Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to introduce statutory guidance on the expectations of local authority attendance services; and what steps his Department is taking to provide support to councils that are undertaking work to increase levels of school attendance.
The department recently consulted on several proposals to improve the quality and consistency of attendance support across the country. These include:
The department will be publishing our response to the consultation in due course.
We have been working closely with local authorities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to support them to maximise attendance, sharing best practice through a series of webinars. The department has also appointed a team of expert attendance advisers who are working closely with several local authorities to review their current approach to attendance and make improvements. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, recently established an alliance of national leaders from education, children’s social care, and other services to address the barriers to regular school attendance.