Attendance at School

Liaison by school staff with the Education Welfare Officer (EWO) is the way to ensure a co-operative and co-ordinated action in the interests of the child and the family and great reliance is placed on adequate and early referral as the EWO attempts to prevent seemingly minor problems from developing into severe difficulties.

The Education Welfare Service promotes regular attendance at school by:-

• Consultation with schools;
• Help for pupils in school - by counselling/supportive interviews;
• Arranging and participating in parent /school meetings to address attendance issues;
• Contact with parents - to assist in promoting good attendance; to help resolve school associated problems; where appropriate to make referrals to other agencies;
• Monitoring both individual and school attendance rates by the analysis of school attendance data.

Parents have a statutory duty to see that their children receive efficient full time education in school or otherwise (Section 444 Education Act 1996) and it is an important function of the Education Welfare Service to make sure that parents understand this and that failure to carry out this responsibility can result in court proceedings.

The Education Welfare Service may initiate court proceedings:-

• In the Magistrates Court - prosecution for irregular attendance (Section 444 Education Act 1996);
• By application for Education Supervision Orders - Sections 35 & 36 Children Act 1989; also Section 447 Education Act 1996.

Truancy

The Education Welfare Service carries out regular truancy sweeps in order to identify young people who are out of school without the knowledge of their parent(s). The officers will officially identify themselves before approaching the young people and will invite them to return to school. There will always be two officers working together and they would never force the young person to accompany them. However, parents and schools are informed of the names of any such young people. They will also approach young people accompanied by an adult and enquire as to the reason for the student's absence from school. It is true to say that many parents will be accompanying their child to a medical or dental appointment but most adults are understanding about the reason for their being approached. A minority of parents approached in this way have given inappropriate reasons for keeping their child off school and this is then addressed by the Education Welfare Service.

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