools facing similar patterns or trends.

Where barriers to attendance are complex, particularly for pupils within the severe absence category, meetings will support schools - alongside the local authority - to identify clear next steps and coordinate appropriate support. In addition, the Attendance Team offers interim communication meetings between Targeted Support Meetings to provide further support for more complex and challenging cases.

Children with a social worker

Good attendance at school offers additional safeguarding for vulnerable children. Historically, children with a social worker have had higher absence rates with a quarter of children who have ever needed a social worker being persistently absent compared with 10% for those who have never been known to or supported by social services.

Therefore, additional monitoring is required to improve the attendance of this cohort and this will be carried out by the virtual school as part of their expansion to the role of overseeing the education of pupils with a social worker.

This will include:

  • regular monitoring of attendance of children with a social worker including those looked-after by the local authority, Education Progress Coordinators
  • setting aspirational targets for attendance within child protection plans and as part of the personal education plans for Children in Care
  • specific attendance training for designated teachers who support children who have ever needed a social worker
  • work across children’s social care services to make sure social workers understand the importance of good school attendance and that it is a key part of all Child in Need and Child Protection Plans if attendance is a concern
  • ensure schools inform a child’s social worker if there are unexplained absences from school

Improving school attendance

The Lincolnshire model for improving school attendance aligns with the Family Help approach, recognising that non-attendance is often a symptom of underlying need. As such, assessment focuses on identifying the root causes of absence in order to inform appropriate and targeted support.

This model also reflects established safeguarding processes, where non-attendance is recognised as a potential indicator of risk. Patterns of absence may therefore contribute to the identification of need and, where appropriate, trigger further assessment or referral.

In line with this approach, legal intervention will not be considered by the local authority unless schools and wider services have undertaken a full assessment of need, including the use of an Early Help Assessment where appropriate, and have made sustained attempts to engage the child and their family. This ensures that all supportive and preventative approaches have been fully explored before escalation to enforcement.

Joint decision making on legal enforcement

Parents who fail to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school, or access to a suitable education, may be subject to statutory legal intervention, including criminal proceedings.

Decisions to pursue legal action are made by the local authority, informed by evidence provided by schools. Enforcement is not a first response; the priority is to work with families to secure sustainable improvements in attendance. However, where there is limited engagement or no sustained improvement despite appropriate support, legal action may be considered.

To ensure robust and consistent decision-making, schools are expected to work closely with their allocated Attendance Officer when considering legal intervention, including penalty notices and prosecutions, prior to formal submission.

The process is as follows:

  1. School follow attendance policy procedures and ensures a support first approach has been offered: school attendance has not improved
  2. School discusses child with their named attendance officer if they are considering a legal route to address poor attendance
  3. Decision is made as to whether there are any other approaches and support than can be offered that would have a positive impact on the attendance of the child
  4. If child is on a CiN or CP plan, decision must be shared and agreed with the social worker
  5. If legal approach is put on hold, case review takes place within agreed timescales. Only if all options of support have been exhausted, can the case be considered for legal interventions.

Governance and monitoring

Improving attendance across Lincolnshire is a shared responsibility. No single school, local authority service, or voluntary organisation can achieve this in isolation.

However, through collective accountability, targeted support, and a comprehensive action plan underpinned by clear governance and robust monitoring arrangements, we will drive improvements in attendance and secure better outcomes for children and young people.

 

National and local policy framework

The roles and responsibilities of school, parents and local authorities are clearly defined within statutory guidance and aligned with the latest statutory expectations from the UK Department for Education (DfE), including:

Legislation

In accordance with Sections 19, 175 and 444 of the Education Act 1996, the Local Authority has a statutory responsibility to ensure that children of compulsory school age receive a suitable education. This includes identifying children who are not accessing education and intervening where necessary to secure appropriate provision, using a range of support and legal measures where required. Interventions available include:

  • Prosecution for non-attendance in the Magistrates’ Court
  • Issue of Penalty Notices as stipulated in the local Code of Conduct
  • Issue School Attendance Orders
  • Consider Education Supervision Orders