Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department issues to head teachers on tackling absenteeism among pupils in schools.

The Department is implementing a comprehensive strategy to tackle absenteeism among pupils in school. This includes publishing new guidance in September 2022. The guidance is for all school and academy trust staff, including head teachers and governors, in addition to Local Authority attendance staff and local partners. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.

The guidance includes the expectation that schools work with Local Authority attendance staff and local partners to monitor attendance patterns to identify problems early and facilitate targeted, multi agency support where needed. This is intended to improve the consistency of support offered to pupils and families. To help schools track attendance trends the Department has developed a pupil attendance data tool for schools, trusts, and Local Authorities.

Following publication of the new guidance, the Department worked with high performing schools, trusts and Local Authorities to run a series of effective training webinars to embed good practice and improve attendance. The Department will continue to make support available for all schools and their headteachers in the form of good practice sharing and case studies.

The Department recently published additional guidance on supporting attendance where mental health and wellbeing is a barrier, including examples of effective practice and support, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-issues-affecting-a-pupils-attendance-guidance-for-schools.