SEN and School Attendance - A Guidance for Local Authorities

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1 Guidance on the attendance of pupils with special educational needs (SEN)

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3 Guidance on the attendance of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) First published in 2009 Ref: PDF-EN-01

4 Disclaimer The Department for Children, Schools and Families wishes to make it clear that the Department and its agents accept no responsibility for the actual content of any materials suggested as information sources in this publication, whether these are in the form of printed publications or on a website. In these materials icons, logos, software products and websites are used for contextual and practical reasons. Their use should not be interpreted as an endorsement of particular companies or their products. The websites referred to in these materials existed at the time of going to print. Please check all website references carefully to see if they have changed and substitute other references where appropriate.

5 The National Strategies 1 Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Attendance in schools with pupils who have SEN, including special schools Transport Disagreements about provision The Children s Trust multi-agency services Serious, long-term and terminal illness Curricular provision Focus on teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluation 7 3. Absence data and reporting 8 4. Attendance strategy Areas for development Key points for improvement Target setting 12 Appendix 13 Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

6 2 The National Strategies 1. Introduction This guidance has been produced to support headteachers, governors, school and Children s Services attendance leaders and all personnel working with SEN pupils in special and mainstream schools. It is important to bear in mind that all schools include pupils who have SEN. The guidance is aimed at helping all schools to improve levels of attendance and reduce the number of pupils with SEN who have persistent absence. Data from the school census shows a disproportionate number of pupils with SEN and/or disabilities with persistent absence from school. This is the case in both mainstream and special schools. Chart 1 is an illustration of the extent of the challenge in mainstream schools. Chart 1. Pupils in mainstream schools who have persistent absence and SEN 100% 90% Percentage of pupils with persistent absence 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% Statement School Action Plus School Action No SEN 10% 0% Primary Secondary CTC Academy Type of mainstream school The School Census data in Chart 1 shows that 47% of primary and 42% of secondary persistent absentees are recorded as having SEN in This is more than double the rate observed across the school population, given that schools report that 20% of pupils have SEN. In producing this guidance we recognise that: there is a correlation between low income and the incidence of SEN; there is also a correlation between low income and poor attendance; some SEN, especially behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, manifest themselves through disaffection and poor attendance is one of the ways in which disaffection presents itself; some pupils with SEN may become disaffected because they are finding it difficult to achieve, despite support being put in place for them, so their attendance may deteriorate PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

7 The National Strategies 3 The above points, however, are a basis for schools and local authorities to consider ways to narrow the gap in attendance between pupils with SEN and their peers they are not reasons to excuse poor attendance. It is crucial that where poor attendance is identified, at both individual and school level, those working with the pupil(s) can demonstrate that: for individual pupils causing concern, their attendance is improving over time, albeit from a low base; practitioners are intervening early where a pupil with SEN is starting to attend less well than they used to. Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

8 4 The National Strategies 2. Attendance in schools with pupils who have SEN, including special schools Attendance strategies in special schools and for pupils with SEN in mainstream schools should have the same focus, challenge, stretching targets and expectations as for all other schools and pupils. This will entail developing and implementing ways of addressing particular challenges that can arise. A focus on school attendance for pupils with SEN entails schools and local authorities considering a number of issues that can help them plan actions to promote high attendance at both whole-school and individual-pupil level. These are summarised in the rest of this guidance. 2.1 Transport Pupils attending special schools (and sometimes designated units or resourced provision in mainstream schools) often travel outside their local area and transport is usually provided. This increases the reliability of the journey to school because this special transport generally includes onboard supervision, often referred to as escorts. Escorts can provide extra eyes and ears in monitoring pupils well-being and can support the promotion of attendance. Local authorities and schools should consider how their transport systems and staff could support the promotion of regular attendance. There are also disadvantages involved in providing special transport and education away from the local area. Occasionally, pupils are not ready for school transport when it arrives very occasionally this may be for reasons associated with particular SEN. If the transport is missed because a pupil is not punctual, there is often no alternative means of travel available to the parents, and the pupil misses the whole day rather than being slightly late. While it is a parent s responsibility to ensure that a pupil who misses the special transport gets to school, local authorities and schools should consider how they could support parents in circumstances associated with a pupil s SEN where punctuality is a challenge. An example of this would be where a pupil has epilepsy and experiences a seizure just prior to the transport arriving. The school, parents and local authority may need to consider the possibility of this and make additional plans to address it as part of the statement Disagreements about provision Sometimes, parents and local authority officers disagree about the nature of a pupil s SEN and how best to meet those needs. The disagreement is sometimes about the type of school and can result in a lengthy appeal process. During the period of the dispute and appeal, the pupil is entitled to full-time educational provision. If the parental dispute is specifically about the school placement, it is important that the local authority and the school at which the pupil is currently registered work with the parents to try to ensure that the pupil continues to attend their current school while the dispute is resolved, or until a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST: decision is received PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

