Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services that provided Members with an overview of school attendance and inclusion in the County Durham. The report also covered the national and local context and policy, published data and collaborative working (for copy of report, see file of Minutes).

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer and the Inclusion & Alternative Provision Coordinator were in attendance to present the report and deliver a presentation that provided details of the overall absence; working together to improve attendance (May 2022); stepped approach; support from the Local Authority; work to date; attendance alliance; permanent exclusions by year group; primary permanent exclusions; secondary panel developments; main implications and areas for development (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer introduced the school attendance part of the presentation giving an outline on the current system, highlighting that there was new national guidance that would come into effect in September 2024. Members learned that a partnership approach was embedded to provide whole family support where needed. Where pupils had 50% attendance or less a multi-agency plan was required. In relation to legal action this option was only used where all support options were exhausted or not appropriate

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Group Lead informed members that the new guidance detailed information on the role of the local authority and regulations have been laid to mandate attendance data sharing by all schools so schools, LAs and Department for Education have access to near-live data from all state-funded schools from the beginning of next school year (Collecting this data at the previous termly census frequency created a two-term lag between the data being collected and being published). The voluntary national collection begun in 2022 and gathers a sub-set of that data. However, in County Durham, the majority of schools share data locally voluntarily.

 

Members were also advised that an attendance strategy was currently in development and of work that had taken place such as the development of the attendance alliance that was made up of multi-agency colleagues represented at the prevention and early help partnership and more widely. A multi-agency operational group also considers children who are electively home educated.

 

Information was given on the school portal which allows schools and education settings to access resources and share information.

 

School Attendance

 

Ms Gunn referred to the school attendance support team and asked what kind of coverage they were experiencing and their availability and if they were struggling to meet demand.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that there was high demand for the service, and whilst stretched the capacity in the team covers current statutory responsibilities alongside the alliance partnership approach. They had received some grant funding for children with a social worker through the virtual school to provide a focus on the attendance of children with a social worker and they had appointed an Education Welfare Officer to work with wider partners (developing a joint protocol and resource kit). They had also invested in a Vulnerable Groups Education Support Officer supporting those Electively Home Educated. They used the partnership approach to build capacity across the system.

 

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that when schools academised in 2011 their contribution was lost towards this service, more recently some of the academies were buying back into the service with Service Level Agreements. He added that there was high demand for the service and there were challenges, but the service was building capacity.

 

Councillor Varty indicated that some parents wanted to keep their children at home to look after other children. She continued that some children stay at home because they were frightened to attend school where they were living in domestic violent situations. She commented that these children needed to be fed when not at school which was a cost to parents and indicated that they needed to encourage free school meals take up more.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that there was a focus across the partnership to ensure they were highlighting the most vulnerable children and arrangements are in place around those young people, so they received the best support available. In relation to domestic violence, an Education representatives supporting to the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) considering high risk domestic abuse incidents are also part of the team that support school attendance, elective home education, children missing from education and this opportunity has meant information can be shared across the piece allowing connections to be made. The joint arrangements ensure that the partnership work is joined up around those concerns.

 

The Chair referred to children eligible for free school meals and asked if when a child was ill and unable to attend school and was going to be absent from school for a considerable amount of time was there any provision to ensure that the child was well fed.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that if children were prevented from attending school due to health needs, there is an Educational Health Needs Team who are able to help and support young people.

 

Councillor Hunt indicated that her local school had employed an attendance officer who engaged with children and families and the attendance for the school had improved. She then referred to school holidays, highlighting concerns as some schools now had different holiday periods which was creating problems for parents who had children in different schools.

 

The Head of Education and Skills responded that the service was aware of this, and it had impacted on attendance however, they had undertaken some work with other local authorities and the Roman Catholic Diocese on holiday realignment and advised that holidays next year would be aligned, and they were now consulting for the following year.

 

Councillor Hunt indicated that medical appointments were logged as an absence in some schools but in others it was not and asked for consistency of approach among schools.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that schools are guided by the national attendance and absence codes and indicated that there were some changes to some codes from September 2024 that may help. She continued that parents were encouraged to book medical appointments where possible outside of the school day. Where it was not possible, and a young person must be absent from school due to a medical appointment schools current registration regulations and corresponding guidance states this would be an (authorised) absence.

 

Councillor Hunt asked if this could be highlighted to the virtual school as some children had missed out on incentives due to medical absences.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer indicated that if a child are present at school for registration, the regulation state they receive their mark for the session even if they leave school later in the morning to attend an appointment.

