Agenda item
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ABSENTEEISM
- Meeting of Communities Scrutiny Committee, Thursday, 8 September 2016 9.30 am (Item 7.)
- View the declarations of interest for item 7.
To detail the application of the county’s policy with respect to school
attendance.
Minutes:
The Education
Social Work (ESW) Team Leader introduced the report and appendices (previously
circulated) detailing their contents. He explained the difference between
authorised and unauthorised absences and the process followed prior to the
issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs). All process relating to school
absences were highlighted in school publications to ensure that every parent
was aware of their responsibilities and of the consequences of not sending their
child to school.
The management of
school absences was devolved to each individual school. However, the
Council did regularly monitor absences and as part of the Schools Standard
Monitoring Group (SSMG) process headteachers and
chairs of governors were held accountable for their school’s performance in
relation to managing absences as well academic attainment. The Education
Social Work (ESW) Team also monitored school absence rates on a monthly basis,
taking into account Free School Meals (FSMs) and Looked After
Children (LAC) factor.
Members advised that they had requested the report on the basis of
statistical information and a press release they had seen some time ago, as
they were concerned that poverty levels in the county would not improve if
pupils were absent from schools for long periods at a time. Responding to
members’ questions officers advised that:
·
records
were not kept at county level with respect of ‘authorised absences’ as such
absences had been granted by headteachers;
·
headteachers had been keen for the Council to apply FPNs
consistently across the county. Since the date this had been stringently
implemented there had been a considerable increase in the number of warning
letters/FPNs issued. However, this was expected to fall once parents
realised that the Council would not be hesitant in enforcing the policy;
·
the County did
regularly monitor and check whether schools applied all policies and
procedures. Attendance at school was key as it affected life outcomes for
the pupils;
·
regular
unauthorised non-attendance at school was examined in detail to establish the
underlying reasons for a child’s absence. In such cases the Council would
then offer relevant appropriate support to the child and the family to help
overcome any barriers and get them engaged with the education system;
·
for the most
challenging pupils there were opportunities via the TRAC Project. This
had been a very successful Project in Denbighshire and had helped the county to
move from 19th position to 16th position in the Wales
ranking. Whilst getting pupils engaged with the Project was in the main
the responsibility of the school, they were supported by the Corporate ESW
Team;
·
a
number of schools were now employing their own Attendance Officers;
·
under the Welsh
Government’s All Wales Attendance Framework headteachers
had discretion to permit up to 10 days authorised absence. There had
recently been a High Court appeal against Isle of Wight Council who had served
an FPN on a parent for taking his daughter out of school on holiday despite a
request for ‘authorised absence’ being declined. The appeal was upheld
and since then legal teams across the UK had been examining the judgement to
determine whether policies and procedures required to be tightened;
·
despite
the fact that a number of parents were initially averse to officers telephoning
them about their child’s attendance at school, in the majority of cases by the
conclusion of the conversation they understood the Council’s reasons and
concerns;
·
performance
was improving in this area and it would continually be monitored with a view to
improving performance even further for the benefit of all pupils; and
·
whilst the All
Wales Attendance Framework applied to all education authorities in Wales,
policies and procedures in this area were not applied consistently across the
country.
Prior to the
conclusion of the discussion officers agreed to circulate to members
information on unauthorised absences and free school meals data at each of the
County’s schools. Members raised concerns with respect to the latter point
above and asked that their concerns in relation to this be noted as they felt
that this may affect Denbighshire’s ranking in the performance table.
Having reviewed the information provided the Committee:
Resolved: subject to the above observations to -
(i)
endorse the policies and strategies utilised to
improve pupil attendance in Denbighshire’s schools;
(ii)
note the improved performance attained to date; and
(iii)
register their concerns that
not all authorities across Wales were applying the policies and procedures in
relation to unauthorised absences as stringently as Denbighshire.
Supporting documents:
- School Absenteeism Report 080916, item 7. PDF 90 KB
- School Absenteeism Report - App 080916.docx, item 7. PDF 13 KB