A Comparison between Inspection Reports on the Management of School Attendance Throughout the Education Service

Abstract

This is the first article to compare and contrast the outcomes of Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) reports on the management of school attendance issues in primary and secondary schools, out-of-school and local education authorities (LEA) provision. The findings indicate that schools and LEAs are judged using very strict criteria based on a school's or LEA's authorized or unauthorized rates of attendance, which are then compared with national norms, targets and Ofsted criteria. By contrast, out-of-school providers, often pupil referral units (PRUs), are given much more latitude despite their more obvious and serious attendance difficulties. This paper presents an insight into the reasons given by Ofsted inspectors for making either their positive or negative judgements on schools', PRUs' or LEAs' performances on the management of their attendance agenda. The implications of these findings are considered and conclusions drawn based on the evidence. Further research will be necessary to compare the findings in this paper with subsequent outcomes given the proposed changes with Ofsted's methodology and criteria for conducting its future inspections.