9 The National Strategies 5 The statutory guidance supports the early resolution of disputes during transition between school phases ( Statements of SEN requiring a new school to be named as a pupil transfers to a different school must be issued before 15 February prior to the September of the transfer. This allows more than six months for the resolution of any dispute concerning school transfer. 2.3 The Children s Trust multi-agency services Pupils with SEN are more likely to require multi-agency services to address their full range of needs (see These services play a vital part in maintaining the well-being of the pupil, and are often essential to their educational progress and inclusion. As far as possible, these services should not be delivered as an alternative to their school curriculum, and should not impact on school attendance. Schools and local authorities are developing ways of delivering some multi-agency services on schools premises, which: through extended school services, use an inclusive approach where other services are delivered collaboratively alongside or as part of the curriculum; minimise disruption to the delivery of the curriculum; promote the personalised learning objectives for the pupil. A pupil may need to attend respite provision after school or overnight. Local authorities should appoint a named individual to coordinate: the transfer between school and respite care; the continuing professional development (CPD) of respite service practitioners to ensure regular school attendance is prioritised across agencies. All the agencies involved with the family of an SEN pupil, including the local authority, need to provide sensitive and coordinated support to families to ensure that parents and carers understand the importance of regular school attendance and have the capacity and confidence to put this into practice. It is important to remain aware that attendance can sometimes deteriorate because such issues as bullying at school or difficulties at home are adversely influencing a pupil s well-being. Where there are concerns about bullying, schools will wish to refer to the DCSF guidance Safe to Learn: embedding anti-bullying work in schools (available at and the supplementary guidance which focuses specifically on the bullying of pupils with SEN and disabilities ( Low levels of attendance could indicate difficult home circumstances and/or concerns about a safeguarding issue. Where this occurs, it is essential that early years settings, schools and/or local authority officers bring their concerns to the attention of the local authority s social care services as quickly as possible. It is important to provide regular training to ensure that all school staff are aware of safeguarding policies and procedures. All staff should be aware of and acting on paragraph of the Government s guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 1, which states that: Education staff have a crucial role to play in helping identify welfare concerns, and indicators of possible abuse or neglect, at an early stage. They should refer those concerns to the appropriate organisation, normally local authority children s social care, contributing to the assessment of a child s needs and, where appropriate, to ongoing action to meet those needs. When a child has special educational needs or is disabled, the school will have important information about the child s level of understanding and the most effective means of communicating with the child. The school will also be well placed to give a view on the impact of treatment or intervention on the child s care or behaviour. 1. HM Government (2006) Working Together to Safeguard Children: a guide to interagency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. London: The Stationery Office. Website: Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

10 6 The National Strategies 2.4 Serious, long-term and terminal illness Schools specialising in addressing the needs of pupils with physical and medical disabilities are most likely to experience the difficulties associated with serious and terminal illness. However, all schools may experience the challenges this brings. From time to time, most pupils experience short-term childhood illnesses, which prevent school attendance. A small minority of pupils may contract severe illness or, because of the nature of their disability, be susceptible to longer or more regular periods of illness. Where this is a known factor, all schools and local authorities should have proactive plans in place to ensure the continued education of the pupil, which are implemented each time a period of illness occurs. In such exceptional circumstances this may be delivered in the pupil s home or a hospice. Local authorities should provide their schools with guidance about how to record this off-site provision in terms of school attendance (see Guidance relating to the education of pupils with medical needs can be accessed via uk/_doc/4422/med.pdf. 2.5 Curricular provision Poor or deteriorating attendance can indicate that a pupil is not making good progress and is becoming disaffected from an environment where their feeling that they cannot succeed is being reinforced on a daily basis. It is important to consider whether different interventions or more appropriate curricular provision might re-engage the pupil, improving both attendance and progress. It is very important that where a pupil with SEN is not making good progress, despite additional or different support with their learning, consideration is given to whether more progress would be made if different arrangements were made to address the pupil s SEN. This might include giving consideration to some specialist teaching, or seeking the advice of other agencies through a move to School Action Plus (see For a pupil where interventions are being made at School Action Plus, continuing lack of progress might trigger a statutory assessment. Best practice is demonstrated where schools, in particular those specialising in meeting the needs of pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, effectively utilise the curriculum flexibilities available to ensure the curriculum is personalised and appropriate to their pupils SEN. Effective schools and local authorities work in partnership: to ensure the curriculum motivates pupils and is appropriate to meet their needs; to ensure they maintain the entitlement to a full-time educational placement; rigorously to record attendance in off-site arrangements and take appropriate action where attendance is poor. Guidance relating to curriculum flexibilities in relation to pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties can be found via the link below. The same weblink also provides guidance on improving pupils mental well-being while they are in school, together with a number of practical teaching and learning case studies PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

11 The National Strategies Focus on teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluation Schools should view poor attendance by pupils with SEN as a possible manifestation of their frustration at not making good progress, and consider how teaching and learning for these pupils might be improved in ways that enable them to: make more progress; have improved feelings of self-worth and of purposeful engagement with all the school has to offer. This should form part of the school s overall monitoring and evaluation of provision for pupils with SEN in particular, this should entail monitoring the impact of interventions on pupil progress, and considering which alternative interventions might have more impact, should insufficient progress be made with outcomes or attendance. Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

12 8 The National Strategies 3. Absence data and reporting All schools, including special schools, should be working to eradicate all avoidable absences and to maximise pupils attendance. All schools, including special schools, are required to return absence data via the annual School Census. Schools should aim for and expect high levels of attendance. Some smaller special schools have low numbers of pupils, and consequently the absence of one pupil may have a higher impact on the overall percentage of absence. Therefore, schools and local authorities need to judge absence data not only by percentage but also by pupil numbers. It is important to look for trends in absence as part of self-evaluation (see Internet/menuitem b c4828a0d8308c08a0c/?vgnextoid=ea59699bd3c21110VgnVCM aRCRD). The questions schools might ask themselves include the following. Are attendance rates for pupils with SEN improving year on year, proportionate to those for all other pupils? Are the attendance rates of individual pupils improving? If not, what is the impact on progress and attainment, and what plan of action is in place to address attendance issues? If either attendance or attainment is not improving, what does the school s monitoring and evaluation of interventions indicate about the changes needed to the provision being made for the pupil? The overall absence rate for special schools in recorded in the School Census was 10.62%, showing an increase in absence of 0.03 percentage points since (10.59%). During the same period, rates of absence in primary schools fell to 5.18% (from 5.76%) and absence also fell to 7.86% in secondary schools (8.24% in ). Persistent absence is defined as the percentage of pupil enrolments that have accumulated a threshold number of sessions of absence over the period; the annual threshold is 64 sessions. So any pupil with 64 or more sessions of absence (for any reason) is designated a persistent absentee. This threshold typically represents 20% of the available sessions. Persistent absence takes account of all absence, whether authorised or unauthorised. Persistent absence can be a key indicator that the pupil is vulnerable and needs support to enable them to access their educational opportunities. Persistent absence can, in itself, also contribute to making the pupil more vulnerable PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

13 The National Strategies 9 Attendance data by type of special school (as reported by headteachers through the School Census) are shown in Table 1 (below). Table 1. School Census data Type of special school (SN 1) Overall absence Pupils with persistent absence Cognitive 9.26% 9.1% Sensory/Medical 9.69% 9.4% Social/Emotional 19.74% 27.8% Communication 8.54% 7.4% Unclassified 9.78% 10.3% Multiple 10.50% 11.4% Reasons for absence across all special schools are shown in Chart 2 (Appendix). The main reasons are: illness (not medical or dental appointments) 3.83%; other authorised circumstances 1.79%; unauthorised absence not covered by another code 2.07%; medical or dental appointments 1.08%. The chart also shows comparative data for all schools. Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

