An evidence-informed workshop helps schools understand barriers, strengthen practice and develop more inclusive approaches to attendance.

Improving attendance is rarely as simple as telling a child they need to attend more often.

Behind irregular or persistent absence there can be a complex interaction of emotional, relational, sensory, environmental, family and systemic factors. If we oversimplify the barrier, we risk oversimplifying the response.

Barriers to Attendance: Evidence to Practice is an evidence-informed programme designed to help school staff move beyond attendance as a matter of compliance and towards an approach rooted in understanding, connection, belonging and purposeful intervention.

The programme explores how schools can:

Prevent attendance difficulties by strengthening belonging, inclusion and universal practice.

Respond early when difficulties begin to emerge, using curiosity rather than waiting for absence to become entrenched.

Provide targeted support when children experience more complex barriers to attendance.

Better understand the interaction between emotional wellbeing, regulation, relationships, family context, school experience and belonging.

Strengthen child and caregiver voice so that plans are developed with families rather than simply for them.

Turn a deeper understanding of barriers into practical, meaningful action.

The programme's graduated approach is deliberately not a set of gates children have to pass through. Support should become more individualised as need and understanding increase, while the preventative foundations of belonging, relationships and inclusion remain important throughout.

Introducing COMPASS

The programme will also introduce COMPASS, a practical graduated framework for targeted attendance support.

COMPASS helps practitioners move from“What is the child's attendance percentage?” to the more important question: “What is happening for this child, and what needs to change?”

Using a structured cycle of:

ASSESS → PLAN → DO → REVIEW

participants will explore how to build a rounded understanding of the child, drawing together attendance patterns, child and caregiver perspectives, strengths and protective factors, school and professional observations, and the wider context surrounding attendance. This understanding can then inform meaningful goals, purposeful intervention and regular review.

COMPASS recognises that attendance data matters, but numbers alone cannot tell us what a child needs. The framework brings data and narrative together, helping schools decide the right level and type of support.

Who is it for?

This programme will be particularly useful for:

Attendance leads and Attendance Champions

Senior and pastoral leaders

DSLs and safeguarding teams

SENDCOs and inclusion leaders

Family support and pastoral practitioners

Staff working directly with children experiencing barriers to attendance

The aim

Ultimately, this programme is about helping schools achieve what matters:

More children attending school, more often, because the barriers to attendance are better understood and the support around them is stronger.

Not simply asking:“How do we get this child into school?”but also: “What might need to change so that attending school becomes more possible?”

Description supplied by the event organiser.