Every Wiltshire school will be offered a meeting with education officers about attendance starting from this academic term according to plans discussed by councillors in the Children’s Select Committee today.

The meetings will be about how to deal with pupils who are persistently or severely absent, and those at risk of becoming so. 

This comes after a new report from Head of Targeted Education for the council, Kathryn Davis, showed the number of Wiltshire children who are not getting a full-time education is still higher than it was two years ago.  

The report says that the number of children with a reduced education provision agreement, which is an agreement between the parent and school where the number of hours spent in education is reduced, is currently 286 while in the period 2020-21 it was 194.

The report also said Wiltshire schools’ academic standards are still behind the regional and national levels according to education watchdog, Ofsted.

Children missing out on education is one of the main priorities of the School Bill, announced in May this year, currently before parliament.

The meetings about attendance are part of Wiltshire Council’s reaction to the new bill.

As part of the bill, new legislation is being introduced to bring into force statutory guidance on attendance.

There will also be a requirement for creation of local authority administered registers for children not in school, reducing the risk of children becoming vulnerable to poor standards of education or risks to their safety and wellbeing.