14 10 The National Strategies 4. Attendance strategy Schools need a range of strategies in place to encourage good attendance. A range of support materials for use by all primary, secondary and special schools and pupil referral units is available at the following websites: Search for Improving attendance and reducing persistent absence Areas for development A survey undertaken by the National Strategies with local authority attendance leaders at National Strategies regional network meetings (May 2008) highlighted areas of development that may assist some special schools to address attendance. These included: ensuring registration and recording systems are efficient and accurate; sensitively tackling condoned absence with parents and pupils; having a rigorous system to address attendance concerns, which includes an escalation of school interventions coupled with agreed supportive responses from children s services which would reflect fast track to attendance timescales. 4.2 Key points for improvement In order to improve the attendance of pupils with SEN, all schools, including special schools, and local authorities are advised to consider the following 12 key points The school should compile an attendance strategy, agreed with governors and parents, which will assist the school to address absence and improve attendance. This should convey high expectations with regard to attendance for all pupils. Schools should analyse their absence data to identify any areas of concern where there are high levels of absence linked to a specific reason. A data spreadsheet is available which will enable schools to undertake this task (see Search for Improving attendance and reducing persistent absence and visit Chapter 11). Schools will find that this analysis will enable them to plan to address areas of concern identified by reasons for absence. All schools should have an attendance leader who is a member of the school senior management team (see Search for Improving attendance and reducing persistent absence and visit Chapter 3) Roles and responsibilities for attendance need to be clear, specific and adhered to by all teaching and non-teaching staff, as this provides consistency of practice. There should be a clear attendance policy, with an escalation of intervention ranging from first day contact to contact with pupils, parents and carers and, if necessary, referral to other agencies. Schools should ensure they have strategies in place to address high levels of absence that have occurred through illness. This should include clear actions to be taken by specific members of staff to work with parents and pupils where absence through illness appears to be inappropriately high. Schools may find it useful to consider medical attendance panels as a way of addressing absence. Schools should have clear procedures to help pupils to catch up with any missed work when they return to school PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

15 The National Strategies Pupils with SEN may require a higher proportion of medical appointments as a result of their particular needs. Schools should consider ways of making parents, GPs and other health workers aware of the fact that appointments should be made out of school time wherever possible. Schools may find it useful to work in partnership with health colleagues in order to promote clinics on school premises. Code C other authorised circumstances should be used sparingly for issues such as family funerals. Schools need to ensure they are explicit in addressing condoned absence and do not use code C for any excuse or reason that a parent gives which should, in fact, be challenged by the school (see also the guidance on the national attendance and absence codes at Where there are high levels of unauthorised absence, schools should work with the local authority to devise a strategy to use a range of interventions and sanctions to address this within the school. Actions need to be taken at an early stage to prevent pupils with unauthorised absence becoming pupils with persistent absence. The majority of pupils in special schools have statements of SEN that must be reviewed at least annually. Other mainstream schools also have pupils with statements of SEN. Attendance should be considered formally as part of the annual review process as well as on an ongoing basis. 10. As in paragraphs 2.5 and 2.6, schools should view poor attendance as a possible manifestation of pupils frustration at not having their SEN met, and not making, or feeling that they are not making, good progress. When undertaking a review and when plans are being made for the pupil, the school, parent or carer and, where appropriate, the pupil, should consider the impact on progress and the actions needed to improve attendance. 11. In effective schools and local authorities, the attendance record of the pupil forms an integral part of the review process. The headteacher presents the pupil s attendance data at the annual review meeting and raises any challenges in relation to regular attendance, which can then be discussed at the meeting. This ensures that all those involved with the pupil s education are able to plan to remove any barriers to regular school attendance during the following year. In effective local authorities the attendance record of a pupil is a key element of information required during special educational assessment and review processes. Further guidance relating to the SEN Code of Practice 2001 and assessment and review processes can be found via the following link. Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

16 12 The National Strategies 5. Target setting The Education (School Attendance Targets) (England) Regulations 2007 (No. 2261) require the governing bodies of all local authority maintained schools (other than those in hospital settings) to set an annual overall absence target ( Year=2007&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&TYPE=QS& NavFrom=0&activeTextDocId= &PageNumber=2&SortAlpha=0). The annual overall absence target is the total number of absences expected in the school year, expressed as a percentage of the total possible attendances by pupils at the school, and needs to be agreed and sent to the local authority by 31 December of the preceding year. When calculating the improvements the school wants to make, the school should work out the number of sessions the schools thinks would provide a realistic challenge for reduction in absence. Guidance on target setting for local authorities and schools can be found at the Standards Site publications list ( In addition, Table 3 (Appendix) shows the median overall absence rates for each type of special school, using data for Special schools should aim to set a target which equates to the Free School Meal (FSM) quintile for primary or secondary schools, depending on the phase (see Tables 4 and 5 in the Appendix). Special schools who have both primary and secondary pupils on roll will need to consider this when setting targets. It is recognised that this level of expectation may present a challenge to some schools, as they may have substantial improvements to make. However, schools should use the School Framework (see and search using the ref DWO-EN-01) to determine areas for development, and draw up an action plan with a clear time frame in which attendance will improve and persistent absence levels will be reduced. Where attendance has previously been an issue for a pupil the school should be able to demonstrate that attendance is improving over time at the specialist provision, unless there is a medical reason why this should not be so. Schools may also find it helpful to agree individual pupil targets for attendance with pupils, parents and carers. Overall absence targets should never be set at a higher level than that recorded in the school s most recent annual data. Where schools have higher than national average levels of absence for specific groups of pupils in similar schools, the Secretary of State can require the schools to set targets to reduce absence in that specific group. While there is no statutory obligation on a school to set persistent absence targets, each school should have a clear profile of the number of pupils with persistent absence and the issues that are contributing to that absence, with agreed actions to address the problem PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

