Agenda item

Members considered a range of documents outlining how other Local Authorities were tackling the issue of persistent absenteeism.

Buckinghamshire County Council and the London Borough of Camden were undertaking similar reviews on this topic. It would be good to see the progress of their reviews and to make comparisons to the current review.

Some other local authorities were considering the geographical context. It would be good to incorporate this into the current review. It would also be important to consider cultural aspects, for example if absences occurred at specific times of the year.

The Camden Chatty Newsletter was praised.

Having an internal officer present at the Committee may have been useful to help steer through what Hillingdon was already doing in comparison to other local authorities.

It was noted that Buckinghamshire County Council had asked central government for additional resources.

Harrow Council’s School Attendance Intervention Model’s (AIM) approach to ‘Demonstrating a strong attendance ethos’, and the graph of ‘guidance for schools on when a child is absent from school’ were commended. The Intervention Model was commended as a helpful document that applied borough-wide so that schools did not have to do their own thing.

Schools were crucial to tackling absenteeism, and engaging with them would be an important part of this review.

It would be useful to break down absenteeism into those young people who want to attend school but cannot, due to health or religious reasons for example, and those who did not want to attend.

It was suggested that information on the Hillingdon website could be presented in a more accessible way for families who were multi-lingual. Suggestions for further signposting were noted.

Reference was made to the Attendance mentors programme, and it was suggested that this could be rolled out in Hillingdon.

Reference was also made to the Hillingdon LEAP website, which had lots of information for schools and parents. 

It was suggested that the Committee could hold a witness session with officers from the Participation Team.

A suggestion was made about implementing a Council slogan around promoting attendance and the importance of attendance.

It was highlighted that attendance was not a single number, but a result of a multitude of difference causes. It was highlighted that those needing the largest levels of intervention would require the most resources, and questions had to be raised of where these resources would come from.

A focus on prevention was needed within the review in addition to looking at the causes of absenteeism. Therefore, schools had a big part to play as they were more likely to know the causes of absenteeism.

A suggestion was made to get the Youth Council involved in the review, whether as participants in a witness session, or as observers at a session. It was noted that the Youth Council was currently being re-elected, and so engagement in the review would need to wait until after new members had been inducted.

Further on engagement with young people, it was noted that those that the Committee would most want to engage with were those who were less engaged int school, which could be difficult.

Further to this, it was suggested that employing different methods of engaging with young people may enable easier engagement, and this may include 1-2-1 sessions, virtual sessions or questionnaires. This could be extended to the parents/ carers. Making the sessions as informal as possible would further aid in this.

Discussions around attendees at future witness sessions was ongoing.

The Committee asked if it would be possible to get some geographical and cultural data ahead of the next meeting. It was noted that this would help in formulating the review and in making recommendations.

It was suggested this this review may not follow the timetable of other major reviews, given that the topic was being reviewed by central government.

RESOLVED: That the Children, Families and Education Select Committee reviewed the attached information with a view to forming suggestions for how Hillingdon can continue to tackle the issue of persistent absenteeism.