The Termly Attendance and Unseen Children Exercise is a safeguarding process designed to provide assurance that children and young people enrolled in DGC schools are safe, seen, engaged and known to services where appropriate. Information gathered through the exercise contributes to strategic oversight and reporting to the Chief Executive and Corporate Governance Group (COG).
Why We Undertake This Exercise
The exercise is not an attendance monitoring return. The key question is not “What is this child’s attendance percentage?” but “Do we have sufficient assurance regarding this child’s wellbeing, safety and current circumstances?” Professional judgement is central to decision making.
Termly returns are reviewed by Education and relevant partners to identify patterns, risks and required interventions. Aggregated findings inform reports to senior leadership, the Chief Executive and COG, providing assurance that children who may be unseen or vulnerable are identified, monitored and supported.
Who Should Be Included?
Schools should include any child or young person where there is insufficient assurance regarding wellbeing, safety, visibility or engagement. This may include pupils with unexplained absence, irregular attendance, limited engagement, significant wellbeing concerns or children not routinely seen by services.
The exercise does not replace normal attendance management, child protection procedures, GIRFEC processes or escalation pathways. Attendance concerns should continue to be addressed through existing procedures throughout the year.
Schools should normally be able to evidence regular sight of the child through attendance at school, direct professional contact, a successful home visit, or confirmed engagement with another partner agency.
Schools should undertake appropriate attendance interventions, attempts to contact parents/carers, multi-agency discussion where required and safeguarding assessments before including a child within the termly return.
Immediate Safeguarding Concerns
Where there are immediate concerns regarding safety or welfare, schools must follow child protection procedures and relevant escalation processes immediately and must not wait for the termly return.
Links to the Children’s Services Plan 2026–2029
The exercise directly supports Priority 1: Children and Young People are Kept Safe. The Children’s Services Plan highlights the need to review the multi-agency approach to children who are not seen and to ensure clear pathways where children remain physically unseen. The exercise is a key mechanism for delivering this commitment. It also supports Priority 2 through early intervention and whole family support, and Priority 4 through identifying children experiencing barriers to education and engagement with learning.
The exercise reflects GIRFEC principles of early intervention, shared responsibility, professional curiosity and multi-agency support. It supports children’s rights to protection, participation, wellbeing and education and contributes to The Promise by ensuring that vulnerable children remain visible to services and receive support at the earliest opportunity.
