National Attendance Portal · Wider Professionals & System Leaders
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PUBLIC HEALTH · SYSTEM LEADERSHIP · ATTENDANCE

Attendance is a public health issue.

A premium working hub for the people around schools: local authorities, health, social care, safeguarding partners, commissioners, housing, youth justice and the voluntary sector. Use it to connect attendance data with health, vulnerability, inclusion and early help — and turn fragmented responses into a shared system plan.

Core principle: persistent absence is often a signal of wider need. The system response should ask not only “why is this pupil absent?” but also “what is happening in the child’s health, family, community and access to services?”
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A premium system-leadership resource, not just a reading pageInteractive assurance tools, practical prompts, statutory reminders and a curated official evidence library in one place.
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Why this sits beyond schools

Reframe attendance as a population and wellbeing issue

Attendance should remain an education priority, but the causes of absence frequently cross service boundaries. A public-health approach combines population intelligence, prevention, early identification, targeted support and specialist intervention.

Premium system lens

Start with the signal, then look upstream

“What is driving absence in this population — and what can the wider system change?”
HealthLong-term conditions, pain, sleep, mental health, neurodevelopment, access to treatment.
Family & communityHousing, transport, poverty, caring responsibilities, safety, family stress.
Education experienceBelonging, SEND support, bullying, curriculum access, relationships, exclusions.
System frictionThresholds, waiting lists, unclear ownership, repeated assessments, poor information flow.
England · statutory reminder

Local authority responsibilities: the essentials

This is a concise assurance reminder, not legal advice. It separates attendance-support expectations from specific legal duties so system leaders can see where responsibility sits.

Important: these summaries apply to England and should be checked against current statutory guidance and legislation before making case decisions. “Must” indicates a legal requirement in the source guidance; “expected to” reflects statutory guidance expectations.
Statutory guidance

1. Strategic attendance leadership

Local authorities are expected to use local attendance data to identify priorities, cohorts and schools requiring support and to address area-wide barriers.

  • Track patterns and inequalities.
  • Set a strategic approach.
  • Use data to target support.
  • Promote shared ownership with partners.
Working Together to Improve School Attendance ↗
Core free offer

2. School Attendance Support Team

Every local authority is expected to provide core attendance support functions free of charge to all schools, regardless of type.

  • Communication and advice.
  • Targeting Support Meetings.
  • Multi-disciplinary family support.
  • Legal intervention where appropriate.
See current DfE expectations ↗
Section 436A

3. Children missing education

Local authorities have a legal duty to make arrangements to identify, so far as possible, compulsory-school-age children who are not registered at school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise.

  • Robust referral and tracking systems.
  • Reasonable enquiries.
  • Cross-agency information sharing.
  • Support into suitable education.
Children Missing Education guidance ↗
Section 19

4. Suitable education when school is not accessible

Where a child of compulsory school age would otherwise not receive suitable education because of illness, exclusion or other reasons, the local authority has a duty to arrange suitable education.

  • Includes physical and mental health needs.
  • Normally full-time unless that is not in the child’s best interests.
  • Applies whether or not the child is on a school roll.
  • Requires coordination and reintegration planning.
Health-needs / Section 19 guidance ↗
Legal intervention

5. Enforcement and formal routes

Where support has not succeeded, is not engaged with or is not appropriate, local authorities may need to use statutory attendance interventions in line with law and guidance.

  • School Attendance Orders where relevant.
  • Penalty notices / prosecution in appropriate cases.
  • Education Supervision Orders.
  • Support-first and proportionate decision-making.
Attendance legal intervention guidance ↗
Vulnerable cohorts

6. Social care, exclusion & access

Local authorities have additional duties and strategic responsibilities that intersect directly with attendance, including education for excluded pupils, admissions/fair access and support for vulnerable cohorts.

