Local Authority Attendance Officer - Hemel Hempstead, England - Hertfordshire County Council

Description

Job Title:
Local Authority Attendance Officer

Starting Salary:
£38,220 progressing to £41,771 per annum (pro rata for part time)

Hours:
37.0

Location:
Hemel Hempstead and Stevenage

Contract Type:
Permanent

Directorate:
Childrens Services

About The Team
The Statutory Attendance Support Team are a strong established team with statutory responsibilities and expertise in relation to school absence. They are a core part of Hertfordshire's strategy supporting the DfE agenda in making school attendance everyone's business.

The team works with children, young people, families and schools supporting, removing barriers and ensuring access to education.

The role sits within the Statutory Attendance Support Team which covers responsibilities for school attendance, penalty notices, school aged employment and children in entertainment.

About The Role
This role is here to fulfil the Local Authority's statutory duties and responsibilities relating to school attendance and Penalty Notices.

• To ensure the Local Authority fulfils its statutory duties to in relation to Penalty Notices for unauthorised absence from school on behalf of schools, academies and relevant Local Authority staff in accordance with the Local Authority's Code of Conduct. This entails having a thorough understanding of the legislation governing Penalty Notices and the ability to be able to explain this to all stakeholders involved.
• To represent the Local Authority in the Magistrates and Family Court including being the prosecuting officer for cases of non-school attendance and acting as Responsible Officer for children subject to Education Supervision Orders.
• To review and track progress of Penalty Notice that have been issued, prepare cases for prosecution where notices remain unpaid, and it has been agreed by management that there is no reason why prosecution should not be pursued.
• To review and authorise penalty notices applications as meeting the code of conduct.
• To work and collaborate with key staff in schools and wider professionals to ensure the Local Authority's Code of Conduct in respect of Penalty Notices is implemented effectively.
• To offer support, guidance, and advice to schools in the correct implementation and ongoing use of penalty notices to support reduce absence in accordance with Department for Education requirements.

You may also be required:

• To offer support, guidance, and advice to schools to reduce severe and persistent absence in accordance with Department for Education requirements by means of a programme of targeted whole school support meetings.
• To improve whole school attendance by rigorously tracking local attendance data and working strategically with schools.
• Work in partnership with school Senior Lead Teams and pastoral staff to plan, implement and evaluate systems, strategies, procedures, and policies to address issues identified and improve school absence.
• To undertake statutory casework with individual pupils/families who are identified as persistently/severely absent and/or are at risk of becoming persistent absentees to safeguard their education. By assessing both presenting and underlying concerns, negotiating, challenging, and ensuring that a robust support plan is implemented and reviewing and evaluating progress and outcomes.
• To deliver a robust, daily advice line to all schools, working autonomously to offer advice and guidance around all areas of school attendance and other education matters.
• To ensure that there is multi-disciplinary support for families: providing access to early help support, providing practical whole-family support where needed to tackle the causes of absenteeism and unblock the barriers to attendance.
• To keep children safe by making safeguarding referrals as appropriate and contributing to Child Protection Conferences, core groups and professionals' meetings.

To maintain accurate records and information (both written and electronic) in accordance with service and Data Protection requirements including school files, individual pupil files, electronic databases, court reports, Child Protection reports and attendance data collection and analysis.

About You
Essential
:

• Educated to A-Level standard or equivalent and / or experience in a similar role.
• Must have examples of successful experience working with schools, vulnerable children, young people and families.
• Must have excellent verbal, written and ICT communication skills.
• Be able to interpret, analyse, present data and have an eye for detail.
• Have the ability to organise, record, evaluate, work under pressure, flexibly and prioritise workloads to required time scales.
• Have the ability to effectively assess, evaluate and problem solve.
• Be able to negotiate and agree planned case work
• Be able to work independently and as part of a team
• Be able to develop credibility and work effectively within schools and multi-disciplinary settings to work collaboratively in seeking solutions for service users
• Have a good understanding of the factors that influence school attendance and barriers to learning
• UK driving licence and access to a vehicle

Desirable
:

• Have an understanding and knowledge of the law relating to education and attendance

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.
This job role is within the Community Services, level COM10 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Community services

To hear more about this opportunity please contact:

Kim Claridge-Taylor (kim.claridge-) for the Hemel Hempstead area.

Chris Thomas ) for the Stevenage area.

Interview Date: 4th and 5th December 2025.

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving Required
You'll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.