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Statutory guidance

Working together to improve school attendance

How schools, academy trusts, governing bodies and local authorities should maintain high levels of school attendance.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
6 May 2022
Last updated:
9 July 2026
Show all updates

  1. Updated guidance on 'Working together to improve school attendance' with technical clarifications. The main changes are summarised at the start of the document.

  2. Updated to remove outdated resources, and to clarify that this is statutory guidance.

  3. Updated the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance to clarify: independent schools are not required to submit daily data to the Department; penalty amount for children present in public places whilst excluded from school; supervision requirements for approved educational activities; and statistical meaning for code C2. Added further guidance on the use of code E, code Q, code Y6 and code Y7. Made corrections and updates to formatting and paragraph and chapter references. No changes were made to policy.

  4. Updated the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance that applies from 19 August 2024 to correct regulation references in points 218, 219, 286, 317, 369 and 377. No changes were made to policy.

  5. Added 'Working together to improve school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024' and 'Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance: applies from 19 August 2024'. The status of these documents will be statutory as of that date.

  6. Added 'Toolkit for schools: communicating with families to support attendance' and 'Annex A: example attendance letters and emails to parents and carers'.

  7. Added link to guidance on school attendance for parents.

  8. Added a link to a source of further information on improving attendance.

  9. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Working together to improve school attendance

PDF, 903 KB, 100 pages

Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance

PDF, 264 KB, 14 pages

Details

This statutory guidance is for:

  • local-authority-maintained schools
  • academies
  • independent schools
  • local authorities

It outlines how you are expected to maintain high levels of school attendance.

It also summarises:

  • the roles and responsibilities of parents and carers, schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities
  • how you can support families and pupils who are persistently or severely absent, or at risk of becoming so
  • the legal interventions schools and local authorities can use when attendance support does not work, is not engaged with or is not appropriate
  • what schools must record in their attendance and admission register

The guidance on RISE support for improving attendance in schools includes resources for schools to improve attendance.

The Children’s Commissioner has also published guidance for parents on school attendance.

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