We’ve been talking a lot to schools and health professionals recently about pupil absence due to illness and medical conditions. This features prominently in the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) statutory guidance on Working Together to Improve School Attendance.
Illness is the largest reason for pupil absence year-on-year both in Wandsworth and nationally. Fortunately, Wandsworth usually has lower rates of absence due to illness than the rest of the country. However, pupil absence due to medical appointments taken during school time appears to be on the rise. Here, it is important parents consider making appointments before or after school for their child, where possible, and if this isn’t possible, that children return to school as soon as possible after the appointment during school time so they can resume their learning.
When it comes to immunisations, Wandsworth has a low take up of MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) immunisations, which means children may not be well enough to attend school when suffering the effects of these contagious infections if they haven’t received their vaccinations.
In some cases, schools may ask for medical evidence for a child’s absence. However, the guidance advises that this should only be needed in a minority of cases and is not to be routinely requested from parents.
However, there are a few important reasons why medial evidence will prove useful to schools, for example:
- Where a pupil’s health need means they need reasonable adjustments.
- If the illness or medical condition is complex or long term, and medical evidence will help schools better understand the needs of the pupil and to arrange suitable educational provision, where appropriate.
- If a school needs clarification to accurately record absence in the attendance register, especially now there are new additional register codes schools need to consider.
- Or when a school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness.
It is our advice to ensure school procedures are clearly set out in the school attendance policy, and we’ve produced a content guide to help schools review their policy in line with the new expectations set out in the guidance.
The DfE has also produced a helpful video available about how to set an effective school attendance policy on YouTube here: School Attendance Guidance Training Webinar – Setting an effective school attendance policy
