Background 

West Lothian has over 27,700 children and young people within primary and secondary schools. The demographics include: 

• 15.41% in quintile 1 (Q1) 
• 17.04% in quintile 5 (Q5) 
• 19% receiving free school meals (FSM) 
• 38% with one or more additional support needs (ASN) 

Rationale 

School attendance in session 2022-23 fell to 89.48% from the pre-pandemic level of 92.48% in 2018-19.  

The development and implementation of a West Lothian attendance approach was identified as a priority. Its aim was to improve attendance universally as well as for targeted groups.  

Attainment Scotland Funding 

Strategic Equity Funding and Pupil Equity Funding: Over £50,000 

What West Lothian Council did

The strategic plan centres on improving attendance in all sectors in line with SAC stretch aims. A clear, consistent approach to improvement was required. Five areas of support included:  

• universal 
• targeted  
• enhanced 
• partnerships 
• policy, procedures and data analysis 

An officer was seconded to support attendance and engagement focusing on the following questions with all establishments:  

1. Culture: How to encourage, support and celebrate attendance and how to support young people and families for whom this is a challenge?  
2. Systems: Are there effective, robust systems which allow the tracking of every young person and are there interventions to provide the right support at the right time? 
3. Practice: What capacity is there to respond to changes in a young person’s attendance with appropriate targeted interventions?  

In addition to the appointment of a quality improvement officer, the local authority also established the ‘Interrupted Learner Service’. A principal teacher (PT) and a class teacher (CT) work with colleagues from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and social policy partners. This partnership approach ensured engagement with identified children and young people who were unable to attend school due to a range of emotional and mental health barriers.  

Almost all secondary schools appointed family link workers (FLWs) during session 2022-23. They provided intensive, targeted support to improve the attendance of identified young people. 

Further actions included: 

• the development of a self-evaluation toolkit for ‘Wellbeing, Inclusion & Equality’ and shared with all schools 
• support teams who engaged with Power BI to analyse attendance data, track specific groups/individuals and the impact of targeted interventions 
• focusing on attendance in quality improvement meetings with establishments and monitoring progress against targets and stretch aims  
• the provision of targeted support for groups where required 
• using a shared language for attendance e.g. ‘personal best’ attendance through a series of ‘marginal gains’ 
• a range of career long professional learning (CLPL) sessions for all staff across the authority  
• a staged intervention approach to improve attendance and engagement across all schools 
• the re-establishment of the attendance group to identify and support those most ‘at risk’ 
• the establishment of the ‘Interrupted Learner Service’ to provide intensive, targeted support 
• a consistent approach to the use of attendance codes in SEEMiS  
• an ‘Attendance Matters’ newsletter published monthly and shared with all schools and quality improvement teams which included approaches, the latest research and CLPL offers 

Impact  

Current attendance data evidences improvements in attendance. 

Other positive impacts of this work include improvements in the: 

• tracking of attendance including the use of Power BI 
• focus on attendance as part of quality improvement discussions 
• capacity of staff to understand barriers to attendance and strategies to improve it  
• consistency and accuracy of recording attendance in SEEMiS