Recommendation SP64: Review of school attendance monitoring guidance
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
The Department for Education should undertake a targeted review, engaging with a representative sample of local authorities, to check both that the current (improved) guidance is now sufficient and understood and that the system for monitoring school attendance is being followed in practice and meets the need in cross border cases.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Department for Education accepted the recommendation and expected to complete implementation by late 2026, with regional workshops across England planned for September 2026 to test understanding of attendance monitoring guidance and cross-border issues with local authorities and attendance officers (Home Office response, Jul 2026). The record holds no update since the government's response of July 2026 (Home Office response, Jul 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
The Department for Education is the lead department and expects to complete the implementation of this recommendation by late 2026. Progress and next steps:
- Regional workshops with local authorities across England are planned for September 2026.
- These workshops will test understanding of guidance on attendance monitoring and cross-border issues.
- Understanding of this guidance will also be tested with local authority attendance officers through their representative body.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The government's response to Phase 1 (CP 1623, 2 July 2026) agreed with all 67 recommendations in one sentence, and names only 39 of them individually. Where a recommendation is not named, the response shown is the passage the response gives for the group it belongs to (the recommendations for organisations outside central government, or the recommendations to policing bodies), which is not a response to that recommendation alone; the response does not list the members of any group. The 10 recommendations for Phase 2 of the Inquiry to consider show no response: the response introduces them (paragraph 20) but answers none of them. The government accepts the recommendations that are for central government to deliver. Where a recommendation is for an organisation outside central government, the government's agreement is not that organisation's acceptance.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Department for Education has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 July 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department for Education
Response