Attendance and Children Missing Education

1. Purpose

Attendance is where placements succeed or fail. A learner who is not here cannot be taught, supported or kept safe by us. An absence can also be the first sign that a young person is at risk of harm or exploitation.

This policy makes sure that:

• every learner's attendance is recorded accurately on arrival;

• every absence is followed up the same morning;

• referring schools and the Council have the information they need, every day, to meet their own legal duties;

• we act at once when a learner is missing or may be missing education;

• we help every learner attend more, by removing barriers rather than blaming.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all learners at Care Cove AP, whoever commissions the place, on every allocated day, including off-site learning and work placements. It applies to all staff.

3. Law and guidance

• Working Together to Improve School Attendance (DfE, statutory from August 2024). It places duties on schools and local authorities. Care Cove is not a school, but we follow it as good practice and work to it so that schools and the Council can meet their duties.

• Who holds the legal duties. Every placement at Care Cove is part-time and sits alongside the learner's main education arrangement. For a learner on a school roll, the referring school keeps legal responsibility for the learner's attendance, for its own attendance register and for any leave of absence or legal action. For a permanently excluded learner, the local authority is responsible for arranging suitable education. We give them accurate, same-day information so that they can do this.

• Children Missing Education statutory guidance. Local authorities must identify children of compulsory school age who are not registered at a school and not receiving suitable education. We notify the Sheffield Children Missing Education (CME) team where a learner may be missing education.

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, which treats children missing education, and children on part-time timetables, as potential safeguarding concerns.

• Sheffield Children's Safeguarding Partnership procedures, including those for children missing from home, care or education.

4. Roles and responsibilities

5. Allocated days and the register

Each learner has allocated days, agreed in writing with the commissioner at admission: 2 or 3 days a week. Allocated days are held in Connect. Care Cove operates on Sheffield City Council term dates only, so registers exist only on delivery days.

Taking the register:

• Arrival is from 08:45 and the taught day runs from 09:15 to 15:45.

• The key mentor marks each learner present on the Connect register as they arrive, recording arrival time, breakfast and meal taken, and phone handed in.

• The register is checked after every transition, after break and lunch, and before and after any off-site session, with a headcount.

• If Connect is unavailable, staff use the paper fallback register and enter it on Connect as soon as possible.

The Connect register is the source of our attendance data and our attendance reports. It must be accurate. Staff must never mark a learner present who is not on site or with staff.

6. Sharing attendance every day

• Live in the Partner portal. As the register is taken, attendance updates in the Connect Partner portal for the referring school, and for the Council for permanently excluded learners.

• Every absence is notified. By 10:30 each day, the Administrator (or the key mentor if the Administrator is absent) tells the referring school's attendance contact about every absence and its reason, by phone or Partner portal message. For a permanently excluded learner, the Council's Access and Inclusion Officer is told.

• Lateness and early departures are shared in the same way, with times.

• The referring school uses this information to complete its own register. The school decides which attendance code to use.

Parents can see their child's attendance day by day in the Family portal.

7. Same-morning follow-up of every absence

Every absence is followed up the same morning. This is first-day calling.

Every call attempt, message and outcome is logged on Connect with the time.

Reasons for absence. Record the reason the parent gives. Care Cove does not authorise or refuse absences. That is for the referring school, or the Council for permanently excluded learners. Where a parent reports illness repeatedly, the key mentor asks whether any support is needed and the Clinical Advisor can advise.

8. Escalation when there is no contact or the learner is vulnerable

The DSL considers:

• whether the learner may be missing from home or at risk of harm, including exploitation, going missing with others, or harm at home;

• what the learner's contextual risk map and recent check-in scores show;

• the learner's social worker and any child protection or child in need plan.

The DSL may:

• contact the learner's social worker the same morning;

• make a referral to the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub (0114 273 4855, answered by the Emergency Duty Service out of hours);

• ask the police to carry out a safe and well check, or report the learner missing if there is a risk of harm. Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger.

9. Home visits

Where we cannot make contact, or where a learner is repeatedly absent, the DSL may arrange a home visit, following our home visit protocol.

• Two members of staff go, never one.

• The DSL checks known risks before the visit, including any risk to staff.

• Staff carry a charged phone and tell the office when they arrive and leave.

• Staff do not enter the home unless invited and it is safe.

• If staff see the learner and have no concern, they encourage attendance and may bring the learner in.

• If no one answers, staff leave a card asking the family to call, and report back to the DSL at once.

• If staff see anything that suggests a child is at risk, they call 999 if the danger is immediate and tell the DSL straight away.

Every visit is recorded on Connect the same day.

10. Children missing education

A child may be missing education if we, the school and the family cannot establish where they are, or if the family has moved away without a new school.

Where a learner's whereabouts are unknown after reasonable enquiries, normally by the end of the second consecutive allocated day without contact, or sooner if the learner is vulnerable, the DSL:

1. tells the referring school, which holds the legal duties for an on-roll learner, and agrees who is making which enquiries;

2. notifies the Sheffield Children Missing Education team (0114 273 6462; ed-missingchildren@sheffield.gov.uk);

3. for a permanently excluded learner, tells the Council's Access and Inclusion Officer and the commissioning local authority's contract manager;

4. for a learner commissioned by another local authority, also notifies that authority's children missing education team and the commissioner;

5. considers a referral to the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub and the police;

6. records all enquiries and decisions on Connect.

We keep the learner's place open until the commissioner decides otherwise. A learner is never removed from our roll because they are missing.