  • Sixth-day education following permanent exclusion.
  • Fair Access Protocol responsibilities.
  • Virtual School leadership for relevant cohorts.
  • SEND and safeguarding duties remain in force.
Suspension & exclusion guidance ↗
Premium operating model

A four-tier public-health attendance model

Use this as a commissioning and partnership lens. The goal is to avoid a system that only acts when a child has already become severely absent.

1

Population prevention

Use neighbourhood and cohort data, school nursing, family hubs, transport, housing and community assets to reduce predictable barriers before absence escalates.

2

Early identification

Combine school attendance signals with health, SEND, safeguarding and family context. Create rapid access to advice before thresholds become barriers.

3

Targeted multi-agency support

One plan, named lead, family voice, child voice, shared outcomes, clear review date. Avoid parallel plans that do not speak to each other.

4

Specialist / statutory response

Use specialist health, social care, SEND, alternative provision or legal routes when needed — while maintaining an education plan and active review.

Who should do what?

Attendance through different professional lenses

These prompts help partners identify the contribution they can make without turning every attendance concern into an education-only referral.

Health & ICB leaders

Ask whether pathways, waiting times, clinic scheduling, communication and reasonable adjustments are unintentionally creating barriers to education.

System question: is attendance visible in child-health commissioning?

School nursing / public health

Use attendance as a wellbeing signal, support early assessment and connect children to universal, targeted and specialist health support.

System question: which cohorts show both health inequality and absence?

Children’s social care

Make education attendance and engagement explicit within assessment and planning, recognising school as both an entitlement and a potential protective factor.

System question: is attendance owned in family plans?

Housing & homelessness

Identify disruption caused by temporary accommodation, moves, travel distances, overcrowding and instability; ensure rapid education information sharing.

System question: do housing moves trigger an education continuity check?

Youth justice & community safety

Link education engagement with exploitation, offending, contextual safeguarding and prevention work. Avoid disconnected plans.

System question: is education re-engagement part of risk reduction?

VCSE & family support

Bring trusted relationships, practical support and community intelligence into plans. Surface barriers families may not disclose to statutory services.

System question: are community partners designed into the pathway?
Connected practice · wider professionals + education

Move from referral to shared action with education professionals

Wider services are most effective when their action connects directly with the school, trust or college plan. These verified National Attendance Portal routes take you into live education-professional hubs and tools that can be used alongside health, social care, public-health, safeguarding and local-authority work.

LIVE PORTAL HUB

Primary & Secondary School Hub

Practical school tools, templates, training and strategic resources for tutors, attendance teams, senior leaders and governors.

Open School Hub ↗ LIVE PORTAL HUB

MAT, Trust & Governance Hub

Connect system-level partnership work with trust leadership, governance, comparative intelligence and attendance assurance.

Open Leadership Hub ↗ LIVE PORTAL HUB

Further Education & Post-16 Hub

Link attendance with participation, engagement, retention, transition, course fit and learner support.

Open FE/Post-16 Hub ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Attendance Case Conference Generator

Build one evidence-led multi-agency record with chronology, pupil/family voice, interventions, agency roles, actions and review.

Open case conference tool ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Attendance Barrier Identifier

Explore underlying barriers before deciding which school, health, family or wider-service response is most appropriate.

Open barrier tool ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Six-Week Attendance Support Plan

Turn assessment into a time-limited plan with named actions, review points and evidence of whether support is working.

Open six-week plan ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Vulnerable Pupil Attendance Checker

Bring SEND, safeguarding, disadvantage and other vulnerabilities into attendance review rather than treating them as separate issues.

Open vulnerable-pupil checker ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Challenging Attendance Conversation Coach

Support respectful, evidence-led conversations with families where attendance concerns are complex or contested.

Open conversation coach ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Attendance Letter Quality Checker

Test whether written communication is clear, supportive, proportionate and likely to strengthen family engagement.

Open letter checker ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Ofsted 2026/27 Attendance & Inclusion Readiness

See how school evidence on attendance, inclusion, vulnerable pupils and impact is being organised for leadership assurance.

Open readiness report ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Attendance Intervention Impact Engine

Move beyond counting activity and test whether interventions are producing meaningful change in attendance and access.

Open impact engine ↗ LIVE EDUCATION TOOL

Attendance Leadership, Trusts & Governance

Use the live leadership evaluation to connect wider-system action with organisational accountability and governance challenge.

Open leadership evaluation ↗
Link assurance: every link in this section was opened and checked as live on 21 August 2026. No blank, placeholder or # destination is used for these external resources.
Premium content · practical tools

System leadership toolkit

These tools work directly on the page. Use them in a partnership meeting, local-authority review, commissioning discussion or leadership session.

Premium tool 1

Whole-system attendance diagnostic

Score eight domains. The tool gives an instant maturity result and priority prompt.

1. Shared strategy: attendance is owned beyond education.
2. Data: attendance is analysed with health and inequality indicators.
3. Early help: there is a rapid route before absence becomes severe.
4. Health: health-related absence has a clear multi-agency pathway.
5. SEND / inclusion: needs are assessed rather than treated as non-compliance.
6. Casework: families experience one coordinated plan and review cycle.
7. Statutory assurance: Section 19, CME and attendance duties are routinely quality assured.
8. Governance: senior partnerships review impact, not just activity.
Premium tool 2

Local authority statutory assurance check

Use as a senior-leader spot check. Tick only where you can point to current evidence.

Premium tool 3

Multi-agency attendance case conference builder

Create a concise agenda and action frame that keeps the child, barriers and ownership at the centre.

Premium tool 4

90-day system action plan builder

Turn a partnership discussion into three measurable priorities rather than a long action list.

Premium tool 5

Health-related absence decision pathway

Use these prompts to prevent children with physical or mental health needs getting lost between school, NHS and local-authority thresholds.

1. Is the child receiving suitable education now?
If no — or if access is becoming materially inadequate — establish who is responsible for securing education and whether Section 19 considerations are engaged. Do not allow health referrals to replace an education plan.
2. Can the child attend with adjustments or a supported plan?
Consider medical-condition support, SEND duties, reasonable adjustments, phased or adapted approaches where appropriate, and a clear reintegration goal.
3. Is mental health affecting attendance?
Use the DfE mental-health-and-attendance guidance. Agree what the school can do, what health services can do, what the family needs, and how attendance will be supported during treatment or waiting periods.
4. Is there multi-agency drift?
Check whether multiple services are “waiting for” each other. Name one lead, define the immediate education offer, set a review date and record escalation if the child remains without suitable education.
5. Does the current plan reflect the child’s voice?
Ask what makes attendance harder, what makes it more possible, which relationships matter, and what a tolerable next step looks like. Avoid plans built only from professional assumptions.
Premium tool 6

Partnership gap finder

Tick the links that are genuinely operational in your area — not just represented on an organisation chart.

Premium tool 7

Public-health attendance scorecard

For a quarterly partnership meeting, bring a small set of indicators rather than dozens of disconnected measures.

Premium tool 8

System escalation test: five questions

Use when a case has been discussed repeatedly but the child’s education has not improved.

  1. Entitlement: is the child receiving suitable education now?
  2. Ownership: which named person or agency owns the next action?
  3. Barrier: are we addressing the real cause or only the attendance symptom?
  4. Timescale: what changes before the next review, and by when?
  5. Escalation: what happens if the plan does not change the child’s experience?
Case-drift warning: repeated meetings are not evidence of progress. Track what changed for the child between meetings.
Verified source library

Key national guidance, data and public-health links

Curated for system leaders. External links open in a new tab. Core legal and statutory sources are prioritised over commentary.

