School attendance working group minutes: August 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government (Chair)
• Education Scotland
• Connect
• NASUWT
• ASPEP
• Connect
• Scottish Council of Independent Schools
• Quarriers
• EIS
• Enquire
• ADES
• AHDS
• SLS

Apologies

• COSLA
• Spartans Community Foundation

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The chair welcomed members, noted apologies and introduced members who were deputising on their behalf.

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

Minutes from the previous meeting of the group on 5 June had been circulated in advance of the meeting and members confirmed that they were content to approve the minutes.

Action: SG to publish minutes on SG website.

Update on national attendance campaign 

The Scottish Government’s marketing team provided an update on the national campaign to promote school attendance. A draft script and still images which will be used for video on demand, poster, radio, digital and social media advertising were shared with the group. It was noted that the marketing campaign aims to help parents and carers improve their understanding of and confidence in engaging with schools to support their child’s attendance.

Key findings from research, stakeholder engagement and creative testing were shared with members. This included:

• absence from school was felt to be very nuanced and it was felt that addressing the underlying reasons for non-attendance was important through the campaign
• both schools and parents/ carers welcomed the national campaign with parents and carers suggesting it would provide a ‘fresh start.’
• family views varied towards school attendance with some parents and carers lacking confidence in working with schools to resolve the issues

Action: SG to update members as the attendance campaign progresses.

Update on parental engagement

The group noted Connect had undertaken a survey to gather the views of parents and carers on school attendance over the summer. The key findings from the survey were shared with the group in advance of the meeting and Connect provided a summary of these.

Quarriers also provided an update on engagement work with young people and staff. Some initial insights included factors that aided school attendance including when returning from long term absence, barriers to attendance at school and feedback on how schools communicate attendance with families. Quarriers will provide a further update at the next meeting of the group. 

Action: Quarriers to share findings of engagement work prior to the next working group meeting in September.

Discussion on drafted sections of the guidance

Updated draft sections of the guidance were circulated prior to the meeting. The Chair invited feedback from members. Key points raised included:

• the guidance should highlight that parents and carers can feel overwhelmed with frequent communication related to absence, particularly if absence is long term 
• it was suggested that sending a letter home is not in itself an intervention, and that for communication to be an intervention, it has to be impactful
• it was suggested that some stronger messaging around ways to communicate would be helpful (e.g. conversations may be more helpful than letters)
• the views and wellbeing of children and young people and parents or carers regarding school exclusions are paramount and specific reference should be made to this in the guidance linked to UNCRC and GIRFEC
• it was also suggested that it must be clear that any final decisions regarding exclusion should lie with the head of the educational establishment
• the structure of the guidance as a whole was discussed and it was suggested that the length of the document could be reduced by signposting to other pieces of guidance and resources
• it was suggested that staged intervention should be referenced earlier in the document due to its importance in promoting attendance
• the importance of strong policy cohesion between all Included, engaged and involved guidance was discussed; it was noted that there should be cognisance with any developments on IEI-3
• it was suggested that good practice examples of strategies and initiatives to improve attendance would be helpful (e.g. use of Pupil Equity Funding) 
• it was highlighted that Education Scotland have a toolkit available to support schools to interpret and effectively support the use of attendance data
• it was noted that there are other broader duties for local authorities to consider (e.g. adaptations to the school building to make them more inclusive, Public Sector Equality Duty, etc.)
• links to racism, gender-based violence and advocacy and support for parents through CRER should be highlighted by the guidance

The group discussed the draft section on part time timetables. The key points included:

• it was reported that the majority of parents and carers who contact the advice line Enquire are unhappy with their experience of part time timetables, particularly when used for children with additional support needs such as autism or ADHD
• some concern was raised that part time timetables may be used to manage a lack of resources and can act as a form of exclusion which has a disproportionate impact on children and young people who are neurodivergent
• it was noted that local authority policy was very variable (e.g. some local authorities require explicit agreement from parents and carers or regular meetings with parents and carers) so it was suggested that the guidance should support development of local authority policies
• it was suggested that some explicit messaging around vulnerable children and part time timetables may be necessary and this should overlap with recording and monitoring work
• it was noted that Seemis coding can make it appear pupils are present 100% of the time
• it was suggested that the guidance should ensure that schools who use part time timetables legitimately and supportively to encourage attendance are not demonised – some attendance is better than none and some children and young people cannot manage the structure of the school day due to their condition and needs
• it was highlighted that part time timetables may relate to pupils who are on a flexible learning plan (e.g. part time in school but full-time education in other locations such as college or work experience placements) and therefore differentiation is important
• the importance of clear differentiation between flexi schooling and part time timetables was also noted
• it was highlighted that part time timetables should be short term and that there needs to be as much thought given to how a child or young person will move away from a part time timetable as how they move onto it - part time timetables must be reviewed, and parents and carers should be involved in the design of the timetable
• it was suggested that a separate meeting may be required to discuss part time timetables in more depth

Actions: 

• Members to provide further feedback on the guidance by correspondence

• SG to review and update sections of guidance in response to feedback from members

• SG to consider a separate meeting to discuss part-time timetables 

The group were asked to consider upcoming sections of the guidance. The following points in relation to in-school absence were raised:

• Education Scotland noted they are involved in work to support approaches to in-school absence and there may be opportunities to link in with this
• it was suggested that in-school absence could be related to a lack of support or enjoyment of particular lesson or a poor relationship with a particular teacher
• an approach to manage in-school absence was shared - an example of an open classroom with a teacher was suggested as giving children and young people somewhere to go and a sense of belonging
• it was suggested that neurodivergent pupils may leave class to self-regulate
• it was also noted that defining in-school absence may be helpful and that the issue of in-school absence should be embedded more clearly in the guidance as it is closely linked to other issues 
• it was suggested that the topic of in-school absence should be clearly linked with the risk assessment guidance 

The group were asked to identify relevant case studies for inclusion throughout the guidance. 

Next steps

The next meeting of the working group is scheduled for September.

Action: SG to review schedule of upcoming meetings to allow for meeting focussed on part-time timetables.