The Inclusion and Learning Team at Devon County Council aims to ensure that every child can access education in a safe environment. The responsibility for tackling attendance is everyone’s responsibility however, the DfE have set out clear roles for schools, the LA and parents. The school’s responsibility is set out in Chapter 2 of the DfE’s Working together to improve school attendance guidance.
All Devon schools will have a named Inclusion Partner allocated to a school or setting in each local learning community (LLC).
Devon’s Working Together to Improve School Attendance Policy
Core offer to schools
Under the DfE guidance’s the role of Devon County Council is to offer a package of support, guidance, and statutory functions to all schools in the county. While each council shapes its own model, the recent statutory guidance in England sets out a clear minimum expectation for what every school should receive.
Core elements offered to all schools in Devon
These are the consistent features described across local authority offers and national guidance.
Communication, guidance and a named contact
- Regular updates on attendance expectations, best practice, and policy changes, including half termly invitation to all schools to join the Devon Attendance Network.
- A named point of contact through the Inclusion and Learning Team for every school, available for advice, queries and, where necessary, to broker support.
- Opportunities for schools to share best practice and collaborate through countywide events including the Devon Attendance Network.
Targeted Support Meetings (TSMs)
- Termly meetings with each school to review attendance data.
- Identification of pupils or groups at risk of persistent absence.
- Agreement on targeted actions and access to wider services.
Targeted Support Meetings: Terms of Reference
Statutory duties and legal intervention
- Support with fulfilling statutory responsibilities under the Education Act 1996.
- Use of legal powers (for example, penalty notices, prosecution) where appropriate, and as a last resort.
Support aligned with DfE guidance
- Offers are designed to comply with Working together to improve school attendance, which outlines duties for both schools and local authorities.
- Local authorities must be able to demonstrate they follow this guidance or justify any deviation.
What this means in practice
Schools can expect
- Early identification of attendance concerns through shared data analysis.
- Clear escalation pathways, from early help to statutory action.
- Support for vulnerable groups, including pupils with SEND, medical needs, social workers, or those persistently or severely absent.
In addition, Devon Local Authority also offers an additional traded service relating to a range of statutory aspects of attendance. Currently, due to the ongoing adjustments within the county’s redesign, this service has a series of interim measures, however, from September 2026, we hope to relaunch our traded school attendance service.
Legal intervention
From September 2025, it will be the school’s responsibility to undertake formal meetings, as it is not part of a core function of the local authority. The Named Inclusion Partner will be available to offer support and guidance to school staff where structuring such meetings is an identified training need.
Support from the named Inclusion Partner
- upon agreement between all parties working with the family, take forward attendance legal intervention (using the full range of parental responsibility measures) where voluntary support has not been successful or engaged with
- Inclusion Partners will be available to provide advice and support with the process
- once schools have undertaken and can evidence all formal meetings have been held with the family, the Inclusion Partner will be able to give advice around completing a referral direct to the Penalty Notice team, including:
- Parenting contracts
- Education Supervision Orders
- Building attendance into child in need or child protection plans where relevant
- Issuing fixed penalty notices
- Parenting Orders
- Taking forward prosecutions persistently breaching any Education Supervision Order or Parenting Order in place