To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have (a) been offered and (b) accepted use of an attendance advisor; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of attendance advisors in reducing persistent absence from schools.
Answered on
27 January 2023
Over the next two years, attendance adviser support will be offered to every Local Authority in the country. Advisers work closely with Local Authorities to ensure that they are fully implementing the key expectations in the Department’s new attendance guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf.
This includes supporting Local Authorities to make effective use of their attendance data to develop a local strategy, putting in place effective multi-agency support for families to address attendance barriers, and meeting with all schools on a termly basis to discuss and agree support for any persistently absent pupils.
Attendance adviser support has also been offered this year to 24 multi-academy trusts with higher levels of persistent absence across their schools. These trusts are responsible for 226 schools in total.
The Department continues to assess the effectiveness of the attendance adviser initiative by monitoring the progress of Local Authorities and trusts in implementing the action plans that they have developed with their adviser to reduce absence. School attendance data continues to be published regularly by the Department in the usual way.