Evidence, Impact and Actions for Consideration 2024-26 report: How is partnership working supporting attendance?

Attendance - Partnership strategic messages 

Collaborative partnership working, including that of community learning development (CLD) organisations, encourages school staff to develop relationship-based approaches with learners and indeed families. It is important to engage and hear the voices of learners who not only have attendance issues, but who are often underrepresented. Partners offer school staff professional learning around mental health and trauma to improve understanding of on-going challenges which elicit non-attendance. To improve attendance, partners often provide a ‘non-teaching staff’ version of support for learners which offers alternative and flexible curricular pathways. This encourages learners to engage in learning either within or out with the school building.   

YouthLink Scotland (2024) - The Role of Youth Work in Supporting Young People’s Readiness to Learn 

Support from partner organisations such as youth work, helps learners to re-engage with learning in the classroom and beyond (YouthLink Scotland, 2024). The study on ‘readiness to learn’ conducted by YouthLink Scotland, indicates that partnership work supports leaners to have more personalisation, choice and agency in their learning. Learners commented in the study that support from external partnership agencies has had a positive impact on their school attendance, participation, engagement and motivation to succeed. Partner organisations can provide learners with experiential learning and different contexts for learning, including practical and outdoor learning in their community.  

YouthLink indicate that forty-nine percent of learners involved in their 2024 study showed an improvement in school attendance. Several learners in the study were clear that youth work had motivated them to get back to school after a period of absence. One young person mentioned that “youth workers believed in me when I didn’t. They have made so many things happen for me. I had no idea about my future and youth work changed that. I am now going to do a work placement and go back to school next year” (young person). One parent said “... she [her child] wasn’t interested in school and walked away, but since attending the project she is talking about going back next year” (parent).  This was also echoed by a youth worker who mentioned that after working with them “...three young people are returning to school full time next year” (youth worker). A headteacher mentioned that encouragingly sixty-four percent of learners supported by youth workers in their school have improved attendance since the work started (headteacher).