Legal Intervention

As absence is so often a symptom of wider issues a family is facing, we will always work with other local partners to understand the barriers to attendance and provide support. Where that is not successful, or is not engaged with, the law protects students’ right to an education and provides a range of legal interventions to formalise attendance improvement efforts, and where all other avenues have been exhausted, enforce it through prosecuting parents. Attendance legal intervention can only be used for students of compulsory school age and decisions should be made on an individual case by case basis.  

The following legal interventions may be utilised to improve attendance:

Education supervision order: Either local authority can apply for an education supervision order, but it will usually be the Home LA that acts as the ‘designated LA’ and therefore both local authorities should discuss and agree before proceeding. 

Penalty notice: A penalty notice must be issued in line with the National Framework and local code of conduct for the area in which the child goes to school, and if issued by a local authority, it must be the School LA. 

Prosecution: Either local authority has the power to prosecute, but in general it should be the School LA that takes forward prosecutions under section 444(1) and (1A) of the Education Act 1996. It is, however, good practice for the School LA to inform the Home LA that legal action is being taken.

Parenting orders: Where a prosecution leads to a Parenting Order, the Court will specify a responsible officer in line with section 372(5) of the Sentencing Act 2020. Both local authorities should discuss and agree who is most appropriate to act as responsible officer in advance of seeking the Order, within the statutory requirements. The most appropriate officer will often depend on the reason for absence.

Further details of these can be found in the government guidance “working together to improve school attendance” but a summary of these legal interventions can be found attached.

The attached advice document has been created by St Helens council for those parents / carers facing prosecution for non-school attendance.