To receive a report from the Director for Education Standards, Quality, and Performance.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance opened by recognising guidance published by the Department for Education (DfE) in May 2022, which was labelled ‘Working together to improve school attendance’. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance highlighted that this was currently non-statutory, however, the Secretary of State had committed to making it statutory. The Committee were informed that this guidance had been established to define the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders to maintain high levels of attendance. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance spoke of the high amount of work ongoing within Trafford around this, particularly, discussions looking at Trafford’s strategies regarding the DfE’s guidance. She highlighted that Trafford, overall, are proud of their attendance data, with this being one of the highest in the country, a positive highlighted also by the DfE and Ofsted. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance referred the Committee to latest published data, which had been included within the report provided. She hoped this highlighted the strong picture for children with SEND, but that there was possibly more work to be done in the secondary sector.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance also highlighted the data around the impacts of poor attendance, and how bad this could be for results. The Council was being clear that this was everybody’s business, with schools and partners encourage to work with rather than against families.

The Committee were informed that officers had established a model draft attendance policy aimed at getting consistency across the borough, on request of schools, with guidance also produced to enhance the culture around attendance in schools.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance referred the Committee to the report and its inclusion of Emotionally Based School non-attendance (EBSNA), informing the Committee that they were acutely aware of this issue, especially post-pandemic. The guidance toolkit produced on this had been done by Trafford’s Educational Psychologist (EP), who had led with working with colleagues across Greater Manchester (GM) to develop a toolkit that explains the factors on attendance difficulties.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance spoke of the work of the virtual school, with the Head of the Virtual School aware that attendance for cared for children was a concern and had a clear priority around improving school attendance for vulnerable cohorts.

One of the expectations from the guidance produced by DfE was to hold targeting support networks on a termly basis for every school. The work on this had begun with a RAG rating in place to work with those red schools as a priority.

The Chair thanked the Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance for the report and asked if the Committee had any questions.

Councillor Sutton asked about persistent absence being a potential early sign of safeguarding issues. He felt that there needed to be a more specific inclusion of the statutory need to consider safeguarding issues.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance recognised that attendance was a protective factor for some vulnerable young people. She informed Councillor Sutton that the Head of the Virtual School had greater oversight for children who were potentially in need of child protection. She did say that there were panel meetings happening every week, which was a multi-agency approach to consider the circumstances behind absence.

The Public Absence Team Leader came in and informed the Committee that there was a lot of multi-agencies work ongoing, and that it was imperative that the Council addresses persistent absence as it could be a massive safeguarding concern.

The Head of Early Years and Family Help spoke of how persistent absence was a concern, and keeping children safe was a priority. She spoke of the importance of early intervention and prevention, and not waiting for it to get as low as 50% attendance. The Committee were informed that the Head of Early Years and Family Help manages the Trafford Team Together (TTT) service, which had a huge commitment to a family help offer that invites schools to speak about the children they have the greatest concern about, at the earliest opportunity. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance finished by saying that there were clear expectations that if a child was absent from school, they should be contacting families.

Councillor Ennis recognised the good data for absence in Trafford but felt that the issue was so bad across the country, it should remain an issue. He mentioned that persistent school absence was trending upwards rather than down in Trafford but welcomed the work on early intervention. His first question was if there were specific days of the week that come up more often.  He asked how school absence data compares from year groups that started primary school before the pandemic, compared to those who started during the Covid years. He asked what was being done to bring down the high rates of children with an EHC Plan missing an alarming amount of school. His final question asked how many children with EHC plan were currently without a school place.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance started by providing assurance that just because Trafford was very high nationally, that they will not become complacent. On the data around children with EHC plans, the Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance spoke that the Council was clear at targeting those schools having the greatest impact on overall attendance data. She provided the example of how at one SEND school, they were having a problem with attendance since covid and that this was now becoming entrenched. To counteract these issues some offsite placements had been created, to manage some of the barriers that these young people have to return to former attendance.

The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children noted that the attendance data for 2022/23 was indicative and was not fully verified as of yet. She shared the most recent data, with rates of persistent absence rates down 2.8%, significantly better than the national rate. The most significant improvement was in the secondary sector rates, with a decrease of 4.1%, with rates for children with EHC Plans also being shared.

Regarding Councillor Ennis’ questions on year groups and days of the week, data would be provided outside of the meeting. The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children shared that absence per year increases year on year from reception up to year eleven. The Public Absence Team Leader added that historically Mondays and Fridays have been the worst, however, moving forward, the Council was now data rich in this regard and could look at this in more detail moving forward. There had also been an increase in leave of absence in term times.

Councillor Paul raised concern around the procedure if a child was not attending due to bullying, and what was being done around this issue. She also asked what Councillors could do when this was raised by constituents.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance responded that the Council probably does not hold this level of detail, but that it would play into the work around EBSNA, as this was something that often comes up through the EBSNA toolkit. The Head of Early Years and Family Help mentioned that it was something that was picked up in the TTT approach and came up more in the south of the borough. The strength of the TTT approach, was the ability to capture child and young person approach in working alongside them. The Public Absence Team Leader responded that parents contact the pupil absence team directly, and work was then done to address those issues. The Public Absence Team Leader was asked to provide the contact details for this team.

The Chair asked if the higher levels in the south of the borough came back to inequalities with greater access to social media. The Head of Early Years and Family Help felt that this was an important point and thought that the bee well survey, and its results would be interesting as it aims to capture the young person’s voice.

Councillor Parker mentioned the suggestion in the report that it was 3x more likely for looked after children to be persistently absent, and wanted to know what could be done to make sure support did not reduce as the Council comes under greater financial pressure. Councillor Parker also raised that she was conscious that the responses had been taken from the TTT model, but that this had not been fully rolled out across the borough, so questioned what was filling the gap.

The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance said that attendance of cared for children was of a concern, with a lot of analysis going into the reasons for that. She spoke highly of the virtual school and its rich resource to manage the needs of looked after or cared for children. However, multi-agency discussions and panels were taking place to look at that issue.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services also spoke highly of the well-resourced virtual school and mentioned a deep dive that had come to the most recent corporate parenting board, around education of cared for children. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services also informed the Committee of the annual bridge conference that had been established, which looked at building a bridge between the work done by the Virtual School and the Council’s children social care services. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services said that she would share the virtual school annual report. Councillor Parker asked if the data in the annual report included the number of cared for children who went onto higher education. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services responded that it does, and the Council has good numbers for this.

The Head of Early Years and Family Help responded that TTT was not yet in central Trafford, but assured Councillor Parker that the Early Help Panel was in place in this area, which SEND assessment had praised. However, she assured that the Council was committed to the TTT approach.

Councillor Bennett felt that officers should not underestimate the impact this has on parents. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance said that it was heart-breaking to hear some of the stories, with the educational psychology service providing webinars to parents to offer advice, guidance and support. The Public Absence Team Leader agreed that support for parents and families was key, and that building relationships with parents was really key when supporting problems with school attendance.

Councillor Procter spoke of her love for data but wanted more in-depth detail. This included the causes of absence, whether it varied geographically, and felt that the Council was doing what it could but felt that more could have been done. The  responded that this was certainly something that could be taken away and said that the North was where the highest levels of absence were seen. She mentioned that as more data came to light on geographical imbalances, a report could be brought in the future. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services spoke of improved engagement with foster carers, providing greater ability to support and challenge carers in an appropriate way. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance added that there was also a foster carer representative on the Virtual School Board.

Councillor Deakin asked about the psychology service and the take up of this was. The Head of Education Places, Access and Vulnerable Children responded that the take up was at 85%. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance spoke of EBSNA steering groups which had been set up, which had parents, partners, and schools on. The Head of Early Years and Family Help added that it was a toolkit which was rolled out to schools, and as part of the TTT approach, when children were in year five, schools were being asked to have a focus on EBSNA, as this was of greater concern when children move to bigger secondary schools.

Councillor Duncan asked if it would be possible to have a breakdown of absence data, per school and per ward. The Director of Education Standards, Quality, and Performance responded that this could be provided.

Councillor Sutton asked if that within the model attendance policy, reward for children on attendance could be stopped, as this created a stigma for children with chronic health conditions. The Public Absence Team Leader responded that this could be added and that these discussions are being had with schools.

The Chair thanked the officers for the report.

            RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That Councillor Ennis be provided with further data on his question around increased non-attendance on specific days of the week.

3)    That the Public Absence Team Leader provide Councillors with the contact details of the pupil absence team.

4)    That the Corporate Director for Children’s Services share the virtual school annual report with Councillors.

5)    That the Director of Education Standard, Quality, and Performance share with Councillors the data of school absences per ward, and per school after the meeting.