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The Statutory Attendance Support team

What are parents' responsibilities? 

All parents of compulsory school-age children, who are registered pupils at a school, have a legal duty to ensure that their child attends school regularly and arrives on time. 

What is 'compulsory school-age'?

A child reaches compulsory school age on or after their 5th birthday.

  • If they turn 5 between 1 January and 31 March, they become compulsory school age on 31 March;
  • If they turn 5 between 1 April and 31 August, they become compulsory school age on 31 August;
  • If they turn 5 between 1 September and 31 December, they become compulsory school age on 31 December.

A child remains of compulsory school age until the last Friday of June of the school year in which they reach 16 years of age.  

If you need support with your child's attendance

If you are concerned about your child’s attendance, contact your child’s school in the first instance. They should work with you to identify and resolve any issues or concerns that may be affecting attendance. If the school is unable to resolve the concerns, they may seek advice, guidance and support from our service. This may include a request for involvement from  our service.

When do we get involved?


We may become involved when:

  • the majority of your child's absences are unauthorised
  • the school can demonstrate that support has recently been offered to you and your child and that reasonable steps have been taken to address attendance concerns before requesting involvement from our service

We may also provide advice, guidance, and intervention when your child has significant levels of absence, even where those absences have been authorised. 

Information:

Schools should authorise absences where a child is genuinely ill or has a medical condition. If a school has concerns about whether an illness-related absence is genuine, they can ask for medical evidence of the illness from you. This evidence could be a prescription, appointment card or a doctor’s note.

If the school is not satisfied that the illness is genuine, they can record the absence as unauthorised, and they inform you of this decision.

How to seek support from our service

In most cases, schools request our involvement when they have concerns about a child's attendance. Parental consent is not required for involvement from our service.

  • Schools can request support by contacting us directly with the details of their concerns via a dedicated email address.
  • Parents and carers can also contact us for advice and guidance:

Call us via the Customer Service Centre - 0300 123 4043 (the team may ask you to email and share some details, so they can check their database and call you back with the information needed).

Or email for general advice and guidance:

West area: attendancedutywest@hertfordshire.gov.uk (Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere;  Dacorum and St Albans) 

East area: attendancedutyeast@hertfordshire.gov.uk (North Herts and Stevenage; East Herts, Broxbourne, Welwyn and Hatfield).

What happens after the request is submitted?

All referrals to our team are assessed to ensure they meet the criteria and are then allocated to a Local Authority Attendance Office (LAAO).   

Local Authority Attendance Officers (LAAOs)

Local Authority Attendance Officers work within Children’s Services. They have a responsibility to make sure parents are fulfilling their legal duty to ensure their child attends school regularly and punctually.

The LAAO may:

  • invite you to a meeting at the school, online (via Teams) or at a local Hertfordshire County Council office 
  • visit you at home
  • work with you and other professionals to identify and address barriers to attendance. 

Local Authority Attendance Officers (LAAO’s) will always seek to work collaboratively with parents to resolve any difficulties that are preventing a child’s regular attendance at school. Their involvement is a process of assessment, targeted intervention and ongoing support to improve attendance outcomes.

There may be valid reasons for attendance difficulties, such as illness. However, where concerns remain and attendance does not improve in spite of appropriate support and intervention, the LAAO may recommend formal action.  This could include: 

  • A letter reminding parents of their legal responsibilities
  • A fixed penalty notice (fine)
  • Legal proceedings on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council, where appropriate.

 

Page was last updated on: 26/08/2026 14:00:27