 

Councillor Crute referred to the cohort of children on long term absence from school and asked how they identified those vulnerable children, specifically children with undiagnosed autism or awaiting an assessment who miss school regularly which impacts on their attainment and the risk of being permanently excluded. He then asked what mechanisms were in place to identify those children who might not have had an assessment for an Educational Health Care Plan.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer indicated that those young people where pupils have an Educational Health Care Plan (whether children are in special schools, mainstream or otherwise), the team work closely with the schools around attendance. She continued that targeting support meetings were held across all schools including special schools.  For severe absentees, guidance suggests that children should have a muti agency plan in place. Often there may already be a multi-agency plan in place (some examples include an EHCP, child and family plan, child protection plan) with attendance as a thread running through this / as part of any existing multi-agency plan however if no wider multi-agency plan in place, guidance is clear that one should be put in place to support with wider barriers / ensure needs are met.

 

In response to a further question from Councillor Crute, the Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer indicated that cohorts of children and young people particularly those vulnerable and those persistently and severely absent are also considered at school targeting support meetings and there is wider consideration around themes / barriers that a number of schools / families are facing around how partners will work together via the alliance to assist.

 

Professor Gosia M Ciesielska indicated that a worry was focusing on the number of absences without looking at the reasons for the absence and deeper investigations in some cases were required as some families really needed support. However, some families were sending their children to school when they were unwell due to the worry of keeping them off school. She indicated that some guidance for parents around these issues would be beneficial. She then referred to medical appointments and indicated that sometimes parents had no influence on when the appointment takes place.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that the most common reason for absence was illness, there were also some absences for unauthorised reasons.  Other wider reasons include holidays in term time and suspensions, but these reasons for absence represented small percentages. Members were advised of a pilot exercise with local GPs, Public Health, Early Health and Family Health Service to look at sharing information between services where absences due to reported illness were frequent with a pattern of broken weeks with no underlying cause known. She continued that the government also had a national campaign focused on preventable absences currently. The Attendance Alliance received full breakdowns of absence by year groups, including information on reasons for absence, cohorts and groups on a half termly basis. The Access to Education/Vulnerable Group Lead assured members that reasons for absences and all available information is fully considered.

 

The Head of Education and Skills commented that this work was not just around the volume of absences and commented from a school point of view once a child got to year 11 the difference between the outcomes of a child that attends 98% of the time and a child who attends 92% was enormous and was potentially the difference of two grades across the eight subjects. He stated that secondary schools were struggling to ensure that all their year 11’s were enjoying life, school was a nice place to be and stretching resources.

 

Councillor Waldock referred to where a family’s attendance was spasmodic and were receiving targeted support and asked what support was given to the siblings of absentees and if a family approach was taken. She commented that some family’s relationships had broken down and asked how they ensure that it does not impact on siblings.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that one of the key features of the attendance alliance work was to ensure that needs are considered holistically, and family centred and not just take into account the needs of one child, they were very much considering siblings. They worked with Early Help services with key workers providing support to the family, and services have worked to closely align the attendance strategy with the early help strategy. One of the work streams of the attendance alliance was parental engagement and promotion of the available offer from the Family Hubs and for example corresponding agencies holding drop-in sessions to enable families to access services within their community and respond to need was highlighted.

 

Councillor Scurfield referred to persistent absences and asked how this compared to previous years and if they had seen a decline.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer indicated that persistent absences had come down and the early indication was positive, but they still had some challenges.

 

In response to a further question from Councillor Scurfield the Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer indicated that absences were increasing before the pandemic and did increase to almost 9% but had come down nationally and locally particular in the last year.

 

Mrs Gunn referred to some special schools measuring engagement and asked who was required to report engagement.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer stated that the attendance systems that schools used were SIMS and Arbor that help schools manage the day-to-day attendance. Particularly secondary schools also make use of such applications to take lesson attendance and lesson monitor so can monitor engagement on a daily basis.

 

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that they could not enforce the process and stated that Ofsted measures engagement with the curriculum.

 

Councillor Mulholland asked about metrics to measure the percentage of children were living in poverty and if they were taken into consideration.

 

The Access to Education / Vulnerable Groups Lead Officer responded that they were, and they also look at their absences data by free school meals, vulnerable cohorts etc. that was reported to the attendance alliance to consider. Key partners from the attendance alliance worked with the service to support families and schools.

 

Durham Inclusion, Exclusion and Pupil Movement

 

The Inclusion and Alternative Provision Co-ordinator presented information to members that highlighted a significant increase in exclusions and suspensions both regionally and nationally, with some LA’s reporting figures at the end of the Autumn term 23 were the same as what was recorded for the previous full academic year. In County Durham we have seen an increase but not at the same rates as other areas. Last year in County Durham 120 permanent exclusions were reported this was not significantly higher than the previous year’s figures. He explained that key stage three was a key area of focus.

 

Members were advised there were four secondary panels that had a geographical split, and all schools were part of the panel with senior leaders from schools attending along with representatives from Early Help, EWEL, CAMHS, Educational Psychology and Anti Social Behaviour teams. Peer to peer support was given along with support from areas such as emotional wellbeing, Early Help, Outreach support, Alternative Provision and through the Inclusion Practitioner whose role also includes working with hard to engage parents and families.

