{"id":88,"date":"2024-07-09T13:49:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T12:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/?page_id=88"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:39:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:39:56","slug":"causes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/causes\/","title":{"rendered":"Causes of Absenteeism and Supports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Causes of Absenteeism and Supports<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<p>School staff play an integral role in identifying and supporting pupils and families who require additional support to regularly attend school.&nbsp; Understanding the reason for absenteeism and the child or young persons\u2019 individual circumstances is essential in ensuring that the correct intervention is identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There has been a national decline in school attendance post COVID <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.scot\/publications\/summary-statistics-schools-scotland\/pages\/7\/\">from 95.6% in 2018\/19 to 90.9% 2022\/23<\/a>.\u00a0 Potential reasons for this decline include, but are not limited to, increasing levels of pupil and parental anxiety post-COVID and an increase in sickness post pandemic.\u00a0 There are a variety of interdependent risk factors that can impact on attendance noted below:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:30%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/causes\/individual-factors\/\" style=\"border-radius:20px;background-color:#95398f\">Individual Factors<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100 is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/causes\/school-based-factors\/\" style=\"border-radius:20px;background-color:#0084a3\">School Based Factors<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<strong>Individual Factors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Physical health \/ condition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Negative attitude to education\/school<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Poor mental health<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social isolation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Poor peer relationships<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Age<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Additional Support Needs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Risk taking behaviour<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Substance misuse (alcohol and drugs)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>School-based Factors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Poor pupil-teacher relationships<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low attainment &amp; achievement levels<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low school expectations \/ culture and ethos<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Negative class or school climate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Family\/Context Factors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Low socio-economic status<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Single parent household<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low family cohesion \/ family conflict<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low level of parental control \/ poor parental engagement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to note that many attendance issues develop from complex interactions between risk factors.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/23328584211071115\">Klein et al (2022)<\/a> acknowledge the multifaceted and complex determinants of school absenteeism however they highlight socio-economic status as the most important predictor for absenteeism citing the link between socio-economic status and a national decline in attendance following the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, for children and young people living in poverty the detrimental impact of poor attendance may be higher as <a href=\"https:\/\/education.gov.scot\/about-education-scotland\/planning-and-reporting\/improving-attendance-in-scotland\/\">\u201c<em>their families may have fewer resources to compensate for lost instructional time&#8221;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/education.gov.scot\/media\/3kdenpq4\/improving-attendance-understanding-the-issues-101123-pw.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Education Sco<span style=\"font-size: 1rem\">tland [2023]<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem\"> identifies groups more likely to have low attendance:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>\u201cthose impacted by poverty<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Secondary-aged pupils<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Young people for Gypsy and Traveller communities<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Pupils with additional support needs including:<\/em>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Children and young people who have care experience<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Young carers<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Children and young people who have experienced exclusion<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Anxious children and young people\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is therefore essential that schools effectively monitor and track these groups within their whole school tracking systems.<a name=\"_ftn1\" href=\"#_ftnref1\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Causes of Absenteeism and Supports School staff play an integral role in identifying and supporting pupils and families who require additional support to regularly attend school.&nbsp; Understanding the reason for absenteeism and the child or young persons\u2019 individual circumstances is essential in ensuring that the correct intervention is identified. There has been a national decline in school attendance post COVID from 95.6% in 2018\/19 to 90.9% 2022\/23.\u00a0 Potential reasons for<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/causes\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20564,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-88","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/dg\/dandgattendancetoolkit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}