Designated teacher resources for children in care

Monitoring the attendance of Norfolk children

It is a statutory responsibility for local authorities to collect attendance data for the children and young people in their care.

We commission a specialist organisation, Welfare Call, to collect attendance data for Norfolk's children in care from reception to Year 11 every school day on our behalf.

Welfare Call staff make a daily phone call to every school, college or specialist provider, including out of county provision, where Norfolk children and young people are on roll. These calls are to confirm that the pupil is in attendance. If they are not Welfare Call will contact the Carer (where relevant) and, if necessary, the Social Worker. In addition, where a pupil has been excluded from school Welfare Call will send an immediate alert to the Social Worker enabling them to follow up.

A number of reports, including a daily report, are available to the Virtual School. This real time data assists us with tracking patterns of attendance and exclusions and in turn enables us to tackle underachievement where it is linked to poor attendance.