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A message from Patrick Leeson:

25 April 2017 weekly update

25 April 2017

This week, Patrick summarises the amendments to our Penalty Notice Code of Conduct and Model Attendance Policy; and highlights the introduction of Academy Conversion Charges in schools.

Dear Colleagues

KCC Penalty Notice Code of Conduct and Model Attendance Policy

As you are aware last year we updated and consulted on a revised KCC Code of Conduct for Penalty Notices, to clarify our approach to addressing poor attendance at school and the use of legal sanctions.

In a recent development, on 6 April 2017, the Supreme Court made a ruling regarding the definition of regular attendance at school. The ruling was made in relation to the case of Jon Platt v Isle of Wight Council. Mr Platt had refused to pay a penalty notice following a family holiday with his children in term time. The Court at the time upheld his non-payment and accepted his argument that his daughter’s 92% attendance at school was sufficient. This has since been taken to the Supreme Court and overturned.

In the ruling, the Supreme Court stated that the definition of “regular” in the context of school attendance is “in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school”, in other words, any day that the school is open to pupils.

Our current Code of Conduct was revised in May 2016 and its threshold for issuing Penalty Notices was based on the 10% persistent absence rate over the school year. This relied on the case law of LB Bromley v C in 2006. The Supreme Court ruling this month confirmed that where previous case law (LB Bromley v C 2006) adopted a different interpretation of regular attendance it should not now be followed.

Therefore, in response to the recent court case and subsequent queries from a number of schools, we have reviewed the Code of Conduct and made some changes to the wording in relation to the 10% Persistent Absence threshold.

The revised Code of Conduct (PDF, 149.7 KB), will remove the requirement of “lower than 90% overall attendance rate (also known as the ‘Persistent Absence rate’)” during the past twelve months as a criterion for issuing a Penalty Notice.

We have always said it is not practical or effective to use the sanction of a Penalty Notice for every unauthorised absence but we think it is appropriate now to use this sanction for 10% unauthorised absence over a shorter period of time than 12 months.

Every local authority must have a consistent threshold for the Penalty Notice process to be triggered and this revised Code of Conduct will therefore use the minimum requirement of 10 sessions of unauthorised absences within 100 sessions or 50 school days as the trigger for a Penalty Notice.

Our philosophy has been to focus our energies on all absences without schools’ authorisation, rather than one particularly type of absence such as holidays in term time. This approach has helped Kent schools to improve attendance in the past two years.

In light of the revised Code of Conduct, schools may wish to review their attendance policy and the relevant letters to parents. It is advisable that schools avoid stating “regular attendance” as a percentage. Instead, schools may want to state in the policy and the letter that “we expect pupils to attend school every day when the school is open and where there are more than 10 sessions or 5 days unauthorised absence in a 50 day period, the school may request a Penalty Notice.”

In managing pupil absence, schools have the first responsibility to take effective action to improve attendance. Support is available from the School Liaison Officer (Attendance and Inclusion Service) or Early Help Worker. When the school has done all it can, over a period of time, to improve attendance and there is little or no improvement, then one of the options available to the school is the use of a Penalty Notice. Another option is to make an Early Help Notification requesting work with the family to improve attendance and other outcomes for the child.

The revised Education Penalty Notices Code of Conduct (PDF, 149.7 KB), together with a model school attendance policy (DOCX, 601.0 KB) are available and you may find these useful when reviewing your school policy.

For more information please contact Ming.Zhang@kent.gov.uk, Head of Attendance and Inclusion.

Introduction of Academy Conversion Charges

Unlike many other Local Authorities Kent has not previously required schools converting to become an academy to meet any of the costs in undertaking the work to change status. Despite there being no dedicated grant or funding stream available to Local Authorities KCC has paid all of these costs since 2010.

At County Council on 9 February 2017 KCC Members approved the budget for the new financial year and decided to introduce a charge for converting schools as a contribution towards the costs.

The charge will apply to all schools in receipt of an academy order issued after 1 April 2017 and will be set at a standard rate of £7,000 irrespective of phase, designation, or conversion route. This sum is expected to be met from the £25,000 conversion grant awarded to all converting schools by the DfE. Under exceptional circumstances we may require an increased level of contribution, for example, if there is more complicated legal work required.

The LA will continue to offer the same comprehensive level of advice and support to converting schools and acquiring trusts throughout the conversion process. Tailored advice and guidance to Governing Bodies wishing to explore academy status will still be offered free of charge along with support to evaluate a range of possible future strategic directions.

For more information, please contact Ana.Rowley@kent.gov.uk, Academy Conversion Team Manager.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director
Children, Young People and Education