1. School Absence and Legal Intervention
Natasha Taylor, Solicitor Advocate (Criminal and Civil) Advocacy Team Leader
Julie Weddell, County Manager, Education Welfare, School Attendance and Child Employment
JW Like to introduce Natasha Taylor who is the Lawyer who works very closely with EWS. Natasha’s team trained the Senior Education Welfare Officers to present the lower offence cases, maximum £1,000 in magistrates courts. The vast majority of the parents plead guilty as it is a strict liability offence and the matter is dealt with. If a parent pleads not guilty then the matter goes to trial and Natasha or her team present the case, Natasha’s team also present the higher offence cases which can lead to a 3 month imprisonment.
For your information we prosecuted 283 cases last year (241 S1 and 42 S1A) and 158 the previous year
Natasha has asked to meet with you today to provide a background of the evidence needed from schools, this is particularly important when a case goes to trial. We have a very good record with our court work, only losing a couple of cases, it can be frustrating for schools and EWS when a lot of work has gone into working with the family and preparing a case for court, only to have it pulled due to technical issues. It is really important that we get the facts correct from the start in order to secure successful prosecutions. As you know prosecutions not only deal with the family in question but send out important messages about the importance of school attendance to the community. We don’t want to have to withdraw a case but we also don’t want to lose cases because this again would send out the wrong message

2. Statistics – penalty notices issued in Essex
Year
Unauthorised leave of absence
Irregular school attendance
2012/13
410
282
2013/14
769
731
JW A huge national topic at present is Unauthorised leave of absence.
As you can see we issued far more penalty notices last year due to the legislation changing. Approximately 70% of penalty notices are paid. Those who do not pay are prosecuted, however need to be mindful that legislation states the prosecution must be taken for irregular attendance and not non payment of penalty notice.

3. Application for leave
Headteachers must decide what is exceptional leave of absence according to each case – there are exceptional circumstances
Code of conduct and guidance issued by EWS can be found on JW

4. Criteria within Code of Conduct
10 sessions (5 consecutive days) or more of unauthorised absence due to leave taken during an academic year; and
Attendance is below 90% during the preceding 12 weeks before the leave was taken; OR
Any day of the leave falls within the month of September OR
The leave was taken during tests or examinations; OR
It is the second leave taken in any one academic year; OR
The pupil is in Year 6 or Year 11
Survey shortly on schools views on criteria to feed into steering group meeting in January. LA have to prosecute for irregular school attendance and schools may have to be witness in court

5. NAHT Guidance October 2014
The decision to authorise absence is at the head teacher’s discretion based on their assessment of the situation. Circumstances vary from school to school and so there can be no absolute rules on this subject.
The fundamental principles for defining ‘exceptional’ are rare, significant, unavoidable and short. And by 'unavoidable' we mean an event that could not reasonably be scheduled at another time.
It is important to note that head teachers can determine the length of the authorised absence as well as whether absence is authorised at all.
I had agreed at EPHA to facilitate a task and finish group to look at exceptional circumstances across the County, however NAHT have now issued this guidance following some misleading headlines a couple of weeks ago stating DFE will be relaxing the legislation.

6. Authorised examples, not exhaustive:
Visit seriously ill relatives.
Absence for a bereavement of a close family member but for the funeral service only, not extended leave.
important religious observances but only for the ceremony and travelling time, not extended leave.
families of service personnel if they are returning from long operational tours that prevent contact during scheduled holiday time.
Schools have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for students with special needs and disabiities

7. Examples:
Families may need time together to recover from trauma or crisis.
It is acceptable to take a student’s previous record of attendance into account when making decisions.

8. OFSTED/TERM TIMES
Ofsted focus is on whether recurrent absence is being addressed; only if there is an issue with this will they look more deeply into why the school has authorised absence. Concern about inspection should not govern schools’ decisions in this area. Head teachers are under pressure to meet overall absence thresholds however.
Where schools serve communities whose patterns of work create a regular barrier to attendance and family life schools could consider changes to term times. Where this involves changes to compulsory terms, we strongly recommend this is co-ordinated across schools and local authorities in an area.
Coastal Areas – where many parents have seasonal work/businesses
Religious culture, Northern county changed their half term to co-incide with religious holiday

9. Refusing request for leave
Ensure you record why the decision was made and the reasons for it.
Send this to the parents as soon as possible, within one week to enable parents to cancel holiday or make arrangements for child care
Record how and when you serve the letter (personally, by first class post etc)
Keep any further communication you receive from the parent
NT Recording is crucial

10. If holiday is taken Consider whether original decision stands
Request to EWS for the issue of a penalty notice must be made as soon as the child returns to school from unauthorised leave, within 2 weeks latest
Include record of attendance, which shows pupil has returned from holiday,application for leave, refusal letter, any other supporting documents/letters
If parent moves home at any point, please inform EWS, including after PN issued so that any summons etc are sent to correct address
NT Record any verbal discussions with parents or comments. You may learn about mitigation which will lead you to still unauthorise the absence but not apply for a PN on this occasion
Important to give EWS as much detail as possible.
Importance of PN being issued swiftly, 28 days to pay, suspended if we have to investigate any appeal

11. Penalty Notice issued and unpaid
EWS will consider prosecution
if circumstances change and you are going to authorise absence, please inform EWS
There is no offence of breaching a PN by failure to pay within the required time. The only way of dealing with non-payment is to rely upon s.444 Education Act (failure to ensure regular school attendance)
NT the irregular attendance issue. We must have short period under review, the longer the period under review the higher the attendance.

12. What the prosecution must prove
Pupil (identity)
Registered at the school
In the care of X (may not be parent)
Irregular attendance
Without leave
NT We are bound by prosecutors code of conduct so have to continually review the evidence on whether it is in the interest of justice until the end of the case

13. Best Practice
Link with local schools to minimise different practices for siblings
If unauthorised, schools do not have to request that a penalty notice is issued.
Instead of penalty notices schools may chose to warn parents that a penalty notice may be issued if further unauthorised leave of absence is taken
Inviting parent into school to explain what the pupil will miss out on has been very effective in schools
Share information about what children will miss out on in just a week at parent presentations
JW Please don’t waste valuable EWS resource time by requesting PNs when doesn’t meet the criteria
70% pay so parents are finding it cheaper to pay the fine than the price of the holiday. What price do parents put on education

14. New penalty notice process
359 referrals during Period of 02/06/ /07 /14:
153 School Attendance Meeting requests, 206 warning letter requests
(57% Warning Letter requests, 43% SAM requests)
Per quadrant:
SAMs
Warning Letters
Mid
58%
42% NE
43%
57%
South
32%
68%
West
54%
46%
• (Accepted 131 SAM requests, 192 WL requests (accepted 86% SAM requests and 93% warning letter requests) Have had to refuse 36 referrals -
• Main reasons for refusal are lack of recent pre-referral work
We are closely evaluating the effectiveness of this process and Survey will be sent to schools in January