Whole School Approaches

Targeting Support Meetings (TSMs) are essential for early identification and support of pupils with habitual attendance issues, requiring collaboration between schools, local authorities, and partners. Local authorities are expected to organise these meetings regularly with each school to build strong relationships, discuss overall trends and emerging trends in the school's attendance data, identify and agree on action plans for severely absent pupils, and discuss approaches for persistently absent pupils needing multi-agency responses. The meetings should be short, focused, and prioritise cases needing joint action, with the structure tailored to local needs.

Schools are expected to participate in these meetings in accordance with their safeguarding duties. The number of meetings a school is expected to book depends on the level of the attendance challenges in the school:

• If your school's attendance levels were below the national average for your phase, it is expected that you book a TSM for each term.
• If your school's attendance levels were above national average for that phase, you may if you want only schedule one TSM for the academic year.
• We would encourage all secondary schools in Norfolk to book a TSM for each term, whether above or below national average, due to the overall challenges in secondary school attendance.

If you are above the national average and wish to meet with us termly, you are welcome and invited to do so.

If your school is part of a trust that has an allocated Attendance and Entitlement Officer, an LA maintained specialist school or an independent school, you do not need to book through the online system as you will be contacted directly to arrange your TSMs.

You can download and view the Targeting Support Meeting Record 2024-25 (Word doc, 85 KB) here or in Attendance Forms and Templates.

Booking your TSM

To book your TSMs for the academic year:

• Visit the following page: NCC Targeting Support Meeting Bookings
• Select the meeting type that applies to your school setting.
• Select the date you wish to book in the calendar.
• Select a time from the available options.
• Add your details into the required fields, ensuring to include the name of your school.
• Select book and you will receive an email confirmation of your booking.

Please note:

If you wish for other colleagues to attend, you will be able to forward on the meeting invitation.

When booking a meeting for each term, you will need to repeat this process for each booking.

If a date or time is unavailable that is because the slot is already booked, or the date falls outside of term-time based on the Norfolk calendar.