Working together to improve school attendance
Guidance to help schools, academy trusts, governing bodies,bodies and local authorities maintain high levels of school attendanceattendance, including roles and responsibilities.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guidance applies from September 2022. Until then, follow school attendance: guidance for schools.
This guidance is for:
- maintained schools
- academies
- independent schools
- local authorities
It is designed to:
- help schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities maintain high levels of school attendance
- summarise the roles and responsibilities of
parents,parents and carers, schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities - summarise the support that should be provided to families, including for pupils who are persistently or severely
absentabsent, or at risk of becoming so - provide details of
attendancelegal interventions available to schools and local authorities where attendance support does not work, is not engaged with or is not appropriate - provide details of what schools are required to record in
thetheir attendance and admission registers
Further information, including a range of techniques for improving attendance and guidance on good practice is available.
Last updated 18 April 2023 + show all updates
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Added a link to a source of further information on improving attendance.
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First published.
Update history
2026-06-09 09:30
Updated to remove outdated resources, and to clarify that this is statutory guidance.
2024-08-19 10:00
Updated the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance to clarify: independent schools are not required to submit daily data to the Department; penalty amount for children present in public places whilst excluded from school; supervision requirements for approved educational activities; and statistical meaning for code C2. Added further guidance on the use of code E, code Q, code Y6 and code Y7. Made corrections and updates to formatting and paragraph and chapter references. No changes were made to policy.
2024-03-07 15:20
Updated the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance that applies from 19 August 2024 to correct regulation references in points 218, 219, 286, 317, 369 and 377. No changes were made to policy.
2024-02-29 10:42
Added ‘Working together to improve school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024’ and ‘Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024’. The status of these documents will be statutory as of that date.
2023-09-05 14:15
Added ‘Toolkit for schools: communicating with families to support attendance’ and ‘Annex A: example attendance letters and emails to parents and carers’.
2023-08-01 13:42
Added link to guidance on school attendance for parents.
2023-04-18 16:57
Added a link to a source of further information on improving attendance.
2022-05-06 11:00
First published.