17 The National Strategies 13 Appendix: Additional charts/ tables relating to attendance and pupils with SEN Schools should use the data to : consider the current position of their school and current targets; consider the steps needed to work towards the 25th quintile. Chart 2. Reasons for absence across all special schools % Percentage of sessions missed due to absence 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% Religious observance Traveller absence Family holiday not agreed Agreed extended family holiday Arrived late Study leave Unclassified, unauthorised Unauthorised, no reason yet Excluded, no alternative provision Agreed family holiday Unclassified, authorised Medical/Dental appointments Other unauthorised Other authorised circumstances Illness (not medical or dental) 0% Special schools All schools Chart 3. Reasons for absence shown by type of special school Percentage of sessions missed due to absence Religious observance Traveller absence Family holiday not agreed Agreed extended family holiday Arrived late Study leave Unclassified, unauthorised Unauthorised, no reason yet Excluded, no alternative provision Agreed family holiday Unclassified, authorised Medical/Dental appointments Other unauthorised Other authorised circumstances Illness (not medical or dental) 0 All schools Cognition SN1 Sensory/Medical Social and emotional Communication Schools Schools with two schools SN1 schools SN1 schools SN1 schools unclassified by SN1 or more SN1 categories Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

18 14 The National Strategies Table 2. Main reasons for absence by type of school Cognition National primary National secondary National all schools Illness 3.99% 3.04% 3.93% 3.47% Other authorised circumstances Medical or dental appointments 1.41% 0.34% 0.74% 0.54% 1.09% 0.32% 0.51% 0.42% Sensory/ Medical Illness 4.40% 3.04% 3.93% 3.47% Medical or dental appointments Other authorised circumstances 1.33% 0.32% 0.51% 0.42% 1.10% 0.34% 0.74% 0.54% Social/ Emotional Unauthorised absence (not covered by other code) Other authorised circumstances 6.94% 0.26% 0.87% 0.56% 5.07% 0.34% 0.74% 0.54% Illness 2.91% 3.04% 3.93% 3.47% Excluded (no alternative provision) 1.72% 0.02% 0.24% 0.13% Communication Illness 3.73% 3.04% 3.93% 3.47% Other authorised circumstances Medical or dental appointments 1.13% 0.34% 0.74% 0.54% 1.05% 0.32% 0.51% 0.42% PDF-EN-01 Crown copyright 2009

19 The National Strategies 15 Cognition National primary National secondary National all schools Unclassified (SN1) Illness 3.84% 3.04% 3.93% 3.47% Other authorised circumstances Unauthorised absence (not covered by other code) Medical or dental appointments 1.66% 0.34% 0.74% 0.54% 1.17% 0.26% 0.87% 0.56% 1.11% 0.32% 0.51% 0.42% Table 3. Median overall absence rates for each type of special school in th percentile Median 75 th percentile Cognition Sensory/Medical Social/Emotional Communication Unclassified Multiple SN Crown copyright PDF-EN-01

20 Table 4. Mainstream primary schools; absence by FSM level for benchmarking % FSM % Overall Absence % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper

21 Table 5. Mainstream secondary schools; absence by FSM level for benchmarking % FSM % Overall Absence % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued % FSM continued % Overall Absence continued Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper Rounded to nearest whole number Lower Median Upper

22 Audience: All schools, governors and Children s Services Date of issue: Ref: PDF-EN-01 Copies of this publication may be available from: You can download this publication and obtain further information at: Copies of this publication may be available from: DCSF Publications PO Box 5050 Sherwood Park Annesley Nottingham NG15 ODJ Tel Fax Textphone dcsf@prolog.uk.com Crown copyright 2009 Published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families Extracts from this document may be reproduced for non-commercial research, education or training purposes on the condition that the source is acknowledged as Crown copyright, the publication title is specified, it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The permission to reproduce Crown copyright protected material does not extend to any material in this publication which is identified as being the copyright of a third party. For any other use please contact licensing@opsi.gov.uk 80% This publication is printed on 80% recycled paper When you have finished with this publication please recycle it