Prospect welcomes DfE consultation on school attendance

Prospect’s Education and Children’s Services Group has welcomed the announcement of a consultation on school attendance in England by the Department for Education.

The DfE says it is seeking views on its plans ‘to improve the consistency of school attendance support and management.’

Among the proposed measures include:

• requiring schools to have an attendance policy, and have regard to statutory guidance on the expectations of schools, academy trusts and governing bodies of maintained schools
• guidance on the expectations of local authority attendance services
• a national framework for attendance legal intervention
• bringing the rules for granting leaves of absence in academies in line with other state-funded schools.

Prospect national secretary Steve Thomas said:

“Prospect’s Education and Children’s Services Group recognises the importance of establishing clear and consistent support on this issue and the benefits of properly resourced professionals being able to share good practice and working to good governance across agencies.

“We hope the proposals, which we understand will form part of the government’s White Paper, will support this approach then this could be a move away from the dogma of past strategies.”

Prospect will be responding to the submission, which closes on 28 February. Full details can be found on the DfE website.