Attendance

Attendance is everybody’s responsibility.

Attendance is the essential foundation to positive outcomes for all children including their safeguarding and welfare and should therefore be seen as part of everyone’s role. Robust attendance and absence policy and procedure can ensure we safeguard children and leave nothing to chance.

Read the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework on GOV.UK:

Good attendance at your early years setting is important because:

it supports the safeguarding of children
it develops good habits, gives rhythm to the week and a consistent routine
it promotes secure attachments, building positive relationships with peers and staff
it promotes wellbeing, with increased self esteem and confidence
it enables children to develop a sense of belonging
children who have lower attendance have often been linked with underachieving
children have access to more learning opportunities

The definition of absence is:

when a child is absent or late
when a child has a deteriorating or changeable pattern of absence or lateness
when you are unable to make any contact with the family or emergency contacts

Early Years Settings should consistently and thoroughly investigate any absences for individual children and their siblings. They should share information with other professionals as appropriate. Read information sharing advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services for children, young people, parents and carer (.pdf).

Settings must have a clear policy on attendance that is shared with parents and carers at registration which includes staff, parent and carer responsibilities. This must link with the settings safeguarding policy and procedure. Messages around attendance and absences as well as reporting can also be reflected in your Uncollected Child, Key Person, Settling in and Sickness policies and procedures.

Your attendance and absence policy and procedures should include:

what positive outcomes can be had from having good attendance - read more about childcare
what to do when a child does not arrive at the expected time
what systems you have for parents to report absences such as verbal/message book, email, using an app or phoning in
who is the nominated staff member that follows up on absences and who else would be responsible in their absence
a clear process for contacting parents and carers
the expectations of absence reporting
the need to be rigorous and persistent in seeking and recording explanations for all absences
an agreed timescales to follow up all absence
what to do if an absence is causing concern
the monitoring of absences to identify any patterns
regular updating of registration forms which also includes additional emergency contacts
links with other providers, professionals and organisations that engage with the family
the sharing of good practice such as through Shared Foundation Partnerships and networks

There are many reasons why children don’t attend settings, with most absences easily explained and seamlessly recorded; however, sometimes absences occur through tragic circumstances and can leave children at risk of harm.

*In October 2016, teacher Helen Daykin was working away from home when her husband, Chris, tragically died from heart failure. Chris was looking after their two young children, aged 4 and 2.

*Whilst the setting followed their safeguarding procedures, the process failed to prevent the girls spending almost 24 hours with their father’s body.

Consider the following when developing your attendance and absence policy and procedures:

a visual flowchart for staff to follow, which is accessible and easily understood
absence is everybody’s responsibility, so ensure all the staff team are confident to follow up or highlight when a child is absent
ensure your registration form has space for an additional 2 contacts, over and above the parent or legal guardians, this could be a neighbour, family friend or work colleague
be specific on timings for follow up calls, for example, by snack time or an hour after their ‘usual’ arrival time
what method of communication for reporting absences, would be the most effective? Reporting children's absences, needs to be consistent, accessible and manageable for parents, carers and practitioners
highlight how many missed sessions there has been over a certain period and what this equates to in monetary terms. This could also include how it impacts on availability of places for children to attend additional hours or take up of new places.
is there a consequence for parents or carers if their child is not brought to their booked sessions? Could the child’s place be withdrawn?

Attendance resources

During the Spring of 2023, we embarked on a project around 2-year-old attendance, and why settings judged by Ofsted to be Outstanding, had higher attendance levels. We have developed a good practice guide from the project’s findings, which reflect the voice of the child, parents, carers and practitioners. This guide, A Good Practice Guide to Attendance (Early Years) – is available to practitioners via a recorded webinar session on MyLO (follow the link or search ‘A good practice guide to attendance’). The webinar can be accessed at any time and the accompanying PowerPoint slides are available to download and share with colleagues.