The Department for Education is looking to double the number of “attendance advisers” in order to “challenge” more schools and local authorities on their approaches to cutting pupil absence.

This is despite the fact that - as revealed by Tes two weeks ago - half of multi-academy trusts (MATs) offered help by attendance advisers so far have rejected it, with headteachers’ leaders branding the scheme “naive”.

The DfE has so far hired five attendance advisers, paid up to £500-a-day, in a bid to reduce “avoidable” and “persistent” absence.

But now, the DfE plans to hire an additional three to six advisers to work with local authorities, and between one and two advisers to work with schools and MATs.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the expansion of the scheme showed a failure to grasp what schools need to boost attendance.

“The DfE does not seem to understand that the problem is not lack of advice but lack of resources,” he said.

Local authorities and trusts “will already be well aware of the issues on their patch and will no doubt have strategies in place”, he added.

A contract notice published yesterday says that, in line with new guidance on school attendance, advisers will:

• Work closely with a portfolio of LAs, MATs and schools to review their current approach to attendance and identify the changes required to meet the expectations in the new guidance.
• Support LAs, MATs and schools to develop and implement an action plan to make the necessary changes.
• Provide ongoing challenge and support to the LA, MAT or school as they implement their plan. 
• Develop best practice case studies and materials as required.

The notice says the DfE welcomes applications from individuals with “credible leadership experience for attendance”, including former headteachers, Ofsted inspectors, LA and MAT leaders, and independent attendance consultants.

In particular, the department is looking for help in London, the East of England, the South East, the North and the North West.

The advisers will be contracted to work for around 50 days in each of the next two academic years, starting from September 2022 to August 2024, with a review in summer 2023.

‘Pitifully inadequate’

There are widespread concerns about the long-term impact of Covid-19 on pupil attendance.

The Schools Bill, currently going through Parliament, would require schools to publish an attendance policy, as well as establish compulsory registers for children not in school.

Ministers are also set to create a new national system for when legal intervention and fines should be issued over pupil absence.

But Mr Barton said that, while there is “no doubt” that there is a problem with pupil attendance following the pandemic, the attendance adviser scheme was “a pitifully inadequate response to this problem”.

He added: “The government has presided over a devastating austerity programme over the past decade or so, which has led to severe cuts to local authority attendance support services and has affected the capacity of schools to provide pastoral support and specialist intervention to pupils whose attendance is a concern.

”...For the government to now send a tiny number of advisers into local authorities and trusts as though this is some sort of grand strategy is a long way short of what is needed.”

Information obtained by Tes earlier this month showed that, out of 29 local authorities and 33 MATs identified by the DfE as “having the potential to benefit from the support of an attendance adviser”, only 21 local authorities and 17 MATs have actually taken up the offer.