Skip to content

A message from Patrick Leeson:

17 January 2017 weekly update

17 January 2017

This week, Patrick summarises the latest attendance and exclusion data and the new ways of working in reducing exclusions in Kent; and provides an update on Kent's updated Education Penalty Notices Code of Conduct.

Dear colleagues

Attendance and Exclusions

The latest data shows that the average school attendance rate in Kent has improved to nearly 96% through the good work of schools and effective partnership with KCC’s Early Help and Inclusion and Attendance Services. The latest school census data confirms that Primary schools’ attendance has improved to 96% and Secondary schools close to 95%.

During the past 18 months we have developed a new delivery model refocusing on preventative, advisory and outcomes-focused support for schools and families to improve attendance. At the same time we reconfigured the previous six enforcement hubs to form a single county wide enforcement team, in order to make the legal process more agile, consistent and effective when taking court action and issuing penalty notices.

The new approach was based on shifting the intensive interventions in relation to attendance and exclusions, which Education Welfare Officers and Exclusion Officers traditionally carried out, to be delivered in the Early Help Units.

In order to make schools’ access to the service easier and the legal process for taking court action in relation to attendance more outcome-focused, the service has piloted and implemented the Digital Front Door and the new Code of Conduct for issuing education related penalty notices.

Smarter datasets for school attendance and exclusions were developed to better inform the improvement strategies both of schools and KCC, as well as monitoring effectiveness and identifying targets for co-ordinated support.

We are very clear that an attendance rate below 96%, even it is above 90% is not good enough. Schools take the initial actions to help or intervene when a pupil’s attendance rate falls below 96% without a justifiable reason. In some extreme circumstances where a pupil’s unauthorised absence persists and attendance has dropped to below 90%, the matter is escalated for legal actions to be taken, which include an Education Supervision Order, Penalty Notices and prosecution taken against parents.

In last academic year, KCC prosecuted 223 parents for failing to ensure their children’s regular school attendance. Since September 2016 a further 136 parents have been prosecuted.

The new Code of Conduct for Issuing Penalty Notices

Apart from prosecution, KCC also issues Penalty Notices to parents who have failed to ensure their children’s regular attendance. In January 2016, Kent’s new Education Penalty Notices Code of Conduct (PDF, 149.7 KB) came into force.

The main change is that the use of Penalty Notices is not limited to family holidays but for all unauthorised absences which are deemed suitable because there is persistent unauthorised absence from school.

Under the new Code of Conduct a Penalty Notice for unauthorised absence is only issued where a child has attendance of 90% or below (persistent absence level), or where there are compounding factors that put together worsen the circumstances. Examples of these factors include removing a child from school over a period of examination or a child repeatedly arriving to school late on top of having unauthorised family holidays in term-time. This level of attendance is equivalent to taking one day off school every two weeks, which is unacceptable. In the last academic year, a total of 3504 parents have been served a Penalty Notice for irregular school attendance.

School attendance is one of the key issues that informs Ofsted’s inspection judgements. In December 2016, Ofsted released new benchmarks for measuring a school’s performance in improving attendance and reducing persistent absence. View and download the new Ofsted benchmarks (XLSX, 21.9 KB)

Digital Front Door

After a six months’ pilot in 56 schools, the Digital Front Door was fully rolled out to all Kent schools in September 2016 and has achieved the following improvement in its first three months in operation.

There is now a secure pathway for schools to make referrals to the Local Authority, which works effectively to streamline the referral process and allows for robust recording of information. This has received positive feedback from staff and schools across the county.

Since the introduction of the Digital Front Door schools have used the new digital system to report 892 cases of children missing education. 87% of the children involved were found and contacted by School Liaison Officers and returned to school within two weeks.

The New Ways of Working in Reducing Exclusions in Kent

The re-organised PRU arrangements have made a clear contribution to the reduction in permanent exclusions over time. This has been achieved through a review of the local offer, an improved curriculum and a commitment on the part of schools to find positive alternatives to exclusion and clearer pathways to post 16 training and learning.

