| SPOTLIGHT |
The Local Government Association (LGA) has repeated its call for the Government to legislate for a register of children who are not in school, combined with “powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children.”
It claimed that councils lack powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t “slip through the net”.
The LGA's comments come in response to plans announced by the Department for Education to tackle post-pandemic absence rates, and drive up attendance in school.
The new measures, published on 18 May, include the expansion of the “successful sector-led Attendance Hubs programme” with nine new lead hub schools, alongside the expansion of “Attendance Mentors” in areas of the country with the highest levels of pupil absence.
The Department for Education said that practice shared by hubs may include rolling out “automatic text messaging to parents where pupils do not attend school” and “using data effectively to identify children at risk of poor attendance and in order to intervene early”.
The Government said the expansion of the attendance mentors programme, delivered by children’s charity Barnardo’s, would see trained mentors work directly with 1,665 persistently and severely absent children and their families across Knowsley, Doncaster, Stoke-on-Trent and Salford to “understand and overcome the barriers to attendance and support them back into school”.
According to the latest figures published by the Government on 18 May, across the year to date, 22.3% of pupil enrolments missed 10% or more of their possible sessions and are therefore identified as “persistently absent”.
By school type, the persistent absence rate across the year to date was:
It is noted that the figures are derived from regular data automatically submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) by participating schools.
Responding to the DfE's plans, Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Good attendance at school plays a vital role in children’s development and for their well-being, and it is positive government has set out measures to improve this.
“However we have long raised with government that councils lack the powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t slip through the net.
“Despite having a legal duty to ensure a school place for every child, councils do not have the ability to direct academies to accept pupils, even if they are the most appropriate school for a pupil."
Cllr Gittins added: “Under the current arrangements, children not in school are invisible to councils and the services that keep them safe. This is why it is vital the Government legislates for a register of children who are not in school, combined with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children.”
The DfE announced that the new attendance hubs will start supporting other schools from June and mentors will begin working with children and families in the new areas from September.
It added: “Findings from the expansion of the attendance hubs will determine whether the approach has the potential to be rolled out to other areas across the country”.
The Department has also published a call for evidence on children missing education, for those neither on a school roll nor being suitably home educated.
It said: “Receiving evidence from local authorities, schools and other agencies on what works to support children missing education and the challenges they face, will play a vital role in allowing the Department to identify existing best practice and inform future policy.”
The call for evidence is open until 20 July.
Lottie Winson