Attendance, entitlement & local-authority duties

CORE
Working Together to Improve School AttendanceDfE statutory guidance · updated July 2026.Official guidance ↗ Children Missing EducationDfE statutory guidance · updated September 2025.Official guidance ↗ Education for children with health needsSection 19 statutory guidance for local authorities.Official guidance ↗ Suspensions & permanent exclusionsCurrent statutory guidance · updated July 2026.Official guidance ↗ School Admissions CodeAdmissions, in-year access and Fair Access Protocols.Official guidance ↗ Elective home educationDfE guidance for local authorities and schools.Official guidance ↗

Health, wellbeing & public health

PUBLIC HEALTH
Healthy Child Programme deliveryDHSC national public-health nursing model · 2026.DHSC ↗ School nursing: ages 5–19Includes attendance, wellbeing and multi-agency working.DHSC ↗ Healthy Child Programme high-impact areasPriorities for health visiting and school nursing.DHSC ↗ Public-health nursing commissioningCommissioning and assurance guidance for 0–19 services.DHSC ↗ Mental health and attendanceDfE responsibilities and effective-practice guidance.DfE ↗ Supporting pupils with medical conditionsStatutory guidance for schools and academies.DfE ↗ School nursing high-impact areasSpecific 5–19 priorities covering health, additional needs, safety and transitions.DHSC ↗

Safeguarding, SEND & vulnerable children

MULTI-AGENCY
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026Multi-agency statutory safeguarding guidance.Official guidance ↗ Keeping Children Safe in Education2025 in force until 31 August 2026; 2026 from 1 September.Official guidance ↗ SEND Code of Practice 0–25Statutory SEND framework for education, LA and health bodies.Official guidance ↗ SEND guide for health professionalsHealth-sector responsibilities and supporting resources.Official guidance ↗ Virtual School Head role extensionStrategic leadership for children with a social worker and kinship cohorts.DfE ↗ Improving practice with children & families2026 support for embedding safeguarding and social-care reforms.DfE ↗ Children’s social care collectionCurrent national framework, safeguarding and family-help guidance in one place.DfE collection ↗ Alternative provision statutory guidanceLocal-authority and commissioner responsibilities for AP.DfE ↗

Data & intelligence for system leaders

DATA
Pupil attendance in schoolsDfE official statistics series with local-authority geography.Explore statistics ↗ Pupil absence in schools in EnglandPersistent absence, reasons and pupil characteristics.Explore statistics ↗ Child & maternal health profilesOHID Fingertips indicators for local planning and inequalities.Public-health data ↗ Child health profiles: May 2026 updateIncludes persistent absence and health indicators.Official statistics ↗ Schools statutory guidance collectionSingle DfE gateway to current statutory documents.DfE collection ↗ RISE attendance improvementDfE attendance improvement resources and links.DfE ↗

System assurance & inspection

LEADERSHIP
Area SEND inspection frameworkIncludes local-area oversight of alternative provision and Section 19.Ofsted / CQC ↗ Education inspection supporting evidenceCurrent statutory and non-statutory evidence base for inspection toolkits.Ofsted ↗ Public-health nursing assuranceService design, quality, data, reporting and outcomes.DHSC ↗
Premium governance prompt

12 questions for a Health & Wellbeing Board, ICB or Children’s Partnership

Use these to move discussion from “schools need to improve attendance” to system-level accountability.

1. Which children in our area are most likely to be persistently or severely absent — and why?
2. What health inequalities overlap most strongly with our absence data?
3. Where do families wait longest for help while attendance deteriorates?
4. How quickly do we know when a child has stopped receiving suitable education?
5. Is our Section 19 pathway understood consistently by schools, health and families?
6. Do school nurses and attendance teams have a routine route to work together?
7. How are temporary accommodation and housing moves affecting education continuity?
8. What do children say about the barriers professionals may be missing?
9. Where are SEND, mental health or safeguarding needs being mistaken for non-compliance?
10. Which services are measuring activity but not impact on the child?
11. What are our three biggest system barriers that no single school can solve?
12. What will be measurably different for children 90 days from now?
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Use this hub as a working system resource

Run the diagnostic, complete the statutory assurance check, build a 90-day plan and use the guidance library in the same meeting. The value is in turning evidence into collective action.

Go to the toolkit