Attendance guidance

The DfE have notified all Local Authorities that as from 19 August 2024 they will be publishing a revised version of Working together to improve School Attendance as statutory guidance.

This will include laying regulations to mandate attendance data sharing by all schools so schools, local authorities and DfE have access to near-live data from all state funded schools from the beginning of the next school year.

Laying regulations to modernise school attendance and admission registers (including updating attendance codes, rules on granting leaves of absence and on who can access registers) to improve the accuracy of attendance data to help schools and local authorities put better, more targeted support in place as early as possible.

Publishing details of the new National Framework for Penalty Notices for absence and laying regulations to improve consistency of attendance enforcement across the country.

Further information will be published on this page in due course. Advice and Guidance from the Statutory Attendance & Participation Team will be provided to support schools with the changes.

The DfE have stated that they expect all schools to have a clear, published Attendance Policy from the academic year (2022/2023) which has been reviewed and is compliant with DfE Guidance. Please see document below for support with this – Model School Attendance Policy.

Mental Health Issues affecting school attendance

Following the recent DfE Guidance – Mental Health Issues affecting a pupil’s school attendance – dated February 2023, the Statutory Attendance & Participation Team has developed the attached information sheet to help schools and professionals understand how to interpret and approach practice, when required, to support a pupil who may have mental health which is impacting on their school attendance.

Gov.UK: Mental heath issues affecting a pupils attendance guidance for schools