The Inclusion and Attendance Advisers have adopted more preventative approaches to focus their interventions on the factors that make a difference to children’s behaviours, which in turn affects the rates of permanent and fixed term exclusions.

These factors include the effectiveness of school practice and in-school support; the cooperation of schools in the local 'In Year Fair Access' arrangements; the alternative curriculum provision and support for schools by the Pupil Referral Units; the availability of support to Primary schools for challenging behaviour; the early identification of special educational needs and the use of the LIFT process; and the use of support through Early Help notifications.

There are eight Primary phase projects, partially funded by KCC to provide effective support to schools in managing pupils with challenging behaviour.

Exclusion Outcomes

In comparison with 2015, the exclusion data shows that there is a continuous trend of reduction in overall permanent and fixed-term exclusions, which is very welcome. Permanent exclusions have been reduced from 109 to 64, a reduction of 54 while there are 704 fewer fixed-term exclusions.

Only four Secondary schools permanently excluded more than one pupil in the last school year, which is a marked difference to the previous patterns, and only eight Primary schools permanently excluded a pupil.

The largest numbers of permanent exclusions took place in Maidstone (12), Tonbridge and Malling (11) and Shepway (9). There were no permanent exclusions in Ashford, and only one in Canterbury and Thanet.

It is very welcome that only one Child in Care was permanently excluded in the past year (our commitment is to have none) and only four pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan were permanently excluded. The proportion of permanently excluded children, with special educational needs and with an Education Health and Care Plan has been reduced from 9.2% to 6.3%.

One year ago 70% of permanently excluded pupils were eligible for free school meals (FSM). This figure has now been markedly reduced to 46.9%. There is also a reduction in the proportion of FSM children involved in fixed-term exclusions.

Since September 2016, while there is a general trend of fewer fixed term exclusions in many Districts. South Kent has so far made the most reduction in exclusions with an impressive reduction in Ashford schools’ fixed-term exclusions. Ashford has the most effective LIFT process and the most integrated approach to supporting Primary and Secondary schools in managing exclusions and addressing challenging behaviour.

During the last school year, 66 pupils lost more than 10 days of school due to exclusion and 129 pupils had three or more exclusions. The majority of these pupils are in Secondary schools and over two thirds are boys. We aim to have significant support in place for these pupils through Early Help.

For more information please contact Ming.Zhang@kent.gov.uk, Head of Attendance and Inclusion, and Celia.Buxton@kent.gov.uk, Executive Headteacher and Strategic Lead for PRUs.

Spring Headteacher Meeting Dates

The next round of Patrick Leeson’s Headteacher meetings are taking place in March. The focus of these meetings will be on the development of the Education Services Company; School Funding Changes and the Children and Young People’s Services Integration Programme. We very much hope that you will be able to attend one of the following four meetings.

The dates, times and locations for the Spring Headteacher Meetings are:

  • East Kent: Thursday 9 March - 9am for 9:30am start - 12noon - The Spitfire Ground (Canterbury Cricket Ground), St Lawrence, Old Dover Road, Canterbury CT1 3NZ
  • West Kent: Monday 13 March -1pm for 1:30pm start - 4pm - The Mercure Great Danes Hotel, Ashford Road, Hollingbourne, Maidstone ME17 1RE
  • North Kent: Friday 17 March - 9am for 9:30am start - 12noon - Mercure Dartford Brands Hatch Hotel, Brands Hatch, Colin Chapman Way, Dartford DA3 8PE
  • South Kent: Monday 20 March -1pm for 1:30pm start - 4pm  - Ashford International Hotel, Simone Weil Avenue, Ashford TN24 8UX

To book yourself a place, please email eypssupportteam@kent.gov.uk confirming your name and school, and the session you are able to join.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services