(a)

there was an overall trend in the increase of absence in schools across Plymouth;  this data was monitored closely and was one of the top priorities to ensure that all school aged children received a suitable education;

(b)

illness accounted for the highest reason for absence in school and it was considered that this included anxiety and mental health issues;

(c)

a steering group was due to be set up to focus on a number of areas highlighted in the report including monitoring children offsite, a review of section 19 medical needs and exploring evidence based interventions to support school attendance.

(d)

young people that were absent from school due to reasons linked with their special educational needs or disability were monitored in the same way as any other school absence; the local authority worked with schools and families to assess and monitor reasons for absence and make allowances where necessary;

(e)

it was considered that there was a prevalence of anxiety and mental health conditions which were impacting levels of school absence;

(f)

the levels of absence in service children was not monitored specifically;

(g)

research suggested that 17 days absence at secondary school level would impact one grade at GCSE level; when persistent absence was due to illness, the local authority would work with parents/ carers to assess if further support could be provided within the home setting;

(h)

officers that worked within both the attendance team and the SEND team were now aligned as one team with the aim to improve interventions;

(i)

schools were responsible for monitoring their own levels of bullying however the local authority was committed to ensure bullying didn’t occur and would become involved in instances of casework and would work with both the school and family. It was acknowledged that some children may pretend to be ill because they didn’t want to attend school because of bullying however this was very difficult for authorities to monitor as real reasons for absence could be hidden and academies were not obliged to pass this data onto the local authority;

(j)

figures relating to the numbers of pupils managing long term health conditions/ chronic conditions were increasing and this was having an effect on absence; the benchmark for persistence absence was set at 90% therefore a pupil only needed to have half a day off a week regularly to be categorised as a persistent absentee;

(k)

the local authority did not monitor the levels of absenteeism specifically related to pupils that did not live near to their closest school or nearby to their allocated school;

(l)

officers did not monitor how many young people did not attend school on exam days due to bullying; this was not highlighted to the local authority as a significant issue and data was not received for this;

(m)

the local authority monitored data on young carers; this was something that was provided to the Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee as part of their work programme;

(n)

a number of schools throughout the city had changed their term dates to include an additional week of holiday in October 2019.

1.

to recommend that the local authority considers going out to consultation to amend school dates to include an additional week of holiday onto the October and May holidays, therefore reducing the summer break by two weeks;

2.

to recommend that the council considers including a note at the bottom of  letters sent out as a result of absenteeism, asking parents/ carers to consider if their child’s absence was due to bullying and to signpost to support available;

3.

for officers to investigate the feasibility of adding targeted signposting for bullying support on the council’s social media platforms;

3.

for officers to contact Plymouth academies and request data on absenteeism, specifically due to bullying;

4.

for officers to provide data to Members regarding absenteeism as a result of a child attending a school which isn’t their closest or is a distance away from home;

5.

that the Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee offer an invitation to a Head teacher from both an academy and local authority school to discuss how they deal with bullying;

6.

for officers to provide data to Members specifically regarding absenteeism linked to child carers and service children;

7.

for officers to provide Members with data linked to persistent absenteeism, specifically due to mental health issues as well as waiting times for referrals to the CAMHS.