11. Attendance target and attendance support

Target. Our target is that at least 75% of learners attend more than 75% of their allocated days across each term. Beyond that, we aim for every learner's attendance at Care Cove and at school to improve from their baseline attendance history, which is recorded at admission.

Support. Attendance problems are usually about barriers, not attitude. Staff support attendance actively.

Support can include:

• transport: Care Cove arranges and pays for transport where independent travel is not practical, and staff collect a learner rather than lose the day (policy 16);

• travel support: a mentor meeting the learner at the tram or bus stop during the settling-in period, and independent travel training;

• the key mentor: a morning message or call, a Walk and Talk, and a consistent welcome;

• breakfast on arrival every day;

• emotionally based avoidance: a gradual plan with the counsellor, agreed with the family and school;

• health: Clinical Advisor advice where illness is affecting attendance;

• family support: Early Help, or the Family Liaison Worker;

• the child plan and TAF: attendance targets set through Mini-PATHs and reviewed with the learner.

Any temporary change to a learner's hours must be agreed with the referring school and the commissioning local authority, recorded, time-limited, aimed at increasing attendance and reviewed at least fortnightly. The DSL is told, because KCSIE 2026 treats part-time timetables as an Early Help indicator. We never reduce a learner's days as a sanction.

Decisions about legal action for non-attendance belong to the school and the local authority. We give them accurate records when asked. A placement is never ended for non-attendance without recorded consultation with the referring school and the commissioning local authority (policy 30).

12. Lateness

• Arrival after 09:15 is recorded on Connect as late, with the arrival time.

• Late learners are welcomed calmly, never told off in public, and offered something to eat if they missed breakfast.

• Lateness is shared with the school (section 6).

• The key mentor talks privately with any learner who is late three times in a half term and agrees what would help, for example transport changes, a wake-up plan through the Sleep Lab, or a collection.

13. Leaving site

• Learners stay on site, or with staff off site, for the whole day. Lunch is provided, so learners do not go out at lunchtime.

• A learner may leave early only for an appointment or illness, with a parent's agreement. They are collected by an authorised adult or travel independently if the parent has agreed this in writing and it fits their travel assessment. The time of leaving and who collected them is recorded on Connect and shared with the school.

• If a learner leaves without permission, follow the missing learner procedure in section 15.

14. Collecting learners

• At 15:45 phones are returned at the door and learners leave in the staggered order set by their risk assessments.

• Learners travel home independently, by arranged transport or with an authorised adult, as set out in their travel assessment.

• Only adults listed on the learner's Connect record may collect them. Any contact restrictions or court orders are shown on the learner's Connect header. If an unknown adult arrives, the learner is not released until a parent with parental responsibility confirms it, and the DSL is told of any concern.

• If a learner who should be collected is not collected, two staff stay with them in the AP area. Staff phone every contact. If no one can be reached within 30 minutes, staff tell the DSL, who decides on next steps, which may include contacting the Sheffield Safeguarding Hub. A learner is never sent home alone in place of an agreed collection, and is never taken home in a staff member's own car without a written risk assessment (policy 16).

15. A learner missing during the day

If a learner is missing from the building, from an off-site session or from transport, follow the immediate actions in policy 01:

1. Tell the Head of AP and DSL at once, and check the register and CCTV.

2. Phone the parent and the referring school immediately.

3. Search the building and the immediate area, keeping ratios safe for the other learners.

4. Call the police straight away where there is known risk, for example exploitation, self-harm, a medical need, a threat from others or previous missing episodes. Call 999 if the learner is in immediate danger. Otherwise, if the learner has not been found within 30 minutes, the DSL calls the police. A learner counts as found only when a member of staff, or a parent who is with them, has confirmed they are safe.

5. Make a children missing education notification where needed (section 10).

6. Record everything on Connect, with times, and review the incident at the weekly meeting.

When the learner returns, the key mentor welcomes them back, checks they are safe and holds a return conversation. The DSL considers whether a return home interview or referral is needed.

16. Holidays in term time

Care Cove does not authorise holidays or leave in term time. A parent who asks for leave is referred to the referring school, whose headteacher decides, or to the Council for a permanently excluded learner. We record any leave that the school or Council tells us it has agreed. Where a family plans extended travel abroad, the DSL considers any safeguarding risk.

17. Unplanned closures

If Care Cove has to close unexpectedly, the Director tells families, referring schools and commissioning local authorities within 2 hours (policy 20). Closure days are recorded on Connect as closures, not learner absences. Staff contact vulnerable learners and their families on the day of closure and offer work where possible.

18. Recording and reports

• The register, absence reasons, contact attempts, home visits and CME decisions are recorded on Connect.

• The Administrator reconciles the register weekly.

• The weekly multidisciplinary case meeting reviews each learner's attendance and actions.

• Attendance is reported at the monthly progress meeting with the commissioning local authority.

19. Monitoring and review

The Head of AP checks every day that the register is complete and every absence followed up. The DSL reviews missing and CME cases at the weekly concerns log review. Every term the SWMC audits a sample of absence follow-ups, home visits and CME decisions, and looks at attendance by ethnicity, sex, SEND and looked-after status. This policy is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident, a change in law or guidance, or a contract change.

20. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 07 Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice
• 12 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• 16 Transport and Escorting
• 17 Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing
• 20 Business Continuity and Emergency Closure
• 24 Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines
• 26 Off-site Learning and Educational Visits
• 28 Site Security, Visitors and CCTV
• 30 Referrals, Admissions and Ending Placements

Appendix A: Key contacts

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.