Penalty Notices
The ‘Working Together to Improve Attendance’ document (published August 24) has issued new guidance to all Educational settings regarding penalty notices. There is a new national threshold to issue a penalty notice:
This threshold is 10 sessions (10 half days or 5 whole school days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks (a school week means any week in which there is at least one school session).
This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks).
These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks).
The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).
Only 2 penalty notices can be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within a 3 year rolling period and any second notice within that period is charged at a higher rate:
1st Penalty Notice | 2nd Penalty Notice | 3rd Penalty Notice |
Charged at £160 if paid within 28 days (reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days) | If issued to the same parent in respect of the same pupil, this will be charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days | Cannot be issued to the same parent within 3 years of the date of issue of the first Penalty Notice. |
If threshold is met for a third time, alternative action should be taken: will often include considering prosecution, but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions |