At the end of February, the DfE announced a number of changes to the law relating to pupil registration and attendance.
The changes will come into effect on 19 August 2024 and are set out in three new regulations and the DfE guidance Working together to improve school attendance, which will also have statutory force from that date.
When the DfE published the last version of the guidance in May 2022, it stated its commitment to make it statutory when parliamentary time allowed. The decision to abandon the Schools Bill, and a number of changes to the government since then, has delayed this coming into force. However, now that the new regulations have been laid and guidance published, all schools will need to make themselves aware of the new requirements ahead of the new school year.
The changes to the law (which are explained in the updated guidance) principally apply to the keeping of school attendance and admission registers, including a revised set of codes, granting leaves of absence and access to and sharing of attendance information. There will also be a new National Framework for issuing penalty notices, including absence fine rates and thresholds at which penalties must be considered. 'Parenting contracts' will be referred to as 'attendance contracts'. Separate regulations also provide for a new mandatory data-collection of information about individual pupils which will replace the existing voluntary collection.
A summary of the key changes is as follows:
- All schools are expected to have a written school attendance policy based on the expectations set out in the guidance.
- Schools are expected to designate a 'Senior Attendance Champion' - a senior leader with overall responsibility for championing and improving attendance.
- Admissions and attendance registers should be kept electronically.
- Attendance and absence of pupils of compulsory and non-compulsory school age should be recorded using appropriate national attendance and absence codes - these have been updated and are set out in the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) (Regulations) 2024.
- Every entry in the attendance and admission registers should be preserved for six years (currently three years).
- The new School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) (Regulations) 2024 allow local authorities to examine and take extracts of registers for all schools in their area (not just maintained schools).
- The Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 imposes new requirements on maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, academy schools and Alternative Provision (AP) academies to provide information about every pupil at the school to the Secretary of State (or person they specify) when requested.
- Schools can fulfil the mandatory data collection requirements by allowing the Secretary of State (or person they specify) full-time access to their electronic management information systems.
- A new National Framework for issuing penalty notices will come into force and reflect the changes to the law introduced in the Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024. These include rises in absence fines and a cap of two fines being issued to the same parent for the same child within a three year period. It signposts schools to other intervention options if a third notice cannot be issued.
- Duty is placed on authorised staff to consider issuing penalty notices when a parent fails to secure regular school attendance of a child during a period of 10 school weeks.
- Other changes reflect those recently made to non-statutory guidance Providing remote education: guidance for schools and Mental health issues affecting a pupil's attendance: guidance for schools and the need for schools to be mindful of pupils absent from school due to mental or physical ill health, special educational needs and/or disabilities and provide them with additional support.
- Schools are also reminded of the need to provide local authorities with the name and address of pupils who miss 15 consecutive or cumulative days due to illness. Pupils with long term illnesses or other health needs may need additional support from the local authority to continue their education, as set out in the recently updated statutory guidance for local authorities Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school.
Victoria Guest is a Professional Support Lawyer at VWV.
VWV is currently in the process of updating its template attendance policy. If you would like to find out more about this, or be provided with the firm’s fixed fee list for template policies and documents, please contact Victoria.