Attendance

Our East Sussex attendance mantra is ‘building inclusive cultures: attendance as a shared responsibility’.

The ESCC Attendance Delivery Plan 2026-2028 [373.6 KB] [docx] outlines the LAs strategic plan to bring about positive change to attendance in East Sussex schools.

The 4 Attendance Objectives for 2026-2028 are:

Reduce severe absence (SA) through schools' Inclusion Strategies & earlier intervention
Reduce persistent absence (PA) for all Secondary and Special Schools across East Sussex
Increase overall attendance rate for Primary and Secondary schools in Area Group 2 (Eastbourne & Hailsham)
Use full range of legal statutory intervention where support has not been successful or engaged with

The ESCC Attendance Support Team (AST) track attendance data for all East Sussex schools. This helps to identify issues and barriers to attendance early on.

The team will support schools to manage any concerns, including facilitating multi-agency meetings. They help the school plan individual or group approaches to improve attendance.

What the Attendance Support Team offer

A daily attendance helpline for schools.
Opportunities for schools to share best practice.
Targeted support meetings to identify and address concerns.
Multi-disciplinary support for families and signposting to other council services.
Support with legal interventions like parenting contracts, Extended Support Officers, fixed penalty notices, parenting orders and prosecutions.

The Attendance Support Team is part of the new Team Around the School and Setting (TASS).

We work in area-based teams to provide in-school support and advice in:

Lewes, Coastal and Wealden
Rother, Rye and Hastings
Eastbourne and Hailsham

Attendance Policies

Attendance Guidance

Children Missing Education (CME)

For policies and guidance on Children Missing Education (CME) or if you wish to make contact with the CME team, details can be found on the Czone CME page .

Penalty Notices

For guidance on persistent absences, Penalty Notices, Notice to Improve, Attendance Support Plans and withdrawal from learning applications, please view the 'penalty notice' page on Czone here Penalty notices | Czone.

Contact the Attendance Support Team

Attendance helpline

Phone: 01273 481 967 (open Monday to Friday 10.00am to 15.00pm).

Early Help Keywork Level 2 - support for families with children and young people whose attendance is below 60%

ESCC Early Help Service L2 Keywork Team offers support to families with severely absent children and young people. We provide intensive whole family support over a five-month period, to identify and reduce the barriers to attending school.

We work closely with the TASS (Team Around Schools and Settings) Attendance Support Team (AST), where each school has a named SPOC (single point of contact).

Schools should contact the attendance helpline for information and guidance first:

Phone: 01273 481 967 (open Monday to Friday 10.00am to 3.00pm)

We have recently reviewed our referral criteria and made a change to detail around terms and who can make a referral within school.

Criterial for referral to Level 2 Keywork Team

Child or young person’s attendance has been below 60% for with a referral being able to be made at any point after ten consecutive weeks, during the current term when attendance remains below 60%.
Referrals will need to be made by schools via a SoR through the Children's Portal (see links below).
Referrals can be made anyone within school, however we ask that the school update their internal systems, so all internal professionals are aware.
Schools must clearly demonstrate the intervention that has been carried out to address the attendance concern and re-engage the child or young person to attend. The process for this can be viewed in the ESCC Attendance Toolkit on page 5.
Schools must clearly demonstrate they have worked though the supportive measures outlined in Tiers 1-3 as shown on the Attendance flowchart on page 5 and discussed the referral with their SPOC.
School must email a copy of their School Attendance Plan (formal or informal) as completed with the child or young person and their parents – to the SPOA in-box (see details below).
Where a child has diagnosed SEN needs, the current Additional Needs Support Plan or EHCP must be submitted with the referral including evidence that it has been regularly reviewed or if it is the process of being applied for, must be evidenced.

All Early Help Keywork Teams take a whole family approach working with parents/carers and children within the family. The intervention will remain voluntary.

Make a referral

School referrer makes a statement of referral (SoR) through the Children's Portal.

Email a copy of the school attendance plan (formal or informal) that you completed with the pupil and their parents to webspoa@eastsussex.gov.uk

If the pupil has diagnosed special educational needs, include the following with your referral:

Their current additional needs plan (ANP) or Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Evidence that you reviewed the ANP or you are applying for an EHCP.

Early Help Keywork Level 2 - Up to 5-month intensive intervention

Referral to be made by school via SPOA Portal using SoR. All supportive measures detailed in Tiers 1-3 must be completed and referral criteria met for referral to be considered and Attendance support plans to be submitted. If a referral is declined IAG will be provided by SPOA/ EH to the referrer.

EH Plan will be developed with family and reviewed at end of each 10-week period of support. EH uses a 'whole family' approach with the needs of the young person and wider family considered.

Schools will be expected to continue to support and retain a relationship with the family alongside EH to ensure smooth handovers at the end of intervention and actively participate in multi-agency and professional’s meetings including EH review and closure meetings as part of a collaborative approach.

Supporting families with complex needs | Family hubs