Absenteeism - The Herefordshire Partnership

Absenteeism

Absenteeism from school, whether authorised or unauthorised, is detrimental to a child's educational progress.  Targets were set as part of Herefordshire Council's Local Public Service Agreement (2006-2008, LPSA¹)  to reduce absenteeism in both primary and secondary schools, as well as absenteeism of Looked After Children. 

Where appropriate, absenteeism rates are used which show the number of half day sessions missed due to total absence as a proportion of the number of sessions reported in the Annual School Performance Absence Return, in the academic year up until the half term at the end of may.  For absenteeism, lower percentages are better as this shows less absenteeism, the 'top quartile' used shows the top 25% of English Authorities that have the lowest absenteeism.  In this case the top quartiles appear lower than the other quartiles on the charts, i.e. closer to the x-axis.

Over the monitoring period, Herefordshire's absenteeism rates for children in primary school have generally been quite good.  Between 2002-03 and 2005-06, Herefordshire's performance was in line with the top performing of all English authorities (top quartile – 25% best performing authorities), with low rates of absenteeism, 5.1% in 2005-06.  However, absenteeism increased in 2006-07 to 5.7% placing it just above the median of all authorities and further away from the top quartile, 5.4%.  Performance in 2007-08 improved with rates reducing again to 5.1% half days missed due to authorised or unauthorised absence.

Unfortunately, Herefordshire has not met the targets set out in the LPSA for 2005-06 to 2007-08.

Chart 1.  Percentage of half days missed in PRIMARY schools due to authorised and unauthorised absence for Herefordshire and all English Authorities.

Source: Children and Young People's Directorate, Herefordshire Council & Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI), Communities and Local Government (CLG)

Absenteeism in secondary schools is not as low as it is for primary schools, and Herefordshire is not performing as well compared to other authorities across England.  Despite starting off the monitoring period above the top quartile of English authorities, Herefordshire has been closer to the median since 2004-05.

In the academic year 2007-08, 7.9% of half days in secondary school were missed due to authorised or unauthorised absences.  Herefordshire has not met the targets set as part of the LPSA for 2005-06 through to 2007-08.

Chart 2.  Percentage of half days missed in SECONDARY schools due to authorised and unauthorised absence for Herefordshire and all English Authorities.

Source: Children and Young People's Directorate, Herefordshire Council & Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI), Communities and Local Government (CLG)

Absenteeism for Looked After Children

Herefordshire Council has responsibility for ensuring that the children it looks after² are given the maximum opportunity to benefit from education.  Absenteeism rates for looked after children are monitored by two methods:

• number of half days missed as a proportion of all half days (as described above)
• number of looked after children who missed 25 days or more as a proportion of all looked after children.

It is worth noting that the number of looked after children in Herefordshire is low, so percentages based on these low numbers are subject to large changes.




Over the monitoring period, Herefordshire's figures have fluctuated quite a lot; however this is likely be due to the small numbers of children the percentages are based on, as previously mentioned. 

In Herefordshire absenteeism of looked after children (those who missed at least 25 days of school) has improved; decreasing from 15% during the academic year 2006-07 to 7% in 2007-08.

Chart 3.  Percentage of children who had been looked after continuously for at least 12 months and were of school age who missed a total of at least 25 days schooling for any reason during the previous year for Herefordshire and English authorities

Source: Children’s Services, Herefordshire Council and Performance Assessment Framework (PAF), Commission for Social Care Inspectorate (CSCI)

Absenteeism rates are also presented for children 'looked after' by Herefordshire Council for specifically primary or secondary schools. 

 

In the academic year 2007-08, 4.2% half days were missed by looked after children in primary schools.  This is an improvement on 2004-05, 4.7% but worse than last year, 3.8%.  Current figures have achieved the target of 4.5% or less.

Absenteeism rates for looked after children in secondary schools were slightly higher, with current rates at 9.0% of half days were missed in 2007-08.  This was an increase from 7.7% in 2004-05 and a large increase from 2006-07, 6.8%.  Unfortunately, the rate of 9.0% in 2007-08, was above the target of 7.2% half days missed or fewer.

Source: Children and Young People's Directorate, Herefordshire Council

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¹ For more information about LPSA see Reference Section 30.

² Children become looked after when their birth parents are unable to provide ongoing care in either a temporary or permanent capacity. Children can either be looked after as a result of voluntary agreement by their parents or as the result of a care order.