Improving school attendance is a key priority for schools, education policymakers and local authorities, as regular school attendance is widely recognised as a key component of learning and educational achievement. Despite this, rates of persistent school absence have increased considerably since the COVID-19 pandemic, with no signs of returning to pre-pandemic levels. In this article, Professor Caroline Bond argues that work needs to be done to ensure that mainstream education is more able to meet the needs of a wider range of young people, particularly those with special educational needs.

• Schools need flexibility and support to develop attendance monitoring and support systems, which are responsive to the needs of all pupils and their families.
• Multi-agency co-ordination and collaboration with all stakeholders are important for the development of a localised approach to school attendance issues.
• Some young people with complex needs may require alternative provision outside of a school setting – systems for accessing alternative provision should be transparent and consistent, with clear processes to support children back into regular education provision.

Mainstream schools, negative perceptions and support needed

Perceptions from young people that they do not find secondary school enjoyable or meaningful indicate a need for mainstream schools to be able to broaden the curriculum and prioritise pastoral support. These perceptions from young people can contribute to persistent school absences – and absence rates are higher still for pupils with Education Health and Care Plans and pupils receiving free school meals.

Local authority multi-agency partnership

A local authority in the north-west of England responded to national concerns about school attendance by developing their own localised graduated approach to tackle increasing rates of non-attendance. They commissioned researchers via the University of Manchester’s Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology to work with the local authority in developing good practice guidelines for school attendance difficulties.

Our researchers collaborated on the development and introduction of a localised approach to school attendance difficulties, which could effectively inform future policy and practice.

Research findings

Meetings were held with stakeholder groups (comprised of stakeholders from the local authority, Special Educational Needs Advisory Service specialist teachers, and local third-sector family support groups). These identified that a lack of understanding of school attendance difficulties for example perceiving non-attendance as the pupil’s choice or within the control of the family, meant that professionals could be slower to identify and intervene for pupils at risk.

There were also different understandings reported about whether attendance difficulties constituted a special educational need, and were therefore the responsibility of the SEND co-ordinator, or whether they were the responsibility of an Attendance Lead, resulting in inconsistent practice and oversight between educational settings.

Positive changes and getting ahead of the curve

The team produced a local authority guidance document with sections clarifying school’s responsibilities for supporting attendance collaboratively with local authority attendance teams and national guidance. They also produced a school training package tackling misconceptions about roles and responsibilities whilst emphasising the importance of a graduated, evidence informed response at a whole-school level.

As this guidance was developed and trialled, stakeholders reported positive changes – including changes to referral pathways, such as the addition of an attendance difficulty screening tool to referrals for the medical education service. Stakeholders also detailed a positive outcome – that initial changes at a local authority level were now beginning to permeate into school settings, as messages were being consistently reinforced by a range of professionals, and they felt they were beginning to see a shift in the understanding of attendance difficulties at the school level. The stakeholder group also commented that they felt ‘ahead of the curve’ with recent guidance from the Department for Education emphasising collaborative working at a local authority level to improve attendance.

The working group/guidance has contributed to attendance at this local authorities schools remaining amongst the highest in England.

Attending to improvement

Stakeholder discussions within this project identified both a lack of clarity about staff roles and responsibilities and a broad range of attitudes about the causes of emotionally based school absences, with some staff perceiving that children and families were responsible, and that punitive action such as fines would be the most effective solution. Although awareness of the complexity of school non-attendance is increasing, there is still a need for significant work in this area to address misconceptions. The Department for Education should encourage evidence-informed support at both a local and national level.

In response to the increasingly prevalent issue of school absences, many local authorities have begun developing their own materials and approaches to supporting regular attendance. The findings of our study suggest that developing a strategic approach requires effective multi-agency co-ordination, formalising joint working beyond a case-by-case basis.

Alternative provision and complex needs

In Spring 2024, the Department for Education launched a consultation on strengthening protections in unregistered alternative provision. Alternative provision education is defined as education delivered in unregistered settings, falling outside any existing designation as a “school”. The above project focused on ‘prevention’ of non-attendance, but in some cases, non-attendance does lead to a transition from school settings to specialist or alternative provision settings for children and young people with certain needs. Shortages of local authority specialist provision have resulted in cases of local authorities commissioning unregistered alternative provision providers to fill gaps.

Increased funding for this specialist sector is a positive move, and if actions are taken to offer a broader and more holistic approach to mainstream education this will go some way to addressing the numbers of young people requiring specialist and alternative provision. However, there are still likely to be young people who will need access to more bespoke alternative provision.

Many of these young people are likely to have complex needs/SEND, so provision is likely to be needed over a longer timeframe. This will require a high level of accountability and monitoring to ensure provision continues to meet young people’s needs, young people are safe and it provides value for money to local authorities. This may require additional resourcing for local authorities if they are tasked with registering alternative provisions.

Short term unregistered alternative provision may meet the needs of some young people, however, there needs to be capacity within the system for a school place to be available when the young person is ready to move back to registered long-term provision and a clear process to support this. Moves between settings can be stressful for young people and need to be well-planned with consistency of approach between settings.

It has been proposed that all unregistered alternative provision will be subject to new quality assurance frameworks. Providers have argued that registering is complex and restrictive so it maybe that a more bespoke registration process/accreditation system could help. Oversight by the Department for Education and regular inspections would ensure consistency across the sector.

However, the Department for Education should ensure future guidance on tackling school absence prioritises early intervention, acknowledges local reasons for school absences, and removes the onus from parental blame. It should encourage multi-agency local solutions, which take on board parental feedback and the experiences of teachers and local authority specialists.

Current Government guidance advocates for multi-agency support for school attendance needs, but lacks clarity on how this should be achieved. Our study outlined above could be a useful template for other local authorities and practitioners developing and implementing local guidance.