Survey Findings. Attendance

Back in September, we conducted two surveys for our community: one on Attendance in Education and the other on Short Breaks and childcare services.

We’re really grateful to all the families who took part. The information gathered from the surveys has been crucial for our Parent Voice team who have taken your feedback to the meetings they attend. It has helped inform service providers of the challenges being faced within our SEND community and will hopefully help to shape future services and provisions

Attendance Key Findings:

• Using the school attendance ladder, 36% of children’s attendance was at least 96% during the academic year 2022-23 which is similar to 2018-19 when it was 35%. However, there are big differences when comparing the individual categories within the attendance ladder for both years. There is a 10% decrease in those with outstanding or very good attendance and a 10% increase in good attendance. There is a 12% decrease in those with concerning attendance but an 11% increase in those with very concerned, extremely concerned or attended none of the year. Therefore, school attendance has significantly decreased since Covid with an increasing number of children attending for less than 85% of the academic year.

• 55% of parent carers were concerned about their child’s attendance during the last academic year.

• 42% of respondents said that the setting supported them and their child to try to improve their attendance, which has almost doubled from 22% in 2019.