Local Authority Attendance Officer

Our Values

In line with our One Coventry Values we strive to have a workforce that reflects our local communities and welcome applicants from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds, applicants who have a disability and applicants who are from the LGBTQ+ community to apply for our senior leadership roles. 

Our Values are:

About the team we are recruiting to

The Education Improvement and Standards team strives to deliver outstanding services for our customers, predominately the children of Coventry, who may be requiring access to education or alternative education provision. We ensure vulnerable children are appropriately supported; have a voice, that hopefully leads to their high achievement and excellent progress.

The Service is made up of a diverse range of teams all working together to recognise, support and apply innovative solutions to address the growing issues in relation to trying to educate some of our most vulnerable pupils in schools. 

The service is responsible for delivering statutory duties for the Council in respect of:

• Pupil attendance enforcement
• Children missing education
• 6th day provision for permanently excluded pupils
• The administration of the Fair Access and Supported Transfer process; and
• Child licensing and employment

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.

What is the job role?

An opportunity has arisen for the recruitment of a Local Authority Attendance Officer. This is a Full-Time (37 hours) all year round permanent position.

The Attendance and Children Missing Education Team is seeking to recruit a suitably experienced officer to support the Local Authority to fulfil its statutory duties, responsibilities and powers for school attendance by ensuring that legal processes are followed for court and enforcement proceedings.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Who are we looking for?

The successful candidate will have experience of advising schools, parents, stakeholders and partners regarding all issues that impact on children and young people’s ability and opportunities to access education and will additionally have knowledge of:

• the legal framework related to school attendance
• legislation relating to Education and Children Missing Education
• issues which may cause poor school attendance
• intervention programmes to remove barriers to learning
• safeguarding procedures

The Education Improvement and Standards team is continually aiming to improve the education experiences of Coventry children and young people, and attendance and children missing education is one aspect of this. To achieve this Coventry City Council and the Coventry family of schools have together forged an education partnership that is based on principles of shared moral purpose and robust accountability. The partnership’s primary aim is to improve the life chances of all children and young people within the city. Partnership success will evidence that all children, young people and adults have access to high quality education and learning, develop resilience, make positive life choices and contribute to a vibrant City of Coventry.

The Local Authority Attendance Officer will have responsibility for delivering the DfE statutory duty around school attendance and developing initiatives and interventions with children, young people and parents/carers in order to improve attendance. They will also advise, evaluate and challenge schools on the effectiveness of school’s procedures for the monitoring of overall and persistent absence and producing court files for presentation in the Magistrates Court for cases of non-attendance.

If you would like further information regarding this post please contact:  jo.monk@coventry.gov.uk

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'

Interview date:  05 March 2024

About Coventry

Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.
At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies

Coventry City Council