Agenda item

7.1

The Deputy Executive Director, Children Young People and Families, submitted a report providing an update on the “Every Child in Education Every Day” strand of work which was ensuring that the Council were regularly addressing the key issues relating to behaviour and attendance across the City, at both an operational and strategic level. The report also highlighted the relationship between current policy in relation to the number of exclusions across the City and the function of Sheffield’s Pupil Referral Unit which was named “The Sheffield Inclusion Centre”.

7.2

Attending for this item was Alena Prentice, Assistant Director, Inclusion and Learning Services.

7.3

Members asked a number of questions and officers responded as follows:-

·        The Attendance Strategy was now published on the Council’s website and a report would be submitted to Cabinet in due course.

·        Many of those pupils included in the number of pupils referred to the Pupil Referral Unit had undertaken a Vocational Skills Programme from between 1-3 days and were doing the work as part of a package of core skills outside of school. The programme was subject to its own quality assurance and attendance monitoring.

·        In relation to academies, the Council’s role was being an advocate and champion for all young people. Where it was suspected that the Council needed to intervene, the issue could be referred to the Education Funding Agency.

·        The role of governors was key and they needed to be provided with the tools to challenge the effectiveness of schools. The Local Authority needed to provide further training and information for governors to enable them to handle challenging behaviour and monitor attendance levels.

·        There had often been an over reliance on the use of supported transfers through the pupil referral unit. Variable practice existed across the City and it was important to share good practice where appropriate.

·        There was a correlation between poor attendance levels at the foundation stage and challenging behaviour at Key Stage 4 level.

·        A child’s attendance at school was primarily the role of the parent. It was important for the Local Authority to engage with parents on this issue and to remind parents of their responsibilities. Schools also had a proactive role and the first key point in the attendance strategy was the school’s own management of attendance.

·        When the school’s attempts to resolve problems with a pupil’s attendance level had reached an end the engagement of multi-agency teams was crucial and they needed to look at the issue from a whole household approach.

·        The role of the Local Authority was to target support for schools and to ensure schools were setting targets for attendance.

·        The issue of whether a pupil’s absence was authorised or unauthorised was for the school to determine.

·        Absence due to religious absence was currently recorded as authorised, but it was felt that this should be marked as not required to attend as it was with Christian holidays.

·        There was a strong presumption against taking holidays in term time. However, it was the school’s decision whether to mark such holidays as authorised and it was important to consider the context of the pupil when reaching a decision on this.

·        The reason for at least 2/3 of absences was due to illness. However, the most serious category was persistent absence. There had been a high level of school to school transfers which needed to be addressed and the school had a role in this by effectively engaging with the parent.

·        A triage process had been established, which worked as an internal filtering process to look at each individual case and establish whether the parent had agreed the transfer. The parent would be contacted to establish the rationale for the transfer. It was important to minimise the level of disruption for pupils at this stage.

·        The role of the pupil premium was to support educational outcomes and uses such as to pay for transport for a child unable to afford bus fares were acceptable. There had been an increasing scrutiny of schools to account for how they spent the pupil premium.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a) notes and endorses the Every Child in Education Every Day strategic work and its commitment to raising standards across the City by focussing on access to appropriate action for some of its most vulnerable groups of children;

(b) supports the establishment of the Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships; and

(c) requests that the guidance on authorised and unauthorised absences be circulated to Members of the Committee.