Guidance

RISE attendance improvement

Published 19 September 2025

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rise-support-for-improving-attendance-in-schools/rise-attendance-improvement

Statutory guidance

The working together to improve school attendance statutory guidance sets clear roles and responsibilities for schools, trusts and local authorities for attendance.

There is also a version setting out the roles and responsibilities of parents.

Children missing education statutory guidance explains the legal duties, so that local authorities in England can make arrangements to identify children missing education (CME). Local authorities should be able to demonstrate that they have followed this statutory guidance, or have reasonable grounds for not following it.

Toolkits and best practice

Best practice toolkit for schools

A toolkit for schools produced in collaboration with the sector (including schools most effective at improving attendance) provides a suite of adoptable practices, tools and resources which reflect the working together to improve school attendance guidance.

Best practice recommendations and examples

The Education Endowment Foundation supporting school attendance resource provides evidence-based recommendations to improve pupil attendance, accompanied by further reading and best practice examples. Their guidance is structured around 6 themes:

  1. Build a holistic understanding of pupils and families
  2. Build a culture of community and belonging
  3. Communicate effectively with families
  4. Improve universal provision for all pupils
  5. Deliver targeted interventions
  6. Monitor the impact of approaches

Best practice toolkit for local authorities

A toolkit offering councils practical advice on fulfilling their statutory duty to improve attendance, featuring proven approaches for supporting schools and vulnerable pupils. You will need to register on the local authority knowledge hub to access this.

Best practice webinars

A series of videos are provided to help schools and local authorities understand their roles and responsibilities in addressing absence and what tools are available to enable them.

Communicating with families

The toolkit for communicating with families to support attendance provides:

  • examples of communications with parents and carers about school attendance
  • insight into different types of school absence and family decision-making related to these

Using data

View your education data

State-funded schools, trusts and local authorities can view educational data securely to assess attendance and gain insights for their schools, pupil groups and individual pupils.

There is a user guide to monitoring your school attendance data for schools, trusts and local authorities.

Published data

Pupil attendance in schools presents figures from the daily attendance data at a national, regional and local authority level. This is published on a fortnightly basis.

Information on pupil absence is based on the school census. This is published on a termly basis.

Addressing reasons for absence

Illness

Is my child too ill for school? is guidance from the NHS intended to help parents decide whether their child should be kept off school.

Mental health issues

Mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance: guidance for schools explains the expectations placed on:

  • school staff
  • academy trustees
  • governing bodies
  • parents and carers
  • local authorities where there is a pupil experiencing social, emotional or mental health issues that are affecting attendance

It also provides examples of effective practice in the sector.

Supporting schools

RISE events

Support is provided via termly regional events, including:

  • training
  • best practice sharing sessions
  • open days

Attendance hubs

Attendance hubs provide support and resources to:

  • improve your approach to managing attendance
  • significantly reduce absence in your school

Supporting pupils

Attendance mentoring programme

The attendance mentoring programme provides targeted one-to-one support to pupils to help them to overcome any specific barriers they have to attendance. This programme is being delivered by Etio and is currently in:

  • Blackpool
  • Hartlepool
  • Hastings
  • West Somerset
  • Norwich
  • Portsmouth
  • Ipswich
  • Nottingham
  • Rochdale
  • Walsall

The programme is being evaluated by the Youth Endowment Fund.

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