SOUTHEND Council is to step up its crackdown on unauthorised persistent school absence.

‘Every School Day Matters’ was launched in the Spring term of 2013 to improve school attendance and tackle persistent absence.

A number of measures focusing on prevention are already underway that have seen attendance rise, but officers will now up their focus on persistent absenteeism in partnership with local schools.

A dedicated member of staff from the Child and Family Early Intervention Team will be moved to focus on persistent absence, helping to identify absence patterns quicker. The council will also bring in more ‘attendance panels’ and start to fast track cases to them where parents refuse to engage with schools and the council to improve their child’s attendance. Where unauthorised persistent absence does not improve, a final warning letter will be issued and a penalty notices issued on the next unauthorised absence.

The council will support schools in writing to parents, and the dedicated officer will spend more time monitoring and focussing on all unexplained and unauthorised absences with schools, including children that have absences for holiday during term time.

Anne Jones, Executive Councillor for Children and Learning, says: “It is proven that persistent absence is a significant factor in children underachieving and gaining lower exam results. Pupils who attend regularly are able to learn, experience the variety of activities within school, maintain positive peer relationships and achieve better exam results.

“We are working with schools to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity of achieving their full potential from their education. It is every parent’s responsibility to ensure that their child attends school on a regular and punctual basis.

“I am therefore delighted that we will be giving persistent absenteeism an even greater focus. This will involve working with schools and parents, but it could also involve greater enforcement and the issuing of penalty notices where necessary.

“With all cases of non-attendance we will always first look to improve the situation by working with the parent especially where complex needs are identified but where there are no good reasons provided for the absences we will need to take this quicker and firmer line.

“We do not want to be prosecuting parents, and I want to emphasise how it is always absolutely a last resort to take this action. But we also want children to be in school and there comes a time where we have no further options. Starting legal action is not a decision we ever take lightly, but it is a decision we will make if it is in the best interests of the child and those parents refuse to work with the school and us to resolve the issues.

“Reducing absence has a major influence on attainment levels, and we have recently seen the vast improvement on Key Stage 2 results which is partly down to the work that we have been doing and we will now be doing more of.”