Post 16 attendance guidance
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Context and purpose
In response to a recommendation from a rapid review led by Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, a Task and Finish group was convened which included colleagues in the Norfolk Virtual School, Attendance Team and the Post 16 Education Employment and Training Team as well as senior staff within post 16 colleges in Norfolk.
Recommendation from the Rapid Review
"Education to lead a time limited task and finish group that will seek to engage partners in reflective conversations regarding barriers to post 16 school / college attendance. This group should then set out some short and long-term multi-agency tactics that could positively impact on those most at risk from non-attendance. This should include collating and disseminating any operational level assistance and advice partners can provide to each other, particularly signposting resources that are available to minimise children missing opportunities to learn."
Following the recommendation, this guidance document was devised.
Introduction
Attending college regularly will ensure that young people reach their maximum life chances and academic potential. It is everyone's responsibility to promote good attendance. When young people attend college, they are given access to new experiences, new opportunities to learn and develop new skills. These are not limited to academic skills, but social, emotional and behavioural development too. Being in college with their peers will enhance their life skills in making friends, developing confidence and self-esteem, teamwork, inclusion and learning to be resilient.
Improving attendance is also everyone's business. The barriers to accessing education are wide and complex and are specific to individual young people and their families.
There is no statutory guidance that colleges or post 16 providers should follow in relation to attendance, however the DfE 'Working Together to Improve School Attendance' (2024) for schools gives key expectations and these principles can be applied except the path of legal intervention.
It is important to understand that good attendance is achieved when it is an integral part of the college's ethos and culture.
Core principles
This guidance document has some overarching core principles which are referenced throughout. It also has advice to follow to promote positive college attendance.
- Building and maintaining positive relationships
- Effective communication
- Monitoring of attendance
- Early intervention and offering support
Step 1: Identify, assess and prevent
Building positive relationships is at the heart of college practice. The college's daily actions and processes aim to promote relationship building with young people and their parents and carers to prevent absence.
Working with young people in a trauma informed and restorative way should mean they feel valued, supported and therefore able to attend college. Their voice should be at the centre of all support and interventions.
Setting high expectations for attendance and punctuality is crucial and communicating this regularly to young people and parents/carers through various channels will help them to understand what is expected. Raising the profile of positive attendance is clear on the college website, in newsletters and briefings.
The expectations of positive college attendance are promoted from day one, it is reinforced as part of induction, within the young person and parent/carer charter and during parents' evenings.
As per 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' colleges should hold more than one emergency contact number for each young person. The college should do everything possible to ensure this contact information is up to date.
The Attendance Policy has clear expectations and procedures which can be followed by all stakeholders.
Attendance procedures are well communicated to staff, so they understand their role and responsibilities in relation to attendance and the link to safeguarding young people.
All staff will know the importance of good attendance through training and professional development and are consistent in their communication with children, young people and parents about this.
All staff will complete registers accurately and in agreed timescales so appropriate follow up can be undertaken when a young person is absent.
Attendance alerts are sent to the young person and emergency contact(s) for each lesson that is missed.
Monitoring data trends and absence patterns inform the conversations with the young person. The trigger for conversations is where absence becomes a cause for concern. Other daily actions involve promoting attendance positively, using praise & incentives, swift absence follow up, texts, email and/or letter communication to raise awareness of emerging concerns as well as fulfilling safeguarding responsibilities.
Step 2: Absence and support
The next step is moved to if absence continues (authorised or unauthorised) to prevent further absence occurring. Early intervention is part of the whole college's approach to supporting students in all areas including attendance.
If the attendance of a young person is of concern, then an appropriate member of staff will speak with the student, parents/carers and any relevant professionals supporting the student/family. Discussions and meetings will be offered to identify if early support or reasonable adjustments are needed. This will be done using discussions and/or meetings to create a supportive action plan (Word doc, 73 KB).
The use of the family network approach may be useful when asking questions and offering support.
For children in care attendance should be recorded in the statutory Personal Education Plan and advice and guidance sought from the Virtual School.
Vulnerable young people will often have a named member of staff who they can speak to with any worries or concerns.
The college will also liaise with relevant teams within the Local Authority for advice and guidance as appropriate. A Family Help referral or signposting to other external agencies will be offered, if appropriate, for support to be accessed to overcome identified barriers to attendance.
Recognising young people missing education can act as a vital warning sign to a range of safeguarding issues including neglect, sexual abuse and child sexual and criminal exploitation.
Step 3: Formalised support
Where absence continues and initial support needs to be increased a formalised support plan (Word doc, 66 KB) will be offered. This is a supportive plan of improvement to prevent further escalation. Achievable and individualised targets will be set and reviewed regularly. Medical and/or other information will be actively sought at this point if required to work collaboratively with the young person and other agencies.
A formalised support plan is a personalised action plan to address barriers to attendance and make clear each person's role in improving attendance patterns. These plans do not have a minimum or maximum duration; however, each plan should set out the duration it will be in place.
The support plan should be written in language that the young person and parent/carers can easily understand (including a translation where necessary). All parties, including other professionals working with the young person, should be given a copy.
Step 4: Education withdrawal
In Step 3 there will have been regular reviews of the formalised support plan and the reasons why this has not led to an improvement in attendance needs to be clear.
Colleges will follow their clearly communicated attendance procedures which includes staged escalation.
Parents and carers and professionals supporting and/or working with the young person will be appropriately involved.
Where appropriate staff in key roles will be part of this process, for example Designated Teachers for young people who are care experienced.
Where all of the three steps above have been exhausted colleges will move to their formal withdrawal processes. Colleges must inform the Local Authority about any young person not meeting the participation requirement, as stipulated in Section 13 in the Education and Skills Act 2008 and the Participation of Young People guidance (2024).
This Section 13 process ensures structured cooperation between FE providers and local authorities to support young people aged 16-18 in fulfilling the legal duty to remain engaged post‑16—whether through education, training, or employment with training.
Monitoring of attendance
Transition from secondary school to college is a pivotal time for all students but if attendance has been poor in school, it is crucial that this is known so support can be offered from the beginning.
Week one attendance is a strong indicator of overall attendance throughout the academic year. Therefore, a review of attendance for all young people following week one is important.
Using data to inform practice is crucial. Through the regular and planned analysis of data, colleges can identify, track and monitor the attendance of all young people and look for patterns for individuals.
It is essential to highlight patterns of concern and intervene at an early stage to prevent poor attendance becoming an ingrained issue as well as to identify and celebrate excellent and improved attendance.
Interpreting the data will help devise solutions and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions as attendance is a continuous process which needs regularly reviewing and updating messages, processes, and strategies.
Where concerns about attendance are raised the most appropriate member of staff will check in with the young person and discuss the reasons and offer support early. A support first approach will be implemented and targeted to the specific individual. This could include individual attendance targets aimed at raising attendance and being successful.
Formalised planning will be implemented when required, particularly where informal interventions have not proved successful.
A defined procedure for management oversight and escalation when concerns are noted is crucial.
Planning
Colleges often have their own templates for planning and support meetings however example templates for Step 2 and 3 can be used by colleges if they wish.