 

The panels had seen a significant increase in referrals during 2022/23 a number of which were being picked up at an early stage as part of a graduated response.

 

Referring to primary schools the Alternative Provision Co-ordinator advised that there were no permanent exclusions during 2022/23 but it was anticipated that it would happen during this academic year creating pressure on the preventative offer currently in place.

 

Information was given on the primary pathway model where a triage system was in place and would offer advice, peer to peer support and put recommendations in place. Four Nurture Hubs provided support at the earliest stage and could support individual pupils for three sessions per week for up to three terms. All schools accessing the Nurture support would be expected to develop Nurture provisions within their schools this will increase capacity across the County. In relation to primary outreach work the service was looking to extend this. Work was being done to reduce the long term pressures on the High Needs Block (HNB).

 

Transition support was provided across key year groups, work was ongoing to identify pupils requiring support to ensure a successful transition into Primary and Secondary

 

All schools had agreed to sign up to the Alternative Provision framework and protocol. The LA also oversees a directory of providers. Providers have quality assurance checks to support their entry into the directory. The LA provides a training offer to AP providers with service level agreements in place to strengthen the offer.

 

The Alternative Provision Co-ordinator advised of the work taking place on reintegration of pupils. Forty young people were supported back into mainstream schools following permanent exclusion since May 21.

 

Supported Offsite Placements (SOP) had replaced the managed move protocol, the new process ensures moves are right for the young person. SOP’s were managed robustly with a greater emphasis on the young person, which had increased successful outcomes.

 

A Fair Access Protocol had been implemented from September 23 to support the admission of young people who do not have a school place, the panels met weekly geographically, there were fair and transparent arrangements, thirty young people had gone through the system. Members were advised of the challenges involved with in year admissions process between schools, the LA continue to work with the DFE and school leaders.

 

Councillor Hunt asked if there were any reasons or patterns for exclusions.

 

The Inclusion and Alternative Provision Coordinator responded that historically persistent disruption was the main reason for exclusions but over the last few years exclusions for assaults against staff and other students had increased. There was also had a number of incidents more recently in relation to dab and vape pens and were working with the police and services on this.

 

Councillor Hunt referred to the nurture hubs and asked who were funding these.

 

The Inclusion and Alternative Provision Coordinator responded that the funding was from the high needs block and was a small amount of money that had enhanced the offer as the hubs were already established.

 

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that a small allocation from the high needs block was allocated to support preventative work. If the exclusion number increased the costs to the Pupil Referral Unit would increase so they were trying with the school’s direction to get ahead. The Head of Education and Skills advised that High Needs Block allocation to support the preventative work of the Primary and Secondary Panels was ahead of the game and would reduce higher long term costs. This had taken over five years to establish.

 

Councillor Hunt asked if match funding included academies.

 

The Head of Education and Skills confirmed this was the case and all schools had agreed to match funding over a three year period.

 

In response to a question from Mrs Gunn the Inclusion and Alternative Provision Coordinator indicated that the alternative provision directory had a range of different providers such as colleges, vocational and therapeutic intervention. The directory currently had approximately 36 providers. Regionally and nationally not all local authorities had a robust systems in place and leave any decisions around alternative provision to schools. There was encouragement to use provisions that were part of the directory that had been checked by Local Authority officers. On a monthly basis the Alternative Provision providers came together and held network meetings to share good practice and focus on areas for development. Alternative Provision is a key part of the education system supporting schools and individual young people.

 

Mrs Gunn indicated that this was an important part of SEND review and was the place to be looked at as a key priority and the fact that this was already being built upon was important. She asked how proactive they were to find new providers.

 

The Inclusion and Alternative Provision Coordinator responded that there were two parts to the alternative provision, and they had registered and unregistered providers. The unregistered providers could not offer a full time offer but could offer packages and interventions working in partnership with schools. The registered providers offer fulltime placements this was not directly available to parents and could only be accessed through school referral routes. He stated that new providers were coming on board to increase the options available to school.

 

In response to a further question from Mrs Gunn around the financial limitations and the legal implications prohibiting obtaining some of the funding the Head of Education and Skills responded that the allocation of money was to the panels, there was a business plan in place. Funding was from the High Needs Block to support the panels work it was not allocated to individuals. They were trying to do something different and 27 out of 29 secondary schools were academies with all schools part of the Behaviour and Inclusion Partnership. If some of the academies withdrew it would be difficult to continue, these panels were solution focused providing challenge, as well as professional development for everyone involved.

 

Councillor Varty indicated that it was positive to see everyone working together and would like to thank everyone.

 

Resolved: That the overall position and direction of travel in relation

to school attendance and inclusion, and the proactive, collaborative actions being taken to address areas of challenge be noted.