Attendance Mentors Pilot Project - Con_16121

The Department for Education has awarded a contract for services aiming to pilot an intervention based on the two approaches which EEF judged to have the most evidence of promise, which they called 'interventions that target the individual causes of low attendance' and 'targeted parental approaches'.

Through the initial pilot year, the successful delivery partner, along with an external evaluator, will be required to combine these approaches into a 'mentoring' model. Mentors will work closely with individual pupils and their families supporting them and working to address any individual barriers to attendance they might face in conjunction with their school, local authority, and other relevant services.

The frequency and duration of the support provided will differ between each pupil depending on their specific circumstances. The successful delivery partner will need to test and refine the approach during this period before expanding to the full trial in years two and three with a more defined intervention and evaluation. After the first year, we will look to build evidence about the efficacy of the approach in different circumstances.

By the end of the three-year programme, we would expect to have achieved the following outcomes:

• Have improved overall attendance levels and engagement with education for all pupils who are participating.
• Developed our understanding of effective practice and different delivery models when delivering 1-1 support to pupils who are persistent or severely absent.
• Improved the evidence base about how best to support individual pupils to regularly attend school through a rigorous evaluation of this intervention, that helps us understand the value for money, and helps schools, trusts and LAs make evidence informed decisions.
• Tested this intervention on a cohort of pupils with severe and persistent absence to understand what works for the children with the greatest level of need.