What has changed

The School Attendance Team previously aligned to Early Help Family Support within Children’s Services, has moved over to Access and Inclusion within the Education and Early Years Department.

The current team structure (8 Officers and 1 Senior Practitioner) remains the same, with the only difference being that they will now fall under the Head of Service for Access and Inclusion – Cathy Braun.

What does this mean for schools

Your named officer aligned to your school will not change for this academic year.

Any open cases or commitment the service has with your school (service level agreements) will continue as previously agreed. Our current service provision through the traded and universal service will continue till July 2021.

Consultation

We are consulting all Headteachers, School Governing Bodies and Chief Officer of Police in Southend during the first half of the summer term in relation to the proposed amendment to the Southend Borough Council’s Code of Conduct for Issuing Penalty Notices The Education (Penalty Notices) Regulation 2004 and subsequent The Education (Amendment) Regulations 2013

The local code of conduct was last updated in 2019. To read the current published version please visit the Council Website. Amendments have been made based upon feedback from schools and to support schools in reducing pupil absence.

You can find details of the consultation and proposed arrangements in the consultation document

We invite comments by completing the survey below by 5pm on Friday 28 May 2021. Schools are restricted to providing one survey response for each school representing the views of the Headteacher and one survey representing the views of the Governing Body.

We welcome your feedback which will inform the proposed amendments to the current code of conduct for issuing penalty notices.

What happens next

Once we have the views of schools and their Governing body we aim to provide a summary of the initial feedback in our ‘consultation summary’ which will be posted on this page after the consultation closes.

The Consultation will inform the proposed amendments to the current code of conduct for issuing penalty notices. If a common agreement cannot be found relating to this legal requirement, we will continue to work to the published and previously agreed document (see above for link).

Who do I contact if I have further questions or concerns?

If you have a specific question about this consultation, you can contact Jacqui Lipyeat School Attendance Team Leader on jacquilipyeat@southend.gov.uk or Cathy Braun Head of Access and Inclusion 01702 215066 cathybraun@southend.gov.uk to discuss any areas in more detail.