Education Welfare

Supporting parents, carers and children

The Education Welfare Service has revised its ‘Request for service online form’.  And its ‘Request for a penalty notice.

All requests for service should be made via the online form.

Criteria for service

Any pupil with 10 sessions of unauthorised absence over a rolling 10 week period (10%) unauthorised absence. This can include lateness after the register has closed.

Once received the following will also be taken into consideration:

• Whole year attendance (380 sessions) this may straddle the previous/next academic year. (Schools are required to upload the previous and current year’s attendance date)
• Penalty Notices can be issued where the request for leave is not considered exceptional and there are 10 continuous sessions of unauthorised absence
• Requests for service should be timely. The last day of absence should be within the last 10 school days before the referral being made
• Breach of a Deferred Prosecution Notice (DPN) or Advisory Notice (AN). Refer the breach at 10 further unauthorised absences or more with your record of any warnings or interventions

More information regarding the Service and useful links can be found on the Nottingham Schools web page under Pupil Support or you can email EducationWelfareServices@nottinghamcity.gov.uk To speak with a colleague please call 0115 876 2965. Briefing sessions in schools can also be arranged upon request.

Support for children who cannot attend school due to their mental health needs

The Education division has been allocated funding for one year to establish a new team to support children not attending school due to their mental health. This resource includes staff in the Education division who will oversee a Complex Case Panel process and a brand-new Mental Health Improving Attendance Team (MIAT) in the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) who will deliver interventions with young people. Please note this is a brand-new intervention focussed specifically on supporting children with their attendance and is different from MHST support you may have accessed in the past.

All referrals should be made after discussion with the designated Education Welfare Officer.  If the child has an Education Health and Care Plan, referrals will also need to be discussed with the SEN Service before submission.

The referral form can be downloaded here:

Interim Section 19 Health Referral Form

In addition, the Hospital and Home Education Service are able to loan AV1 robots to schools and provide advice around their use.  AV1 telepresence robots connect absent students to learning, ensure belonging, and support reintegration back to the classroom.

More information about how they work is available here: AV1 | Connect learn belong | Reduce school absence with AV1 robots by No Isolation

The request form can be downloaded below.

AV1 Referral Form

For more information about AV1 ‘bots’, please email referrals@hhe.nottingham.sch.uk

For more information contact