Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director of Children’s Social Care and Education.

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Children's Social Care and Education providing a summary update in relation to school attendance since September 2021.

The report set out the background to the matter and provided a progress update on school attendance from September 2021.

Members of the Committee asked questions/raised issues on the following:

·       Pre Covid-19 attendance data

·       DfE rules relating to the absence related code for Covid-19 which affected the Council’s extraction of attendance data

·       Excluding holiday requests, the scale of the problem of parents and carers not ensuring their children attended school; and geographical variations across the borough in respect of this problem

·       Sefton’s school attendance figures in relation to comparable metropolitan authorities

·       Mental health issues being cited as the reason why a number of children have not returned to school; and measures and support for parents/carers and children when such situations arose

·       The marked increase overall in schools’ referrals to Complimentary Education

·       The issuing of warning letters to parents in relation to school attendance who could not provide a valid reason for their child to be absent from school  

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.